The Bridge on the River Kwai - 81

1957 Winner. 161 minutes, won 7 Oscars in total. Just like the title says, building a bridge over the river Kwai, during WWII.


Let me preface this post with a little known secret, I'm not a huge war movie fan. What I really mean is that I'm not a pre 1990's war movie genre film fan. To be quite honest I was not looking forward to watching this film since it is indeed titled as a war film produced pre 1990.

I was however pleasantly surprised.

One of the 7 Oscars (besides best picture obvs), was for best actor, Alec Guinness.  You might remember Alec Guinness from such movies as, oh I don't know, STAR WARS.  Correct, he was Obi-wan Kenobi in episodes IV and V.  So almost the entire time I was watching the movie all I could think about was him in a cloak whilst slinging a light saber.  Ok, so maybe not the entire time, but the thought would randomly creep up in my head throughout the movie.

The movie wasn't anything I expected.  I thought it was going to be fighting and scenes of war, inundated with random skirmishes and battles.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  In a nut shell it was about English soldiers, with a handful of Americans, in a Japanese PoW camp.  Instead of being interrogated ala Jack Bauer they were put to work to build a bridge on the River Kwai (WHO KNEW?!).  Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) refuses he and his fellow officers do work because according to the Geneva Conventions, captured officers are exempt from manual labor. The Japanese camp commander, Saito, backhands him across the face and threatens to kill him and the officers.  After some punishment in what they call the "hot box" (a metal box in the direct sunlight), he comes out and says NO, I still refuse to do manual labor annnnd more punishment in said "hot box". Then, Nicholson and Saito come to an agreement that the officers do not have to do physical labor yadda yadda. Saito really caved because the bridge was so far behind schedule, not because he suddenly had a stroke of sympathy.

Moving past the really boring details that is the actual plot of the movie, because really the rest of the movie was building a bridge, on the river Kwai...  Col. Nicholson becomes so wrapped up in the thought that by building this bridge he is somehow demonstrating the honor and character of the British Soldier.  At the end he even makes a plaque to let everyone know that the bridge was built by British soldiers.  Of course on the other side of the coin the British Army is devising a plan to blow the bridge up to interrupt Saito's railway for supplies.  Nicholson sees lines rigged to explosives and figures out that something is wrong and that someone is trying to destroy his beloved structure, so he follows the wires and actually ends up killing one of his own men, and then ends up getting shot himself, but not before realizing what he had done.  Nicholson's body falls on the detonator and the bridge blows taking down the ceremonial first train that was passing over it.

Overall, thinking back on the movie I give it an upbeat "meh" rating.  Not one of my favorites, but not the worst Oscar movie that I've seen yet.  Alec Guinness did a supreme job acting as an arrogant Brit only concerned about what others think of his integrity and character.  But still, Star Wars. It's definitely a movie you have to see for yourself since it appears to be fairly difficult to explain.

Well, since I've probably confused more people and have completely talked myself in circles, I think that should wrap it up.

Until next time, thank you Academy #81