The Bridge on the River Kwai

Rating:
Summary: Hollywood-distorted fiction
Review: This film is an attempt to sensationalize one of the most horrendous atrocities of WWII in the Pacific Theater, namely, the building of the 'Death Railway'. The film underscores the fact that thousands of Allied POW's died at the hands of the Japanese in building their strategic railroad through southeast Asia. Many of the charactors and events depicted in the movie are poorly represented, and thus are utter fiction. Subsequently, this movie has no place in my collection. For an accurate account of these events, read Clifford Kinvig's book 'River Kwai Railway'.

Rating:
Summary: WWII POW drama
Review: "The Bridge on River Kwai" is about a WWII Japanese POW camp full of mostly captured British soldiers. After a long battle of wills between the camp commandant and the Allied commander Lt. Col. Nicholson (Alac Guinness), an important bridge for the Japan war effort begins construction. At the same time a Allied commando unit is dispatched to destroy the bridge befor it can become useful. This team is headed by the only man ever to escape from the camp (and the film's only American), played by William Holden. This is probaby David Lean's fastest paced movie, though it might still be considered slow compared to Michael Bay or Tony Scott's standards. There was not as much focus on trying to be epic as some of Lean's other, later films like "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Doctor Zhivago", but that dosn't mean there aren't any wonderful shots of the Southeastern Asian jungles; indeed there are many. But the main focus was on Col. Nicholson's obsession with building the bridge and proving that Western intellect is superior to Eastern. He also brings up prisoners rights under the Geneva Code, specifically about officers do not have to do manual work as prisoners. But there is also a rule that states that POWs will not contribute to work that aids to the enemy's war effort. How did Nicholson forget that one? Is his ego and national pride so great that he will even brake the rules to prove his point? It is displayed earlier what lengths he will go to to prove his resolve; he was beaten and put in a punishment sweat box because he refused to make his officers work. This is a study in subtle madness, and an interesting one at that.

Rating:
Summary: Struggle for bridge to freedom is never madness
Review: "Officers --- to work!!" Colonel Saito

The soundtrack is awe-inspiring, alternating between the natural wilderness sounds of wildlife and insects calling and whirring in the depths of a sweltering southeast asian rainforest and then swelling into the whistling of World War II British POW work gangs and a stirring fully orchestrated marching tune.

The plot is an amazing blend of real life events with fiction, along the lines of the Great Escape and Stalag 17, both set in German war camps, being culled and amalgamated from the true experiences of brit and american pows.

The actors are all terrific. To me, Guinness's Col. Nicholson wins with his water-to-wine, rabbit-from-a-hat bravery and love of his men.

I find it very difficult to read or watch stuff about the Pacific World War II theater, from Pearl Harbor to the Battan Death March to the Battle of Midway to Iwo Jima to Burma. Scattered across all these places, in both marked and unmarked graves, are soldiers and civilians who lost their lives, many as prisoners of war.

They are free now, wherever they are. Their deaths were not meaningless, and their deaths are connected to our lives, because we owe our freedom, those of us in the free world, that is, to the outcome of WWII.

People who simplistically talk about the 'pointlessness of war' do an injustice to those who have found themselves staring down the wrong end of a gun. When your survival is at stake, then fighting for your freedom with whatever tools you have at hand doesn't seem pointless.

This movie would have been hard to watch too had I not originally seen it as a kid, when I really knew nothing at all so I just took it on face value.

The first thing that I noticed was the soldiers' whistling. I don't know what the original words to the Col. Bogey March are, but I'm sure they are very colorful, along the lines of "I've don't know but I've been told...!" The g-rated kids version is: "Comet, it makes your teeth turn green, comet, it tastes like gasoline, comet, it makes you vomit, so drink some comet, and vomit, today!"

Of course, later I realized that the imprisoned soldiers are whistling to keep up their spirits, maintain order, etc. I didn't realize they were supposed to be starving, bent over with dysentery and malaria, etc. In fact, when I saw this, I was blissfully ignorant of the whole concept of death camps and death marches.

