33 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
33 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
i want to correct what i wrote in a former retrospective of david lean's war picture .
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i still think that it doesn't deserve being the number 13 in the american film institute's list of the 100 greatest american movies .
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and i think that lumet's " 12 angry men " , wilder's " witness for the prosecution " and kubrick's " paths of glory " would have been better choices for the best picture oscar in 1958 .
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but i can't deny the importance of " the bridge on the river kwai " - cinematically and in its contents .
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the film is set in burma in 1943 .
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a bataillon of british soldiers in japanese war captivity is forced by the japanese to build a strategically momentous railway bridge over the river kwai .
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but the british commanding officer , colonel nicholson ( alec guinness ) , insists - corresponding to the geneva conventions - that his officers needn't work as simple workmen .
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struggling toughly , col . nicholson forces the japanese commandant , col . saito ( sessue hayakawa ) , to give way in this respect .
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afterwards col . nicholson assiduously commits himself for the building of the bridge .
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he considers it an opportunity to raise his men's morale , and he wants to prove superior british capabilities to the japanese .
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but the british high command sends a few soldiers who shall destroy the bridge , among them the american shears ( william holden ) - an escapee from the japanese prison camp - and the british major warden ( jack hawkins ) . . .
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a flaw of the picture is the clich ? d characterization of the japanese people .
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they are presented as if they were intellectually inferior to the british - as if the japanese were incapable of building a bridge .
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and the film doesn't consistently question the military spirit as kubrick does in " paths of glory " .
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lean seems rather fascinated by the military hierarchies .
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this is also perceptible in the conversations between col . nicholson and col . saito .
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in this regard it is symptomatic that shears , who doubts the military logic , is a somehow unpleasant person in the film .
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the audience is supposed to applaud col . nicholson's perseverance concerning the question if his officers shall work on the bridge or not .
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the spectators are supposed to neglect the risks col . nicholson takes for his men .
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( the plot by-passes these risks . )
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that means , the picture isn't perfect .
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but it has a lot of virtues as well .
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it shows the " madness " of war and what war can produce in people's minds .
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it shows how col . nicholson becomes possessed by the idea of being a hero and that others ( like shears ) get cynics .
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and " the bridge on the river kwai " is an interesting study of characters with clashing interests .
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these points and the sometimes ironic dialogue make this film an anti-war film ( despite the inconsistencies in the treatment of this theme ) .
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david lean's effective and atmospherically perfect direction creates a high suspense , especially in the dramatic ( though not wholly plausible ) showdown .
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alec guinness does a magnificent job of bringing col . nicholson to life and making him such an interesting character .
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the other actors deliver very good performances as well .
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jack hildyard's fine color cinematography and the apt score are also helpful .
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i like this extraordinary film despite its weaknesses .
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( c ) karl rackwitz ( klein k ? ris , germany , 1999 )
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