War by its very
definition is a chaotic situation, whereas a prison is a place where chaos is
something to be controlled or avoided. Having these two worlds collide raises a
lot of moral questions, such as do prison rules still apply when war is raging
outside the walls? David Lean’s classic The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
explores these questions and other complex ones on a grand scale while being
highly entertaining. It is the sort of epic you rarely see now and that must
have been quite something to behold on the big screen.
Like the rest of the planet
I can’t go out to see anything on the big screen right now, unless I can find a
drive-through theater in the area. However, there are plenty of apps that give
me access to free movies with commercial breaks, including Lean’s epic. With a
running time of 161 minutes it consumes a big chunk of your afternoon, but I
was never bored. With all the time we are spending indoors nowadays, why not
spend some of those hours watching cinema classics?
The way this story unfolds,
you almost get two movies for the price of one. One strand of the story follows
the action at a Japanese prisoner of war camp in the jungles of Burma during
the Second World War. The camp has recently welcomed a large group of British soldiers
who are very intend on still following chain of command and international law
even though they are now prisoners forced to build a bridge across a nearby
river. Their leader Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) carries a copy
of the Geneva Convention in his pocket and has earmarked the section stating
officers are exempt from manual labour.
Colonel Saito (Sessue
Hayakawa), the Japanese officer in charge of the camp, on the other hand doesn’t
give two shits about Nicholson’s little book and throws in the dust. Saito repeatedly
states he hates the British for their lack of honour, and locks up Nicholson in
a hot box until he orders his officers to work. Saito’s portrayal may not be
historically accurate, but one could say the character does have some depth. He
is not forcing the prisoners to build this bridge as a form of torture or out
of spite. Like every soldier he has someone giving him orders and his orders
say a bridge needs to be built on the River Kwai by a certain date. Otherwise,
Saito might lose more than his rank.
Nicholson is also quite
the character. Just as Saito stubbornly wants that bridge built whatever the
cost, the British Colonel is just as stubbornly intend on keeping a level of
command within the camp out of principle. Once he does gain some ground over
Saito, he not only cooperates to build the bridge, but by golly he’ll show him
that British engineers can do a damn fine job at bridge building. Over time not
only do the officers lend a hand, so do the sick prisoners after Nicholson asks
them if they are up to it. Saito’s thunderstruck face as he witnesses this is a
sight to see.
The second movie strand
follows a group of British officers led by an escaped American prisoner (William Holden) who
have parachuted into the jungle to find the bridge and blow it up. To accomplish
their mission, they must endure the heat of the jungle, deal with blood-sucking
leaches, walk for days through dangerous terrain, and be wary of Japanese
patrols. No one says it’s a suicide mission, but it’s not a walk in the park
either. Lean could feasibly have shot a whole separate movie from their point
of view.
You can almost feel the
heat and humidity as the POWs work on the bridge in the river, and as the
soldiers trek through the jungle to blow it up. When Alec Guinness emerges from
the hot box, he does look like he lost weight from all the sweating. That is
one thing that is often missing from the modern blockbusters. On average most
of them will be shot in a studio in front of green screen while actors wear
spandex and pretend to shoot thunder from their fingers. I watch those movies
like everyone else but shooting in the jungle adds a layer of authenticity to
the story.
The action sequences in
The Bridge on the River Kwai are beautifully shot and when there is no
major action there are scenes when the characters wonder why they are doing all
this work in the first place. It’s one thing to be a prisoner and built a bridge
for the enemy, but just how good of a job should you do? As a prisoner, shouldn’t
your first priority be to either come up with an escape plan or at least
sabotage the enemy? Also, why should officers be exempt from doing manual labour
while soldiers are busy toiling in the mud? War and prisons make for strange bedfellows.
Prior to seeing Lean’s classic
the only other movies I had seen starring Alec Guinness were the original Star
Wars movies, which I have heard he was not exactly a fan of. Every Star Wars
fan or just plain movie fans should seek this one out even though it features zero
laser guns or exploding Death Stars. My only regret is that I watched on my
iPad screen when this was clearly meant for a big wide screen. I really miss
going to the cinema.
Comments
Post a Comment