The Forest From the Trees

Rating: 7/10 (29 November 2017)

Many of the most negative reviews about this film object to the alleged falsification of history by the creators. Although I was disappointed with this latest viewing of the movie, I don't agree with these reviewers. The film is a work of fiction that is loosely based on a true, historical event, and that is how it is to be viewed. I recently watched "The Best Years of Our Lives", another film, much more to my liking, that is also centered on World War II but focused on an entirely different aspect of that war, the challenge that adjustment to civilian life poses to combat veterans in a world that is supposed to be peaceful but isn't. As in the case of this film, that product is a work of fiction based on true experience, but neither film was ever intended to be a factual documentary or a work of non-fiction. The actual combat disability of actor Harold Russell in "Best Years of Our Lives" is very real, but he doesn't portray himself or his own, personal story in the movie. In this case, no one is denying that Allied prisoners were treated much more harshly by their Japanese captors than depicted here or implying that the real colonel, upon whom the story is based, collaborated with the enemy as the fictional Colonel Nicholson did.
While the film opens with a very dramatic battle of wills between Colonel Saito and Lt. Colonel Nicholson and ends with an even more spectacular finale, I found very little action in between. Although the scenery of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), the movie's actual location, is quite spectacular and the Siamese (Thai) women are very pleasant to behold, much of the dialogue is dull and even banal.
Alec Guiness, who was very reluctant to take the role of Nicholson, creates an intriguing portrayal of the officer in charge of the Allied prisoners. Sessue Hayakawa is equally as good as his counterpart, the Japanese officer in charge of the prison camp. Many notable actors, including Charles Laughton, refused the role of Nicholson because they didn't understand his motivation, a view which should be appreciated. Others believed the material, based on that of a French author, to be viciously anti-British, which is also a reasonable interpretation. I was unimpressed by the rest of the cast, and I consider myself to be a fan of William Holden. His exchange with the bribed Japanese guard, for example, is nothing short of ridiculous. In general, Bill doesn't seem to be emotionally involved in the lame dialogue and may have even found some of it embarrassing.
As a result of the commendable performances of both Guinness and Hayakawa, the beautiful cinematography by Jack Hildyard, the film's trademark whistling of "Colonel Bogey's March", and an unforgettable ending that is worth the long wait, I rate it a 7 out of 10. I strongly disagree that fighting the Japanese and the Germans in the most effective way possible during World War II amounted to "madness" as this film seemed to suggest at the end. That is just wrong.