The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

 David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai"

The 1957 British film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is the first of many 'epic' films that would come to identify the career of David Lean. Shot in technicolor, the film was the highest grossing film globally in 1957 and was met with widespread critical acclaim. Since the time of its release, it has been regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. 

The film takes place in Thailand in 1943. A group of British soldiers are captured and taken to a Japanese prison camp where they are tasked with building a bridge. The unit's commanding officer, Colonel Nicholson, puts up a fight against Colonel Saito, who does not honor the Geneva Convention by making the officers endure the same labor as their men. After a grueling stand-off, Colonel Saito agrees to honor Colonel Nicholson's request as long as Nicholson can guarantee the bridge be built in a specific time frame. Through their hard work, Nicholson becomes proud of the bridge he builds and is caught in treason when the British military send a unit to destroy it. 

While I do find this film to be overly long, the themes of the film are completely engaging from start to finish. That being said, I do really like long films and that's never a reason to dissuade me from anything. However, in this case, there was so much of the film that could have been cut down to tighten the drama. I feel as though the lengthier films are required for thematic storylines that require the viewer to feel their weight. This, however, did not.

That being said, the climactic ending completely encapsulates the full thematic drama perfectly. The notions of war are explored through their complete lack of logic. I feel as though Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" is the better film of 1957 that explores these concepts, but "The Bridge on the River Kwai" uses a far more 'British' approach. The British officer, Nicholson, adheres strictly to British sensibility, respectability, honor, and adherence so much so that he ends up working against his own interest. The whole film is an epic depicting different men trying to adhere to their duty and end up morally diverging in ways that deconstructs what it means to be on 'sides' at all.

While I did find "The Bridge on the River Kwai" a bit long in the tooth for its thematic devices, the ending of the film curated these devices into the perfect dramatic tension, moral confusion, and senselessness of war. Lean, as always, is a master of his craft and the technical aspects alone grant the film as necessary for viewing.