What I noticed later was the story of the bridge being built, falling down, being built better, and why it is built, why it should be destroyed, and how it all is played out while men are dying.

Monty Python's Flying Circus had a hilarious sketch that spoofed the war movies where the commander rousts malingering patients out of their beds to report for duty. POWs on crutches and swathed with bandages are made to jog and do calisthenics, while a very Col. Nichols -ish John Cleese or Graham Chapman barks orders.

Is this a sign that Col. Nicholson has gone around the bend by this point in the proceedings? Good question.

The men are being used as slave labor to build a bridge that will help the enemy. Apparently word has come down to Saito that this bridge needs to be built, and that he is to use the British prisoners to build it.

But Saito has not been provided with any bridge engineers to oversee operations, or even a set of bridge building instructions, apparently, or at least, not any good ones.

Of course, it would behoove the British to not do a good job on the bridge. In fact for them to do a good job on the bridge would seem to be giving aid and comfort to the enemy. So before Nicholson takes over the project, the work is being done haphazardly, either by incompetence or on purpose. But it turns out that Nicholson and his officers know a thing or two about bridge building, something akin to what an Army Corps of Engineers would be able to accomplish.

And for Nicholson and by extension the British Empire he represents to do something badly just goes against the grain. Maybe it's counterintuitive to him, maybe it's that nature abhors a vacuum.

Also, Nicholson apparently decides that building the bridge well represents a goal, a carrot on a stick to keep morale up and, hopefully, prolong the lives of at least some of his enfeebled but tough men.

Some, including Major Shears, interpret Nicholson's forbidding his men to escape as bad leadership, a way of giving in and giving up to inevitable death. On the other hand, the chances for survival if one did manage to escape were about on the level of someone escaping from a Siberian prison camp.

Col. Nicholson may just as well have told them to lay down and die for all the good it would have done anyone. In fact, in terms of tying up the enemy's men and equipment, that was more effectively done by them staying in camp. If they ran away, Col. Saito would only have spent a minimal amount of men and resources trying to catch them, since he knows they'll likely die out there anyway.

We all have had a painful realization that we've lost sight of the big picture.

At some point while trying to help his men survive, Nicholson has lost track of the part about not helping the enemy. Hardly surprising considering the strain he is under. It's not like he had a neat little guidebook, with reminders like "be sure to include secret exploding bolts in the bridge construction".

Nicholson's eventual, agonizing realization is the more dramatic as he has only seconds to try and fix his mistake.

For those who insist this is an anti-war picture, as that may well have been Lean's take on the story, but does that mean he thinks the soldiers and civilians in WWII who fought for freedom, did so in vain? Does he think people should have just laid down and died, not tried to fight back? I'd like to have seen him try to realize his artisic vision had things turned out differently.

The relationship between Alec Guinness/Col. Nicholson and Sessue Hayakawa/Col. Saito. The dynamics of that are very complex.

Another reviewer commented on how excellent the commando team sent to destroy the bridge is. Bedeviled by one problem after another, they adapt and move on under incredibly tough conditions. The women who are part of the team are just as tough as they help the men hack their way across the wilderness.

Also, the motivations of the commando team are complex and fascinating, and I haven't begun to meal over that in my watching of this film. Reading the comments of other viewers has given me much to mull over next time I watch BOTRK.

This is a movie to be seen, and learned from, over and over and over again.








