by Chris Marshall:
I should really stop having expectations when I go into
these movies. I don’t mean expecting a movie to be good or bad but the more
basic level of what the film is even about.
I knew that The Bridge on the River Kwai took
place in a POW camp during World War II, but outside of that, it was completely
different from what I thought it would be.
I figured it would be about the deplorable conditions the
British soldiers faced in the camp and how they were forced to build the bridge
against their will, all while struggling to survive the horrendous situation
they found themselves in. That really wasn’t the case at all, though.
Sure, that’s more or less how it started. We start out
seeing the American Navy prisoner (played by William Holden) digging graves in
a well-populated cemetery, obviously leading to the conclusion that many
soldiers had died there already. When the British contingent arrives, the camp
leader, Colonel Saito, informs them that everyone, officers included, will have
to do manual labor. When Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) objects,
citing the Geneva Convention’s mandate that officers not be used for manual
labor, Saito rips it in half. This could be trouble.
