i want to correct what i wrote last year in my retrospective of david lean’s war picture .
i still think that ” the bridge on the river kwai ” doesn’t deserve being the number 13 in the american film institute’s list of the 100 greatest american movies .
and i think that ” 12 angry men ” , ” witness for the prosecution ” and ” paths of glory ” would have been better choices for the oscar for the best picture of 1957 .
but i can’t deny the importance of ” the bridge on the river kwai ” – cinematically and in its contents .
the film is set in burma in 1943 .
a batallion of british soldiers in japanese war captivity is forced by the japanese to build a strategically momentous railway bridge over the river kwai .
but the british commanding officer , colonel nicholson ( alec guinness ) , insists – corresponding to the geneva conventions – that his officers needn’t work as simple workmen .
struggling toughly , col . nicholson forces the japanese commandant , col . saito ( sessue hayakawa ) , to give way in this respect .
afterwards col . nicholson assiduously commits himself for the building of the bridge .
he considers it an opportunity to raise his men’s morale , and he wants to prove superior british capabilities to the japanese .
but the british high command sends a few soldiers who shall destroy the bridge , among them the american shears ( william holden ) – an escapee from the japanese prison camp – and the british major warden ( jack hawkins ) . . .
a flaw of the picture is the clich ? d characterization of the japanese people .
they are presented as if they were intellectually inferior to the british – as if the japanese were incapable of building a bridge .
and the film doesn’t consistently question the military spirit as kubrick does in ” paths of glory ” .
lean seems rather fascinated by the military hierarchies .
this is also perceptible in the conversations between col . nicholson and col . saito .
in this regard it is symptomatic that shears , who doubts the military logic , is presented as a somehow unpleasant person .
the audience is supposed to applaud col . nicholson’s perseverance concerning the question if his officers shall work on the bridge or not .
the spectators are supposed to neglect the risks col . nicholson takes for his men .
( the plot by-passes these risks . )
that means , the picture isn’t perfect .
but it has a lot of virtues as well .
” the bridge on the river kwai ” shows the ” madness ” of war and what it can produce in people’s minds .
it shows how colonel nicholson becomes possessed by the idea of being a hero and that others ( like shears ) get cynics .
and lean’s film is an interesting study of characters with clashing interests .
these points and the sometimes ironic dialogue make this film an anti-war film ( despite inconsistencies in the treatment of this theme ) .
david lean’s direction is really effective and atmospherically perfect .
his film is highly suspenseful , especially in its dramatic ( if not wholly plausible ) showdown .
the film is also well-photographed and has an apt score .
alec guinness does a magnificent job of bringing col . nicholson to life and making him such an interesting character .
the other actors deliver fine performances as well .
i like this extraordinary film despite its weaknesses .
( c ) karl rackwitz ( klein k ? ris , germany , 1999 )