Episode II

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2002)

Spoilers herein.
Except for the historical interest as preparation for "Lawrence," this film deserves to be on few best lists in my opinion. It has some fine cinematography (mostly experimental) but otherwise no center. The rewritten Japanese history bothered me. Seen `Paradise Road'? So I invent my own cinematic pleasure.
I write this a couple weeks after the invasion of `Star Wars, Episode II.' Here is where we find out about how the storm troopers were made and we see the young Obi-Wan Kenobi. We see two factions at war, each leader sticking to their principles. An evil force and barbarism drive the plot. Lean's film is much better than Lucas' and serves the same purpose. Precisely while Americans were making this film, Kurosawa in Japan was making `Kakushi Toride no San Akunin' (`Hidden Fortress') from which Lucas stole much of `Star Wars' most famously including the storm trooper costumes. Here, in `Bridge,' we see the young Obiwan in his first important mission as a Jedi actor. (He would be knighted the next year in large part for this role.) `Star Wars' ended up being the bridge between `Bridge' and `Fortress.'
Or alternatively, you could see this as Paul McCartney did, as one of the inspirations for `Sgt. Pepper.' (Just the idea for the band of four led by the joker Billy Shears, mixed with the whistle march, destroying things and conceptions that other parts of British society were building -- or at least maintaining through doggedness.) This is where the line `All you need is love' comes from as well. (And Ono?)
Or you can see this as David Lean's apprenticeship in Cinemascope. The acting is rather stilted, especially with Holden. In fact everyone but the medical officer was living in a prior world of `Great Expectations' acting -- stagy readings of lines. But Lean came through it well enough to next make essentially the same picture but in the desert. That had a better score, superb superb editing, and an inspired actor. This film is merely competent. But you can see him testing out the epic in this new medium, especially the framing of a man's emotion in a long shot.
Or -- here's another take. War films are a primary means by which a nation redefines itserf. And there's major change evident here. The Japanese committed the worst barbarisms of the century in this time and place, but since the Cold War was gearing up and the US needed the Japanese as a buffer against the Russians, here they are depicted mildly, no less intensely than the British and somewhat comically. Here we have the first appearance of the Brando type of American, not as a rebel but as the prototypical American: no guff, ladies' man; somewhat dishonest but only on minor matters; inventive; and brave when the chips are down. (See `Great Escape' for the next step in this evolution.)
At this very same time (in a picture also advised by Washington) Brando himself was in Japan making `Sayonara' where he as a war hero falls in love with a Japanese girl. We needed to rewrite history and make friends.
And Siamese peasant girls from this period with bras and makeup? See, that's indicative of the inherent "let's pretend" stance of this purportedly realistic world.