Rating:
Summary: Throroughly Satisfying PoW Epic
Review: This film is about a Japanese PoW camp in Burma in 1943, camp 16. A bunch of British soldiers are brought in to replace a previous batch almost all of whom have succumbed to starvation and disease. They are then set to work to build the bridge of the title. The first hour or so of the movie focuses on a battle of wills between the guy in charge, Col. Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) who wants to put the officers as well as men to work on the bridge, in contravention of the Geneva Convention, and the British CO, Colonel Nicholson who isn't having it. Nicholson wins and, having done so, sets out to see to it that his men make an excellent job of the bridge and complete it on time. Thus giving them an objective, he hopes to keep them disciplined and their morale high. He doesn't see it as collaboration. Soon the war will end, he reasons, and generations of peaceful travellers will pass over the bridge and read with respect the notice announcing it to be the work of British soldiers. Back in Ceylon Major Warden (Jack Hawkins), Cambridge don turned special ops wizard, has different ideas. With the help of American Major Shears (William Holden) recently escaped from Camp 16, he is going to blow the bridge up on the very day of its ceremonial opening.

David Lean was one of the few directors of the sound era to make films that merited the term `epic' and that's what this is. It's almost three hours long, so make yourself comfortable and avoid likely interruptions, but it's a hugely enjoyable way to spend three hours, a brilliantly directed and brilliantly acted tale of two obsessively dedicated, perhaps slightly mad, military officers unaware of being set on a tragic collision course.


Rating:
Summary: Don't you worry about old Nick, he knows what he's doing!
Review: grunts a soldier from the British Army after Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guiness) has returned to lead them in their labors. Having spent several days in isolation from the tyrannical Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) because Nicholson would not let his officers work manual labor on the bridge, a bridge Saito is charged with having finished by mid May. The first hour of the film is a battle of wills between the two men, the last 90 minutes deals with the bridge itself and its place in the war. Eventually a team is sent in to detonate the bridge, leading to one of the most exciting climax scenes in the history of film.

The movie is presented here in a two disc set which features an excellent transfer as well as some great behind the scenes material you will find interesting. The package includes a short booklet detailing the challenges the filmmakers encountered while making the movie, including weather problems, difficulties with casting, and the actual set with the bridge itself, one of the most fascinating sights ever. The story about the destruction of the bridge is incredible, some of the details you don't see on screen.

As a film the casting and story are impeccable. Guiness is perfect as the stone faced Col. Nicholson, who honors the British army and their capability over anything else, which leads him to some rather questionable decisions while in command. Hayakawa is strong and convincing as the Japanese commander who rules with a desperate iron fist, as he is up against a deadline. William Holden stars as the only American in the movie, who escapes the camp and later becomes an integral part of the final plan (against his will). All three are fantastic. This is a movie I can watch at any time, repeatedly. One of the best purchases I have ever made.

Rating:
Summary: Culture's Clash
Review: David Lean has directed some memorable Oscar winning films, "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) is one of them. It was followed by "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) (his best film), "Dr. Zhivago" (1965) and "Passage to India" (1984).

The storyline shows the confrontation between two Colonels: the British POW Nicholson and the Japanese Camp Commander Saito.
Both of them stick to their own conduct code, convinced of their rightness and try to outsmart the other in a memorable clash of wills.
The other key character is Cmdr. Shears, an American that pose as an officer, being of the ranks, and whose only care is to escape.
Shears goes all the way from a selfish survivor to a self sacrificed hero at the end.
The entire movie may be seen as a parable of war futility and human heroism.

All main actors give an outstanding performance: Alec Guinness (Col. Nicholson) as an officer that will stick to the rules no matter what the cost is; Sessue Hayakawa (Col. Saito) as a stubborn soldier trapped in the conflict of attaining his goal, but yielding to his rival; William Holden as the American common-sense soldier evolved into hero; finally Jack Hawkins as a ruthless military professional in charge of an almost suicidal mission.

Music score is great and "Colonel Bogey March", whistled by the British soldiers, remains as an unforgettable leitmotiv of the film.

This multi-awarded movie stands as war Classic and may be enjoyed by different audiences.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.


