The Bridge on the River Kwai

Last night I watched The Bridge on the River Kwai. I had vague memories of the film from childhood but I couldn't remember the plot.

It's rare that a piece of infrastructure takes the spotlight as singlehandedly as this bridge does. The British Colonel (Alec Guinness), through his stubbornness experiences a sort of stockholm syndrome. His crippled pride leads him to identify with his Japanese captors. His reversal is so strong that he wants to build a bridge that will stand as a monument to British ingenuity and craftsmanship. Once it's finished he sees it as the only sure thing he has accomplished in his 29 year military career.

Another topological curiosity in this film is the Japanese Colonel's initial proclamation that the labor camp was on an island. Because of this he said that escape was impossible, that this was the reason no barbed wire had been erected around the POW camp. Toward the middle of the movie a British officer reveals that this is patently false. The infamous railway is entirely in Southeast Asia, the Kwai river is in Western Thailand.

The natural landscape takes on an interesting bit part as well. The Kwai river's diminished flow; the hazards of the dense, tropical jungle; and the constant threat of heat exhaustion all pressure the non-native characters in this movie. (While the Thai women appear able to carry munitions through all kinds of terrain without breaking a sweat!)

In any event the movie is excellent. I was probably too young to appreciate it the last time I saw it.