The Bridge on the River Kwai - PG
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that students assigned to read the Pierre Boulle novel in school might try to watch this film instead. (Come on, it's a short book, no cheating!) That aside, there's ample wartime violence in this movie, with characters stabbed or shot to death, and the body count of the main characters is tragically high in the end. The now-taboo, once-common term "Japs" is used to refer to Japanese. Unrated on its original release, the restored version carries a PG.
Families can talk about the irony of the story, with upright military commanders working for the enemy to pull off a stupendous feat because of principles of "honor." What should have been done differently? Could it happen today? Which characters are the most (or least) admirable? Are there any real villains in the story? Would you say this is a pro-military movie or an anti-war one? Kids might want to research more historical facts, the real-life story of the Kwai bridge, and the Allied (and British) experience in the WWII jungles of the Far East.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI might be one of the finest war films of all time. Though fixed on circumstances of a real-life incident of WWII, the devastating story is really about what constitutes military duty and "honor" -- and how they can be twisted into disloyalty and dastardly treachery. While not explicitly bloody, there's a downbeat ending and a final one-word line of dialogue that sums up the whole thing: "Madness!"
The setting is Japan-occupied Siam (later Thailand) in 1943, after the Imperial Japanese Empire has conquered vast territories of Asia. Over a muddy jungle river called Kwai, a Japanese colonel, Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), must complete a railroad bridge vital to Japan's war effort. He's got a tight deadline, and the captured Allied POW slaves he has been working literally to death on the project aren't making progress.
Into Saito's prison camp come British troops (whistling the cheery "Colonel Bogey March" that has since become a standard), newly surrendered. They're under the leadership of stalwart Col. Nicholson (Alec Guinness), who has been in Her Majesty's forces for 28 years. To Saito's mystification, the well-liked Nicholson upholds British military traditions of pride and discipline with his men, not at all taking defeat as a humiliation. The Japanese martinet is outraged when Nicholson refuses to let men of higher rank toil on the unfinished bridge with the common soldiers.
Nicholson resists torture, even a close shave with execution, refusing to bow to Saito. After that, the Japanese commander is like a broken man. But Saito's directive to finish the bridge (or else kill himself in samurai-like disgrace) appeals to Nicholson as a chance to prove the efficiency and superiority of the British and keep up the captives' morale. He finds men in his charge with engineering skills, and starts building afresh, putting even wounded prisoners from the camp hospital to work, erecting a bridge far stronger and better than the enemy could have imagined.
A parallel plotline follows the lone-surviving American to escape from Saito. He's Shears (William Holden), actually a low-ranked sailor who stole the identity of a slain superior officer, hoping he could get better treatment from the Japanese (it didn't work). Shears painfully makes his way to Allied territory, then is thunderstruck to be ordered back to the Kwai compound, to help advise a commando team assigned to destroy the bridge. Shears, though a rogue and philanderer, maybe even a coward, is one of the few characters who seems to see most clearly through the idiocy, as British officers carry out their instructions, often bravely but to absurd and contradictory extremes.
There is an abundance of excitement in The Bridge on the River Kwai -- the last 20 minutes are excruciatingly tense -- but well-acted minefields of issues and thoughtfulness are what make this a formidable arsenal, from Shears mentoring a rookie paratrooper who doesn't know if he can bring himself to kill, to Nicholson and Saito finding mutual comradeship and cooperation rather than enmity. Nicholson also has a less-experienced man under him who thinks (like Shears) that collaborating wholeheartedly with the hated "Japs" is bizarre, but then admits (sarcastically) he has much to learn about the army. This is a war movie about ideas, not just blowing things up -- but in the end, both those attributes turn into the same thing, in an example of the usually noble concepts of battlefield chivalry and obedience taken to extremes.
Toward the end of his life Alec Guinness was chagrinned that future generations of moviegoers would only know him from Star Wars. But if playing the Obi-Wan Kenobi card is the only way you can get kids to watch Guinness at his finest, go for it.
You could also relate The Bridge on the River Kwai to their history lessons about British forces at Valley Forge or in the Charge of the Light Brigade (referred to by Shears in the dialogue) who marched mindlessly to their deaths, refusing to break rank. For another fact-based movie on this theme (Shears mentions the incident in the dialogue also), check out Gallipoli, starring a young Mel Gibson. For another true-story war epic set in a POW compound, compare-contrast The Great Escape.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentSome flirting with sarong-clad Siamese girls and western ladies in demure one-piece bathing suits. During a POW camp entertainment, men cross-dress as women (which was very routine in such circumstances). |
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ViolenceSoldiers are stabbed at close range (and shot to death, generally at long range), with explosions near the end and a high casualty list. |
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Social BehaviorThere is nobility in most of the characters -- too much so, one can even argue, since it twists their loyalties and dedication, as Nicholson is so devoted to rigid ideals of military loyalty, discipline, and obedience he practically ends up working for his country's enemy. Another officer kills his own men rather than risk the likelihood of their being captured. The American soldier Shears, though a rogue and an impersonator, seems to be one protagonist who can see most clearly through the absurdity and the horror. It's mostly a male-oriented show, except for some Siamese girl freedom fighters on the margins. "Japs" is used to refer to Japanese, as it was in a derogatory way back then. |
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CommercialismNone, though there is a book tie-in. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSocial drinking, and soldierly smoking. |
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