The Bridge On the River Kwai

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Director David Lean was probably the most successful director of epic films that have at their center thoughtful themes about culture clashes. They include Lawrence of Arabia, A Passage to India, Doctor Zhivago (Czarist Russia versus the communist version), and this Best Picture Oscar winner released in 1957. Here we have individuals representing various attitudes of their countries concerning soldiering in the Asian theater of battle during WWII.

The first shot in this movie focuses on a bird flying high above a vast jungle. The freedom of the winged creature and the vastness of the land below contrasts with the confined world of a Japanese prison camp which seems out of place in the realm of nature. Shears (William Holden) has just buried another POW and there are numerous grave marker crosses at the improvised cemetery, which lets us know that there is danger here. Shears has a name which implies that he wants to cut through the bullshit surrounding the wartime agenda of those around him (which is a sort of human jungle). He represents, at least at the beginning, an American emphasis on the individual’s sometimes selfish concern of taking care of number one. He interrupts a cynical eulogy about the recently deceased by saying, “I’ve forgotten who we just buried.” After being reminded of the name of the British soldier, who died not in some glorious battle, but of a disease (beri beri) in a hostile jungle, Shears mockingly says the man’s death was “For the greater good … What did he die for? … May he rest in peace … He found little enough of it when alive.” He ends his tarnished tribute on a discordant note by slamming his shovel against the grave marker. After enduring the harshness of being a prisoner and witnessing so many deaths, Shears can’t see the fruitful forest for the diseased trees.

Like most pragmatic prisoners, he bargains to gain personal privileges. He robbed a corpse of a cigarette lighter and trades it with a guard who will put him on the sick list so he can avoid more hard labor while he plans an escape. The new POWs come marching in to the whistling tune made famous by this film. But, the sound fits in with the theme later expressed by the British and the Japanese that one should be happy at work. In Snow White, the seven dwarfs sing “Whistle While You Work,” which implies that in war, and in this threatening place, the whistling sounds like an escape from reality into a fantasy land. Of course to the British soldiers, led by Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness in a Best Actor Oscar winning performance), their group demonstration of precision music-making shows their unity of purpose and resolve to not be broken of their patriotic spirit (even as the camera zooms in on their falling apart boots as they march). Shears shows his contempt and for the gung-ho, straight-laced display, which he considers self-destructive in this environment, when he says to his fellow prisoner, “We’re going to be a busy pair of gravediggers.” The other POW says that Shears is neither an officer or a gentleman, the opposite of what we have been taught to admire in a soldier (and which turns out to be literally true concerning his rank). But, surface ideals are hard to come by and can seem fraudulent sales pitches amidst the realities of war (as was discussed recently in the post on Gallipoli).

The commander of the POW camp, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), gives the same speech he delivers to all new POW’s, and which Shears mouths the words to. He says their task is to build a bridge over the Kwai River as part of a plan to provide a railroad link to transport troops and supplies between various parts of Burma. It is here that Saito says that they should be happy in their work. The bridge in this story takes on symbolic meaning since it also can pose the question as to whether there is a possibility to make connections among different cultures, even in the presence of hostilities between the various factions. Nicholson’s strict by-the-book position (he literally carries the articles of the Geneva Convention with him) at first indicates the answer is no. He declares to Saito that by the rules the enlisted men must perform labor, but the officers are exempt. But, Saito has his own military set of rules that expect a soldier to commit suicide if he brings dishonor to himself for not having completed his mission. He is just as rigid in his own way as is Nicholson, with harsh rules enforced against those serving under him. We see a man who constantly pulls a rope to fan Saito’s quarters, and a guard who must stay at a designated position in front of those quarters, even though it is where rain water pours off the roof onto the spot where he stands.

When Nicholson talks with Shears we see that the two could not be more different in their approach to soldiering. The colonel says there will be no escape attempts given the chances being slim of surviving the jungle. Besides, his orders were to surrender, and he must follow the rules. Nicholson thinks that he and his men can keep their British Army ways intact in the camp. Shears, of course, tries to open Nicholson’s eyes as to the realities of POW life there. He says that only he and one Aussie soldier have survived out of the group he arrived with. All the others died of disease, snake bites, or by way of Saito’s commands. Shears thinks the odds of survival are better in the jungle, and sticking to Nicholson’s impractical orders is pointless. He asks Nicholson if he intends to “uphold the letter of the law, no matter what it costs?” Nicholson tells Shears that without law, there is no “civilization.” Shears says, “That’s just my point; here, there is no civilization.” Nicholson’s response is, “Then we have the opportunity to introduce it.” Nicholson believes he can transcend the adversities there to maintain his world’s mindset, which, by his desire to impose his idea of civilization on foreign soil, can appear to be imperialistic. Nicholson says that the men must hold onto their self-respect by remembering they are soldiers, commanded by officers (which should not show debasement by being ordered to work); otherwise, they will see themselves as slaves. Shears, again insisting on the reality as he sees it, says that they are slaves here. Shears shows his focus on self-preservation by telling Nicholson’s British doctor, Major Clipton (James Donald, who will play a German POW in The Great Escape), not to fix him up so that he can stay on the sick list.

