World War II was definitely one of the harshest wars for the world to endure. It brought a lot of hate, fear, cruelty and some redemption to the world. Much like the war, The Bridge on the River Kwai brings up all of those elements in a single story.
When a British Colonel is ordered to surrender during a key part of the war, he does his best to keep his troops in line, though he knows they’re in for a rough ride. Surrendering to a Japanese commander in a small island village is what they face. Colonel Sato’s intentions are to break the new prisoners and let them know they’re no longer soldiers. Colonel Nicholson has a different idea about his men. Not wanting to lose control, Colonel Nicholson sacrifices himself and plays a painful game of chicken with Colonel Sato until one of them ends up breaking and losing complete control of their situation. Once control is gained, Nicholson works with Sato’s men to build a bridge so that the Japanese ‘death train’ can make its way to India without a hitch. On the flip side to that there are British commanders outside of the camp have other plans for the bridge, mainly they want to blow the thing to hell with the train on it.
This movie is driven by unspoken emotion. Alec Guinness’ performance as Colonel Nicholson is quite possibly one of the best I’ve seen onscreen in some time. First, I had no idea that he was known for comedy and that this particular role was something that he stepped out of his usual gig to do. What came out of the role was a character that strictly stood by his plans and his principles and didn’t budge one bit. Even when he was beaten, tortured and pretty much baked (in an oven-ish thingy) he didn’t budge. Guinness’ steadfast look, his dedication to having a strong presence on the screen sold this type of character and principles perfectly. He carried that type of attitude through the movie and built from it every step of the way until his own honor and principles got in the way of his sensibilities. In other words, without Guinness this movie doesn’t work at all because of his performance and drive to make the character what the character needed to be.
He was just simply amazing.
As for the story itself, it’s quite simple. You have one army that won’t budge and one army that wants to break them. You can see how one side of the tracks (the Japanese) was built on driving and breaking men with fear. The other side (the British) was built on honor and doing things correctly. Both sides were defined this way, which translated to the construction of the bridge perfectly. By the time everything is settled in terms of Nicholson and Sato, the rest of the movie is about how the Japanese cannot match the honor of the British. To drive home the point the British construct their own bridge and prove how much better they are then the other side. It’s like a competition once the film gets going and it’s very much a metaphor of how the world believed things were when World War II was happening. Without honor and principles life and, more importantly, order cannot hope to survive. Anyway, I’m not trying to go ‘film teacher’ on your here, but it’s so blatantly obvious that it’s hard to miss.
The ending is just the exclamation point on all these things.
Anyway, thanks to a perfect lead actor and a great supporting cast (William Holden, Sessue Hayakawa and Geoffrey Horne) everything falls perfectly into place in this unforgettable story. By the end of director David Lean’s masterpiece you’ll want to watch this Academy Award winning film again.
Now, if that doesn’t motivate you to watch it, I know this will certainly do the trick. The movie is now on Blu-ray and let me just say that this is potentially the prettiest classic I have laid eyes on in since reviewing the original King Kong. I was a little skeptical when I started the Blu-ray up, as the title sequences really looked a bit grainy. That first shot of William Holden in the hot sun helping out with the graves really will ‘wow’ you. Not only is Holden a good looking man, but he’s also extremely detailed down to the sun roasted pore on his chest. There isn’t a single grain to be had here in the picture; it’s simply beautiful. Take into consideration that this film is now 53 years old and was only boosting Technicolor as the ‘big’ deal with the film (no HD here). So Sony Pictures took this Technicolor film and upscaled it, cleaned it and printed it on Blu-ray. The result is just so damn good, as you get an almost perfectly transferred HD version of the classic that looks like it was shot in the 90s on high-quality Kodak film. It’s just absolutely stunning to watch, I can’t say that enough. You can go ahead and add the audio to that list as well, as the mono soundtrack has been remastered in DTS-HD.
So yes, this movie looks and sounds fantastic on Blu-ray.
In addition to this, you get a really gorgeous Blu-ray booklet packaging. It’s packed with information on how the film was made, how the actors were chosen and the problems that occurred during the filming. This is even before you get into the special features on Blu-ray. So for you readers out there that like reading about great films you’re going to be in heaven.
Now, for the features on disc, you get a few interesting ones. You get a very nicely done featurette on how the movie was made from beginning to end (it’s about 45-60 minutes in length). You get good interviews from surviving crew members that tell their own small pieces of how the production went. You also get a really interesting clip from The Steve Allen Show, which is goofy as heck. I’m not sure there were live shots from across the world just yet in 1957. Finally, you get a good pictures-in-graphics feature. Other than this, you just have BD-Live and a theatrical trailer. I was a bit disappointed in the special features, as I wanted just a few more in there. Anyway, still darn good stuff and it will just add to the enjoyment of the film.