1957--The Bridge on the River Kwai, David Lean

1957--The Bridge on the River Kwai, David Lean

  

Nominated: Peyton Place, Sayanora 12 Angry Men, Witness for the Prosecution
Should have won: 12 Angry Men
Be sure to see: Jailhouse Rock, Old Yeller, What's Opera Doc?, The Wrong Man
"You not speak to me of rules. This is war, not a game of cricket!"--Col. Saito

    British POW are ordered by Colonel Saito to build a bridge across the Kwai River (er, I mean River Kwai...?) which will be used to transport Japanese munitions. Colonel Nicholson refuses to work on the bridge alongside his men because he says an officer should never do manual labor. He is put in a hot box. Eventually Nicholson agrees and he and his men build the bridge. In the meantime, American intelligence officers Shears and Warden (well, is Warden an officer? There is an awkward side story that took a lot of screen time diving into his status. How important was it really?) intend to blow up the bridge to keep the supplies from being transported.

     Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle who also wrote Planet of the Apes, The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of those movies that are both exciting and boring at the same time. Not too much happens through most of it yet I was still intrigued by the progress of the building of the bridge. The most interesting aspect of the movie was the bickering of the two colonels.

     The whole movie is a buildup to the final few minutes. Waiting for the train; waiting for the explosives to be set. Watching Nicholson's suspicions rise. The odd thing to me was I was so into Nicholson's character that I, too, wanted the bridge to be built even though I would essentially be rooting for the enemy.

     The movie is very very good but drags. It was pretty interesting but I still wanted to get up and walk around for a while. The good aspects to me were Alec “Obi Wan” Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa in Oscar nominated roles (Guinness won his). I also liked the whole bridge building aspect. The editors of the movie had to been sweating bullets. In a process like building a bridge, if continuity is off the bridge could be smaller or bigger than it was before. The only setback for me was that damn whistling song. Like “Do not forsake me oh my darling” from High Noon or “Everybody's Talking” from the dreadful Midnight Cowboy (it will be coming soon in 1969's winner), “Colonel Bogey March” gets whistled over and over and over and over and...