Madness

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2009)

Alec Guiness and his men are ordered to build "The Bridge on the River Kwai" in this magnificent 1957 film starring Alec Guinness, William Holden, Sessue Hayakawa, and Jack Hawkins, and directed by David Lean. Lean manages to give us an epic that manages to focus on fascinating and multilayered characters.
The story is based on a book about a real-life incident; however, in order to make the points made in the film, the story has many fictional elements, including the depiction of Colonel Saito (Hayakawa), who was actually a very humane Japanese officer, and he and the real-life Colonel Nicholson (Guinness), actually named Toosey shared a great respect. In the movie, Saito demands that the British officers in a prisoner of war camp participate in the building a bridge across the river Kwai in Burma during World War II. Colonel Nicholson refuses, and despite harsh imprisonment, will not give in. When his demands are met, he becomes determined to show the superiority of the British army and engineering in the building of the bridge. The bridge becomes an end in itself, although it will actually help the Japanese.
William Holden plays an escaped prisoner who is asked to return to the Burmese jungle to help destroy the bridge and the train that is supposed to go over it.
Alec Guinness gives his greatest performance as Nicholson - and that's saying something, since he did so many great ones. He has the stoicism, the determination, and the pride necessary for the role, contrasted with the frailty of his imprisonment. One really believes he has endured harsh imprisonment, given the way he looks, talks, and walks. Holden is fabulous as the soldier who, once he gets away, just wants to go home and is forced to go back to the jungle. In one scene, he yells at Major Warden (Jack Hawkins): "You and Colonel Nicholson, you're two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what? How to die like a gentleman... how to die by the rules - when the only important thing is how to live like a human being." Sessue Hayakawa does a brilliant job as a man as determined as Nicholson and furious that he cannot bend him to his will.
The end of the film is extremely suspenseful and builds tension throughout. This is a great film, and an antiwar one - Colonel Nicholson tells Saito that as he ages, he thinks about what his life has meant. Sometimes our goals become confused, and one forgets the real focus. The final line, uttered by Lt. Joyce (Geoffrey Horne) says it all.