Rating:
Summary: Thinking Man's Action Film
Review: The makers of today's action films should take a page from the makers of "The Bridge on the River Kwai". You don't have to pander to your audiences basest instincts to make a great action film. This film contains great action set-pieces, great acting (Alec Guiness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Essaye Hayakawa) and great conflicts between the characters. Director David Lean was at the top of his game when he made this film. Though the cast is uniformly excellent special note should be made about the characters played by Alec Guiness and Essaye Hayakawa. These are extremely complex individuals. Assumptions about the likability and nobility of their characters are turned on their head through the course of this film.

Rating:
Summary: "This is war; this is not a game of cricket!"-Colonel Saito
Review: The first Geneva Convention of July 27, 1929 stipulated many things in regard to treatment of prisoners. The Japanese signed, yet did not ratify, this convention's stipulations; Lt. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) continues to bring to the attention of Colonel Saito which stipulations he is violating. Forced by his command to surrender to the Japanese, Nicholson realizes that he is there to document the prisoners' abuses which he makes all too clear to Colonel Saito. The Bridge on the River Kwai is somewhat based on a true story, the characters are fictional. The movie is based on a book published in 1954 by a Frenchman who was an actual POW in S.E. Asia. There were two bridges built over the river Kwai during WWII, a part of the Death Railway which ran through Thailand into Burma where the Japanese hoped to expand their operations. This railway did claim thousands of lives due to exhaustion, tropical diseases, malnutrition, sometimes torture as this movie hints at by the shots of many crosses shown marking the graves of soldiers who died in the camp. Nicholson and his officers are cast into "ovens" for days on end without food or water. The medic for the camp goes to Saito pleading for their lives and gets the comment given in the title of this review. Nicholson is dead set on principles, and somehow manages to outwit Saito, later nearly befriending him. The clash of the two colonels is comical at times, and, as others have noted, the movie does not realistically depict the sufferings of POWs under the Japanese. The movie, to me, is a story of survival, honor, and wits on the part of beleaguered POWs. Whistling while on the march, building this bridge are important actions in maintaining the soldiers' morale. Escaping the camp, planning to blow up the bridge are others!

I saw this film on TV, probably in the very early 70's with my dad, my family's war movie buff. I've always wanted to whistle a tune like the British soldiers under Nicholson. I've always remembered this movie. This movie is such a classic, still so very suspenseful, no matter how many times it's seen. Recommended!!!

Rating:
Summary: The bridge needs work.
Review: This is not as complete a film restoration as was done for Lean's other epics ('Lawrence of Arabia', 'Dr. Zhivago'). Film grain and other artifacts are quite visible at times, especially during the opening and closing sequences, and the color seems faded throughout the film (although that may have been Lean's intention -- film historians would know for sure). Technical issues aside, this film is a masterful portrayal of two quite mad colonels, and the men caught under their leadership. It also is a powerful anti-war film, portraying both the futility of war and the danger that arises when blind military zeal takes precendence over reality. Columbia Pictures should take it upon itself to restore this classic film to its full potential, as it belongs in the pantheon of great cinema.

Rating:
Summary: Wrong river but great story
Review: This is one of those movies worth re-watching. All the things you expect from the British when they are captured by the Japanese and forced to build a bridge.

This movie was shot in Sri Lanka as it best fit the story. However the real river was not the Kwai. That just happened to be a better name for the river. And the real bridge was not wooden.

My favorite character was William Holden as Shears, The only pragmatic charter in the movie. Shears did not have to keep a stiff upper lip or save face or any of that sort of stuff. Where as Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson and Sessue Hayakawa as Colonel Saito, had to go face to face with each other's interpretation of honor.

This is best depicted in one statement from Shears:

"You make me sick with your heroics. There's a stench of death about you. You carry it in your pack like the plague. Explosives and L-pills -- they go well together, don't they? And with you it's just one thing or the other: destroy a bridge or destroy yourself. This is just a game, this war! You and Colonel Nicholson, you're two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what? How to die like a gentleman... how to die by the rules... when the only important thing is how to live like a human being."