Saito smacks Nicholson and knocks the copy of the Geneva Convention rules out of Nicholson’s hand. He threatens to shoot the British officers, but Dr. Clipton stops the execution by telling Saito that it would be a scandal if he murdered the men. Saito instead forces Nicholson and his fellow officers to stand out in the hot sun. When they do not capitulate, he places the officers in a detention box, and Nicholson is beaten and put in “the oven,” a small cage. While this action takes place, the British soldiers slow the progress on the bridge by sabotaging the building so that sections fall apart. Saito is a realist. He says rules don’t apply in war, but unlike Shears, he has his orders, and has suspended only those rules that might prevent him from reaching his objective. Saito allows Clipton to try and convince Nichols to give in, since Saito has threatened to close the medical facility, and put the patients to work. Clipton urges Nicolson to relent so that he and the other officers can be released from their small prisons and get medical help. Nicholson says they must not give in. Saito tries to undermine Nicholson’s argument by saying that the officers are lazy and don’t want to take on their share of the labor. Clipton thinks both men are mad, a feeling he reiterates later. Saito starts to change his approach by offering the carrot instead of the stick. He gives the men some time off, and allows them to receive their Red Cross packages. Saito says it is not only the fault of the POWs for the lack of progress on the bridge, it is also due to his incompetent engineer, and so Saito takes over. But, there is still little progress. Saito tries to win Nicholson over by offering him whiskey, cigars, and food, but the British colonel refuses them. Saito is angry, and shows how hard it is to build a figurative bridge between the two men when he lists how different he perceives their respective cultures: “I hate the British! You are defeated but you have no shame. You are stubborn but you have no pride. You endure but you have no courage.”

Eventually, Saito must capitulate. So as not to dishonor himself, he releases Nicholson and says his officers do not have to work because it is the anniversary of Japan’s defeat of the Russians in 1905. So, he is granting amnesty in celebration of that historic event. Nicholson’s men cheer him, since his resistance to being subjugated by the enemy is a triumph. Saito, in private, is the defeated one, now, and he cries.

In the meantime, Shears and two others try to escape, with Shears surviving despite being shot and falling into a river. He makes it to a village just before he is ready to collapse. He recuperates there, and the inhabitants give him a small boat to get back to an Allied base. Again, he is lucky, as he is rescued as his water runs out. He awakes in a hospital in Ceylon. There, while those he left behind in the prison camp must do hard labor, he enjoys the lovely beaches and the affections of a nurse, as he awaits a medical discharge. As opposed to Nicholson, Shears says that he always was “a civilian at heart.” His indulging in selfish individual desires contrasts with those sacrificing their personal needs for bigger endeavors.

However, Nicholson’s larger plans are complicated, and seem contradictory. Saito’s confession that the Japanese engineer was not doing a good job provides Nicholson with what he sees as an opportunity to turn defeat into victory for the principles that make up proper British military behavior. Those ideals will not tolerate sloppy work or malingering with phony illnesses. Nicholson consults with those men who helped him build bridges in India, and they say the Japanese bridge is in the wrong place, and should be placed downstream where it can have a solid foundation. Nicholson tells Clipton that he must keep his troops active and working on the bridge will maintain order and discipline. He also wants the job to be done solely by the British soldiers so that they can show the Japanese how proficient the English are in completing a task. When one of his men says that the trees they will build the bridge with can last six hundred years, Nicholson sees that the building of the bridge will be a monument to future generations who will praise the accomplishment. On the one hand Nicholson’s vision is capable of seeing beyond the current fighting between the nations, but he also loses sight of the war at hand and is driven by patriotic and personal zeal for praiseworthy recognition.

