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CibbuanoThe Bridge on the River Kwai
June 15th 2006 08:00
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
David Lean's rousing WWII epic pretty much cleaned out the Oscars in 1957, with Alec Guinness winning the Best Actor award for his portrayal of British Officer Colonel Nicholson, who loses his way in a Japanese POW camp in Burma. The big budget film involved the construction and demolition of a life-size bridge, and was shot in Ceylon (now Sri-Lanka). American actor William Holden was brought onboard as a drawcard for the U.S. audience, and is the catalyst for the film's surprising, chaotic and ambiguous ending.
We start the film with the Colonel leading his soldiers into the POW camp under the watchful eyes of the brutal and villainous Japanese. They whistle an upbeat and very english tune (you'll know it when you hear it, it's pretty famous now) as they jauntily march in, setting the tone of the film - the Colonel isn't going to let war get in the way of his troops behaving in a decent and British manner. The Japanese won't have it though, and their commanding officer Colonel Saito sets about trying to get the officers to work alongside the other POWs in the camp (an act that contravenes the articles of war). Nicholson is steadfast in his refusal to work, and a battle of wills erupts between the two men. Will Saito succeed in breaking the refined and proud British officer? You'll have to watch the film to find out.
Meanwhile, American POW Shears (all-American hero William Holden) escapes from the camp and makes it back behind Allied lines. He informs the British that the Japanese are building a bridge that will re-open supply lines to their front and they promptly put together a team to blow up the bridge before it can be put into use... roping Shears in to lead the way. From here we have the film working two stories along in parallel... Shears and co. are racing against time to infiltrate Japanese-held territory before the bridge can be completed while Col. Saito works frantically to finish the job, battling against unco-operative prisoners, his own side's low morale and his need to save face.
What makes the 'Bridge on the River Kwai' such an accomplished classic? David Lean, a respected and celebrated British director (probably Britain's most famous after Hitchcock), kicked his career into a whole new phase with this film. Everything is big and magnificent and the camera work and cinematography is iconic. Yes, iconic - some of the shots have burnt themselves into my brain! Everything you see here is real... the location work is breathtaking and the bridge is life-sized, this is what they mean when they say 'epic' - not CGI cities and soldiers (ahem, 'Kingdom of Fear' and 'Troy' take note).
Also, Alec Guinness (who was at odds with the director over his role) creates a tragic and mythic figure in Col. Nicoholson. I gasped at the film's ending and it's ambiguity... did he do that on purpose or not? It's something film critics have been debating for nearly fifty years now. As I mentioned before, Guinness won a much-deserved Best Actor oscar for his work here and he effectively got under the skin of the British Officer archetype and did new and exciting things to it without resorting to eccentricity, overacting or silliness.
I avoided this film as a kid because it sounded so boring and old man-ish, but I was wrong. This is truly a great film and experience. Truly! Talking about it here makes me want to go and watch it again but alas, my DVD player is broken so I'll have to reminisce whilst looking at photographs from it.
Sir Alec Guinness as Col. Nicholson
TRIVIA: Alec Guinness turned down his role at first as he thought it was dull. Cary Grant was another choice for Guinness' role but he had recently starred in a flop so Laurence Olivier was asked instead - he turned it down. Charles Laughton agree to do it at one point but apparently turned it down citing that he couldn't handle such a long shoot in the heat of Ceylon. Guinness eventually agreed to play the Colonel. The character of Shears was intended for Humphrey Bogart at first but he was unavailable.
Sessue Hayakawa (Col. Saito) was a big Japanese silent film star. To encourage him for the scene in which he cries, director David Lean told him he was a bad actor.
The real Bridge on the River Kwai took prisoners two months to build. The one in the film took eight months.
The film's two writers were on the Hollywood Blacklist, so they couldn't be given credit for the film. The credit instead went to Pierre Boulle, who had written the novel the film was based on. He subsequently won the Oscar, despite not having actually written any of the script.
The real-life Saito was actually not at all villainous and became friends with the real-life Officer that Guinness' character was based on (Colonel Toosey), even to the extent that Toosey spoke up at Saito's war crimes trial and saved him from execution, and Saito made a trip to England many years later to visit Toosey's grave.
Alec Guinness and director David Lean collaborated on six films in total - 'Great Expectations' (1946), 'Oliver Twist' (1948), 'Bridge on the River Kwai' (1957), 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962), 'Doctor Zhivago' (1965) and 'A Passage to India' (1984).
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