Nice bridge,Colonel,but there is a war on you know.......

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2015)

I saw this at the cinema as a 17 year - old and was most impressed by the sheer size and sweep of the film - a characteristic,I later learned of most David Lean productions.Mr A.Guiness represented the bulldog spirit and unquestionable integrity of the British officer - class and the various jolly cockney,witty scouses,dour northeners in the ranks were typical of the portrayals of rank and file soldiery we had come to expect in just over a decade of obsession with the role of the armed forces in the second world war. Mr S.Hayakawa was eminently hissable as the evil Oriental who was eventually outwitted by our brave and stubborn Col.Nicholson. Nearly sixty years and many viewings later I have come to realise that "Bridge on the River Kwai is still a hugely impressive film and Mr A.Guiness is even better than I first thought,but that my reading of the film was all wrong. Mr Lean has in fact borrowed deeply from Joseph Conrads"Heart of darkness"with a plot about a rogue officer with his own agenda running what is virtually his own private army in cahoots with the enemy to the extent that an assassin is sent on a mission to kill him. Col.Nicholson,in short,is as mad as a sack of weasels and his obsession with building the eponymous bridge,rather than giving his chaps something to do and improve their conditions,is considerably aiding the Japanese Imperial Forces and the movement of their troops. The last third of the film detailing the efforts of Mr J.Hawkins and Mr W.Holden to destroy the bridge is amongst Mr Leans's best work,taut, with beautifully conceived editing,and a wonderfully managed climax where Nicholson finally realises the blind alley his obsession has led him into. "What have I done?"he asks as the first train is about to cross the bridge and he stumbles around on the sand seeing the explosives set by Mr Hawkin's commandos exposed by low tide. In "Heart of darkness",Kurtz's last words are "The horror,the horror". As the bridge finally blows up, Mr J.Donald mutters "Madness,madness",which isn't too far removed from that. With the possible exception of "Lawrence of Arabia"(maybe just a little self - indulgent)Mr Lean never again made a film so near to perfection that was so ambiguous and no character that was so complex. Undoubtedly one of the best "British" movies ever made.