The Perks of Being An Officer

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2006)

The Bridge on the River Kwai is about a culture clash of two different races going to war and how they view each other. It's also about a British colonel's concern for the morale of his men and observation of the rules of war that it blinds him to the situation he's in.
I like to compare The Bridge on the River Kwai with The Great Escape. Though the prisoners in the former are in a far worse predicament than those in that 'escape proof' stalag in the latter, note the differences in how they view their captivity. No one in The Great Escape ever forgets that they are at war and who the enemy. Their morale is kept very high with the diabolical escape plan they devise.
Alec Guinness who is a stickler for protocol reminds us that escape might not be justified under the rules because they were ordered to surrender. But as prisoners he will not be denied the rank and privileges of being an officer. So he gets the sweat box until the commandant, Sessue Hayakawa, gives in for his own reasons.
His reasons involve the building of a bridge on a railway the Japanese are constructing from Bangkok to Rangoon, part of their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity scheme. Hayakawa reminds us that his code of honor is Bushido, the Samurai code which does not entertain surrender. The British to him are an inferior people for doing that and not fighting until the last man.
That's not going to sit well with Guinness who's going to show the Japanese who's inferior. He notes that the bridge being built is not sound structurally and he determines that to combat the idleness of the men and the bad effect on morale, he'll build a bridge that will show Hayakawa who's inferior. And Hayakawa loses control of his own bridge construction to the enemy and breaks down because of it.
The Bridge on the River Kwai as a film wouldn't work at all if it were not for Alec Guinness. He's clearly not kept his eye on the ball to use an American baseball term, forgotten that two countries are at war, that it's not a private spat between him and Hayakawa. Yet his concern for his men is genuine and he must have been a pretty good commander in a combat situation to retain the affection his men have for him. Executing the complexity of Colonel Nicholson won him the Academy Award and it carries the film.
Taking a different view of the perks of being an officer is William Holden. His role is not in the original novel by Pierre Boule, but was created to justify a big American box office name for the USA market. But it was a good thing because Holden as an American does bring a different perspective to the events.
Holden having won his Oscar in Stalag 17 as a prisoner of war brings his former role of Sefton to this film. That's not as flip as it sounds because Sefton in Stalag 17 did remark about escaping and then being sent to the Pacific and getting captured and doing time in a Japanese prison. Of course he'd have had to have changed branches of the service. And we never do learn Holden's real name.
Seems as though when his ship went down, Holden the survivor exchanges uniform and dog tags with a Navy commander named Shears. It doesn't get him quite the perks he thought he'd get, but he's resourceful enough.
It took me several viewings of The Bridge on the River Kwai to figure out why Holden didn't go back to his real name and rank after he escaped and after he arrived in the British hospital in Sri Lanka. It's the reason why Ann Sears has a small, but critical role as the WREN that Holden enjoys a little romantic idyll with. She might not have given him the time of day if he was a seaman first class instead of a Lieutenant Commander.
But the British get on to Holden's charade and Jack Hawkins blackjacks him into going on a mission to destroy the bridge that British Intelligence has found out the Japanese are building. If Guinness has forgotten what side he's on, Hawkins sure hasn't. Jack Hawkins's role tends to get overshadowed by Guinness and he never gets the credit due him for this film, but he does well as the determined man on a mission.
One other part worthy mentioning is James Donald as the medical officer of Guinness's battalion. He has great affection for Guinness, but apparently he's the only one in the POW camp that sees the implication of what the British prisoners are being ordered to do by their commander and also who'll tell Guinness ever so gently.
And Donald puts the final coda on The Bridge on the River Kwai with his words that end this great film achievement.