When Nicholson’s team meets with Saito’s, it is Nicholson who is now in command, dictating the plan to build the bridge. As the operation proceeds, Saito becomes a ghost of his former self, looking stunned by the turn of events as he carries out Nicholson’s orders. The Japanese colonel really can’t do anything about this reversal because Nicholson is trying to accomplish what Saito has been ordered to do. Nicholson says he is “not responsible” for losing a month’s time of work because it was Saito who forced his will onto Nicholson and his officers. He uses Saito’s earlier words, because the camp commander said he was “not responsible” for the soldiers’ predicament, since they were ordered by their superiors to surrender. Nicholson does not allow that it was his resistance that also brought about the delay. Nicholson’s British imperialistic ways can be seen in even the smallest actions, as he orders tea while he discusses the building plans. At the camp, Nicholson really has succeeded in defeating his earlier adversary, but, ironically his victory is by actually helping his foe do his job for him. In order to speed up the construction, Nicholson does, ironically, what Saito wanted. He asks his officers to work with the other soldiers, but only if Japanese officers work on the railroad tracks. Under these strange circumstances, the two sides are in a bubble outside the external conflict, actually cooperating with each other. Nicholson also goes into the infirmary and recruits the injured, swaying them with British stiff-upper-lip talk so that they will volunteer to become part of the workforce. Dr. Clipton is upset by what is happening and says sarcastically to Nicholson, “I hope the Japanese appreciate what we are doing for them.”

Back in Ceylon, the British upset Shears’ plans for an early discharge. Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) asks Shears to volunteer to go with Warden as part of a commando group to destroy the bridge being built. It is interesting to note that when going to Warden’s quarters, Shears encounters commandos doing training simulations, and one soldier mistakes Shears for one the opposing participants, and manhandles him. The man says he confused Shears for “the enemy.” This scene echoes what is going on in the building of the bridge where Nicholson no longer seems to know who the enemy really is. In both cases, the narrow focus of wanting to be part of a job well done makes the individual lose sight of the bigger picture. Warden says that Shears will help given his knowledge of the area. Shears, not wanting any part of going back into the jungle and being part of a dangerous mission, says he is not the man for the job. He admits to being a regular enlisted man who happened to escape from a sinking ship with the Commander who later died (Shears up to this point seems to be lucky in escaping his dangerous military situations, and undercuts any praise Warden offers on his escape by emphasizing it was not due to heroic action, again contrasting him with the British outlook on soldiering). Shears assumed the man’s identity because, again looking out for number one, he knew that someone of high rank would get better treatment by the enemy if captured. He also continued the fraud after seeing how officer patients were treated better at the Ceylon hospital. Still trying to work a personal angle, Shears contemplates a psych discharge saying he will argue he assumes other identities because he has mental problems. However, Warden already knows that Shears is not really a Navy Commander. He tells Shears that he is an embarrassment for the Americans, because he should get a medal for his escape from the POW camp, but he is also a fraud. So, the Americans turned him over to the British. As Shears says, the Navy didn’t want to handle “a hot potato.” Shears now realizes he has no choice but to volunteer. Warden makes him a “simulated Major” for the operation, thus continuing Shears’ fraud to get the job done, which, again, takes precedence over other considerations.

Back at the camp, Nicholson can’t understand Clipton’s resistance to the British bridge building plan. Nicholson says that morale is high, discipline has been restored, the men are not abused, and they are eating better than before. Clipton says that it could still appear as collaboration and even treason. Nicholson says it isn’t collaboration because the British are building the bridge alone, which ignores the fact that Nicholson is still providing a means for the Japanese to fight the war. He also makes the argument that as a doctor, Clipton would operate on an enemy soldier to make him better, because that was his job. (Of course what Nicholson doesn’t say is that the doctor would not then arm the man and send him back into battle to shoot more of the doctor’s own soldiers). Nicholson comically says that Clipton may be a good doctor but he “has a lot to learn about the Army.” It doesn’t say much for the military if it operates in this nonsensical way.

Back in Ceylon, Warden, with Shears present, picks out his team. One of the men is Lt. Joyce (Geoffrey Horne). He is Canadian, which sets him apart from the American individualist, Shears, and the British getting-the-job-done-at-any-cost Warden. Joyce says his civilian job and his military one were boring. He wants some excitement, and his character shows the attraction of war as it provides that adrenalin rush. But, when asked by Warden if he could kill someone “in cold blood” with a knife, Joyce allows personal morality to enter into the equation, since he says he isn’t sure because he still feels “killing is a crime.” Warden recognizes that this dilemma has always been a problem in war, but they stick with Joyce, and Warden, employing British understated humor which goes back to Beowulf, tells Joyce he will join them on their “little hike in the jungle.” This way of downplaying danger is consistent with the British stoicism that doesn’t allow room for emotion to interfere with the task at hand. (Nicholson employs the same technique when he asks the camp’s patients if they wouldn’t mind doing a “little light work”). The fact that Shears never used a parachute is not a problem to Warden, since Shears can get in some practice. When there isn’t time for practice, Shears is told he still has a 50-50 chance of survival, so he might as well jump. And in case Shears gets captured, Warden gives him a suicide capsule, called an L-pill, so as not to compromise military operations. Shears does show some admiration for Warden when he learns that he has been captured before by the enemy and is willing to risk his life again.

