The Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle A mesmerizing tale of valor, resilience and a clash of two cultures at war

 The Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle

A mesmerizing tale of valor, resilience and a clash of two cultures at war

 

The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of the best films ever made, included by prestigious critics, and I think even the American Film Institute among the ten most appreciated.

The film is based on the book that, even if not as famous it is still a great work, which after all has provided the material that made a glorious screen production.

Colonel Nicholson is played by Alec Guinness who gives fantastic performance who was surely nominated, but I am not sure if it won the Oscar.

He is the leader of a group of British soldiers who had to surrender to the Japanese, during World War II.

Even if the Geneva Convention says otherwise, the Japanese have brutally mishandled, tortured and made their prisoners work in terrible circumstances.

The first climax comes when the Japanese colonel Saito orders everyone to work at The Bridge on the river Kwai, including the officers.

But colonel Nicholson will have none of that and he is beaten and locked up in awful conditions in order to break his spirit.

That does not happen, because he is one the finest representatives of the greatness of The British Empire- which by the way I admire a lot.

The fact that the Japanese are called monkeys and despised by their prisoners has some complicated aspects.

First of all, being mistreated and humiliated prisoners, we can’t expect the Europeans to be kind with words for their enemy.

Second, at that stage in their development the Japanese were behind their Western adversaries by a long shot.

After the war, when they managed to astonish the world, people have forgotten that the first Japanese incursions in making cars and electronics included copy cats.

But the last aspect of this Japanese bashing has to do with the author, who is subjective and probably has suffered at their hands –for he knows so much- but he is too harsh on a people who have a long and admirable history, for all its hiccups and mistakes.

Pierre Boulle makes a serious and accurate point when he writes that all peoples of the world consider that they have been chosen are special and they have a sublime destiny.

After Nicholson wins the battle of wits and spirits with colonel Saito, things take an unexpected turn.

With officers in isolation and oppressed by the Japanese, the British prisoners sabotaged the works for the bridge.

But once Nicholson is out, he is tormented by the bad work that is made by the troops under his command.

He sees the bridge as an opportunity to show British values at their best- how they are able to work not only hard, but well, with aplomb and gusto.

The results are amazing and they stun the Japanese. Whereas their engineer and officers have been unable to do anything good, the British show almost all the possible abilities required:

Enterprise, ingeniosity- perhaps even genius, hard work, excellent organization, resilience, determination, planning…

-          I‘d say you name it!

-          They have got it

It is however strange that they did not think that their doing an excellent job for…the enemy.

This is part of the paradox and indeed, the dark side of Nicholson, who excellent commander as he is, could not really envision that he was playing in the enemy’s hands.

I remember one detail, when the question arose to paint the bridge and that is what the Japanese wanted and Nicholson says no…

-          You want it to be a visible target for the RAF…the airplanes?

I will not say what happens in a book that kept me on the edge of the seat, even if I knew the final result from the film…

Still, I did not remember exactly who does what and the book always have aspects which do not make it on the big screen, so I was keen to see that too.

Excellent book.