Creation vs. Destruction

Rating: 9/10 (12 December 2009)

At its core, The Bridge on the River Kwai is a film about creation and destruction. It alternates between two story lines that start and end in the same place.
One revolves around the efforts of British POW's to build a bridge in the middle of a Thai jungle. Despite their hardships and poor living conditions, these men work diligently on a bridge they hope will stand as a monument to British ingenuity and resourcefulness for generations to come. Essentially, it's their way of inflicting defeat on the enemy, even while in the confines of a POW camp. This subplot represents creation.
Meanwhile, a British Special Forces team is assembled with one simple task: to destroy the bridge the POW's are creating. Led by an ex-POW who had escaped the camp, the team manages to plant demolitions and explode the bridge as a train with high priority Japanese targets passes on it. These men are the harbingers of destruction.
What we're ultimately left with, then, are two inherently opposed forces that come head to head in the film. Traditionally, people associate creation with good and destruction with bad. It becomes less clear in a situation like this. Does the long-term vision of the POW's justify temporarily aiding the Japanese war effort? I don't believe so, and in that regard blowing up the bridge was the right thing to do.
So what Bridge on the River Kwai accomplishes is turning traditional preconceptions about destruction upside down. By taking out the bridge and the train on it, the Japanese will be that much closer to surrendering and the war will be that much closer to ending. This will save countless lives and prevent further destruction, so ironically the bridge is blown up in the name of preservation. It's a compelling and fascinating study of the greater good, and that only left me with one lingering question—is preservation not itself a form of creation?
9/10