movie review - Bridge Over the River Kwai
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
I was slowly engrossed in this movie after a shaky start in which its clearly dated setting initially had me cringing. It's an old World War Two flick set in the sadly real war crime that was the forced-labor construction of the railway between Bangkok and Rangoon.
It features a gaggle of British soldiers that was ordered to surrender to the Japanese in Singapore. This flock is led by a stubborn super-Brit who fears for the lives of his men and who strikes upon the idea of keeping the men engaged and healthy (and not worked to death) by assuming control of the bridge building. Played with almost surgical precision by Alec Guinness well before his Jedi years, our hero builds an outstanding bridge indeed. In the process he manages to keep his men alive even as his dedication turns into obsession and even a kind of redemption.
Meanwhile, the Japanese commander has quietly resigned himself to his coming death. Initially depicted as uncompromising and brutal, we see him soften and frankly become worried for his British captive even as he writes his goodbyes and prepares for seppuku. You see, he will be held responsible if the bridge isn't ready by it's due date, but he'll also be held to account for letting the British run the project.
It really is a shit-show.
But that's not all. Because for every obsessive Brit there must be an equal and opposite Yank and this story is no exception. Our second hero is a survivor of some weeks or months in the work camp. Depicted from the outset as a self-serving haggler and dealer who is not above robbing the dying, he wants nothing to do with the bridge project and rejects the British plan out of hand.
He escapes and eventually makes his way to Sri Lanka. As a reward, he is sent right back with a trip of other English-speaking would-be heroes. I'll leave it at that and will sum up that someone was in a mission with this movie and I found it considerably more engaging than I'd expected.
Strongly recommended.