Day 130: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Movie #83 – The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - 161 min, cert PG.

Col. Nicholson (Alec Guinness) is the senior officer in charge of a large body of soldiers sent to a Japanese POW camp on the Burma railway. Upon his arrival at the camp, he immediately locks horns with Saito, the camp commander, who is insisting that the officers work alongside the enlisted men. Nicholson is insistent that this contravenes the Geneva Convention and refuses to comply. Despite spending weeks shut up in terrible conditions he refuses to back down and Saito realises that without his help the bridge he needs to have built by a certain day will never be finished on time, and so must back down himself. After his release, Nicholson wants to use the building of the bridge as an exercise to reinstall discipline amongst the men and decides to build the best bridge he can. Meanwhile, American soldier Shears (William Holden) who managed to escape from the camp shortly after Nicholson’s arrival has been sent back on a mission to blow the bridge up.

Although this is a film set against the backdrop of war, it is not really about war. It is about Col. Nicholson and the madness that the war has inspired in him. Everyone in the camp thought Saito was mad until Nicholson arrived, but Saito’s madness is not in the same league as Nicholson’s. He clings to his principles like a drowning man clings to a lifebelt. Saito will not back down, but Nicholson cannot, for without his precious principles he has nothing. He becomes transfixed on the idea of building the bridge to the best of his ability to the exclusion of everything else, including his duty as an officer in the British Army. Only at the very end does he have a moment of clarity where he realises that by trying to defend his bridge against the saboteurs he has crossed the line and is now actively assisting the enemy.

It is without doubt an excellent film. I’m no expert in the films of David Lean; I’ve only really got Lawrence of Arabia to compare it against, but I would rate this movie higher. I was slightly disappointed by the ending – I would rather have seen Nicholson redeem himself and blow the bridge up intentionally, rather than just falling on the plunger after being shot, but otherwise an excellent movie.

Score – 8/10. I’ve not seen a better performance from Alec Guinness.

Next up is Amadeus. I remember it coming out at the pictures, but it never really looked like my sort of film so I didn’t make the effort to go and see it.