Madness

Rating: 7/10 (23 April 2011)

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a World War II film. One of those big movie war epics. But epic though it may be this film is not about the massive global conflict. This is a small story, a story really of two men and their war of wills. The fact that these two men are each in their own way quite mad makes for a fascinating story. It's a story with great moments of triumph and bitter moments of despair. It's a story of great bravery in the face of unspeakable brutality. But really, at its heart, it's a story of madness.
The story unfolds in a Japanese prison camp in the jungles of Thailand. A large unit of British prisoners proudly and defiantly whistle a famous march as they are brought into the camp. They have no idea what they're in for. Perhaps some of them noticed the graves being dug as they were marched in. That should serve as a hint. This camp is an impossibly terrible place, led by a brutal, seemingly sadistic man in the camp commandant Colonel Saito. The strong-willed Saito will meet his match in the British commanding officer Colonel Nicholson, a man who lives by rules and stands on principle. But Nicholson will immediately find that in this camp there are no rules and there certainly don't seem to be much in the way of principles either. Saito has a job for his new British prisoners. They are to build a bridge over the River Kwai. And the British officers will be forced to perform manual labor alongside their men. Nicholson cannot abide the officers being put to work, it's against the rules. Where does standing up for the rules get Nicholson? Locked inside a small iron box that's where.
And so the war of wills begins. Saito has a bridge to be built and he has a deadline. He will complete this bridge by any means necessary because if he fails he will have no choice but to kill himself. Madness. Meanwhile Nicholson stands on principle which only leads to torture and a seemingly inevitable death for himself and his officers. Madness. From a certain perspective it can be said that Nicholson shows great bravery. But to what end? In playing this brave, principled, somewhat deranged man Alec Guinness turns in an astonishing performance. There is little doubt Guinness is the best thing the film has to offer. And he has a worthy foil in Sessue Hayakawa who plays Saito. Two great actors portraying two stubborn men who are too set in their ways to change. And their stubbornness can only have dire consequences.
The story of the camp and the building of the bridge is fascinating, dramatic and highly charged. Unfortunately there is a parallel storyline which does not work nearly as well. William Holden plays Shears, an American who escapes from the camp early on in the film. As he recovers he clearly enjoys his newfound freedom as he waits to be shipped back home. He's living the good life, including partaking in a romantic dalliance which seems to serve no purpose other than to shoehorn a female character into the film someplace. But Shears, much to his consternation, finds that he's not going home. He's going back to the prison camp along with a team of British commandos who are going to blow up the bridge.
Holden's performance is perfectly fine, as are those of the other actors in this section of the film, but the story of the attempt to blow up the bridge doesn't engage the way the story of the bridge's building does. Time spent away from Nicholson and Saito, Guinness and Hayakawa, is for this movie time not well spent. By this point in the movie we're utterly fascinated with Nicholson and the rather bizarre pride he takes in his men's efforts to build the bridge. His bridge. It's not Saito's bridge anymore which causes the Japanese commander no small sense of shame. The story of Nicholson and Saito, Nicholson mostly, is incredibly compelling. And Guinness is so perfect in his portrayal of this brave but mad man that you really miss his presence when the film veers away from its main storyline to follow the trek of the commando team through the jungle. But at least you know something quite spectacular is bound to occur when the two threads of the plot come together. Madness indeed.