Their journey is a trying one. Once of the men dies as his parachute goes down among trees. They are plagued by heat, leeches, rains storms, and thick vegetation that they must cut through. Shears, sarcastically, tells the team, which includes women carrying supplies and a local guide, to “be happy in their work,” echoing Saito, and thus showing how both sides try to rationalize away the harsh circumstances. The same point is made when they learn by radio that they must set off their explosives when a VIP Japanese train is crossing over the bridge. The message ends with “have fun,” which refers to the adrenalin rush that Joyce seeks, but also tries to dispel the danger involved. It is ironic that Nicholson has a deadline to meet to finish the bridge, while at the same time soldiers fighting on his side of the war now have a deadline to destroy Nicholson’s creation. Warden’s people encounter some Japanese soldiers, and, in order to not get caught in crossfire, they must use knives. Joyce hesitates in killing one of the enemy. Warden does the job, but chips a bone in his foot. He perseveres though, limping a great distance. However, when he sees himself as an impediment to the mission, he orders the others to leave him behind. He wants no sympathy from Joyce and tells him that he wouldn’t hesitate to leave Joyce behind if the situation was reversed. Shears is angry about the concern for the mission over the welfare of the individual, and tells Joyce that Warden would leave his own mother behind for the sake of the mission. Shears lets loose his contempt for Warden’s rules of war: “You make me sick with your heroics! There’s a stench of death about you. You carry it in your pack like a plague. Explosives and L-pills - they go together, don’t they? And with you it’s just one thing or the other: destroy a bridge or destroy yourself. This is just a game, this war! You and Colonel Nicholson, You’re two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what? To die like a gentleman, how to die by the rules - when the only important thing is to live like a human being.” Shears will not allow Warden to follow his rules and be left behind, and says they go on together.

Warden’s team arrives at the completed bridge in daylight and are able to get a good overview of how to set the explosives to destroy the bridge. Again, ironically, this happens as Nicholson places a plaque on the bridge announcing how it was constructed by British soldiers. The team can’t just set timers on the explosives on the bridge and make a clean getaway because they do not know when the train will be crossing, and must be there at the crucial time. Nicholson and Saito walk the bridge together, symbolizing their strange alliance despite being on opposing sides of the conflict. We then get from Nicholson why the bridge means something more to him than just a way to show the British ability to succeed. He says that he has served in the military for twenty-eight years and was hardly at home. It was a good life, but as he is now older, he wonders, “what the sum total of your life represents. What difference your being there at any time made to anything. Hardly made any difference at all, really, particularly in comparison with other men’s careers.” Nicholson is saying that he wanted to make a difference by contributing something concrete that will endure, which is what many people would want. But even if his motivation is pure, he has picked an odd way of achieving his goal. As he is saying these words, he drops his military crop into the water below, as if symbolically showing that, up until now, the Army has failed to make his dream come true. The lost crop seems to wake him up out of his reverie, and he again assumes the stoical look of a British officer.

Shears and Joyce plant the devices at night and hook them up with a wire to an explosive plunger as Nicholson’s men, in contrast, put on a show to celebrate the completion of the bridge. However, in the morning, as if nature itself is resisting man’s violent intrusion into the jungle, or because, as Warden liked to say “there is always something else” that seems to come up when trying to control an uncontrollable universe, the river has dropped, and the wires are exposed. Clifton, despite Nicholson’s speech of the night before about how this British accomplishment will be an inspiration to people in the future, wishes to view the train crossing from a distance, on a hill because he can’t be a part of what is happening. Nicholson, while doing a last inspection, sees the wires, and goes with Saito down to the water level to investigate. As Nicholson pulls up the wire, he yells out for help because he knows the bridge is in danger. Warden, realizing how Nicholson is about to betray the mission, yells out to Joyce to kill Nicholson. Joyce does stab Saito to death, but is shot to death by Japanese soldiers. Shears, now a true part of the team, runs out to try to complete the mission, but is also killed as he tries to reach the the detonator. Warden has fired mortar shells as backup, and Nicholson is hit ironically by “friendly fire.” In this moment where he has been attacked as an enemy of his own people, Nicholson is brought back to the realities of war and realizes his betrayal of his own military forces as he says, “What have I done?” He stumbles and dies, falling on the plunger, destroying the train as it passes over the bridge he was so proud of building.

We see the plaque that was supposed to last for six hundred years floating on the river. The bird that was in the first shot appears again, soaring freely above the men still imprisoned in their world of violence. The last words of the film are uttered by Clifton, which sums up how the existence of war destroys all the best laid plans, if not of mice, but certainly of men: “Madness - Madness.”

The next film is Goodfellas.