When you are captured in the war you have two options. You can either do what you are told, keep your head down and try to make the best out of the situation or you can escape. For the British soldiers caught in a POW camp in Japan neither was really a good option. When it came down to it the soldier made their choice. When Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson is told that all soldier, no matter the rank, had to work of the construction of the bridge over the Kwai river he was furious. According to the Geneva Code officers are not allowed to do manual labor. Colonel Saito, the man who runs that camp, did not want to follow the rules of the code and punishes Nicholson until he obeys. Upon seeing what is going on at the camp three soldiers decide that they are better of to escape or die trying. Commander Shears is the only one who manages to escape the camp with some injuries. When he is nursed back to health and is sent off to a military base to try and get back home. With both men thinking they are doing what is best for the war they are pivoted against each other even though they are on the same side of the war.
This film seems like it had to fight its own war just to be made. First off there were two writers for the screen play. Now, that does not seem so strange because there are a lot of writing teams, however, this film was unique. The two writers never actually collaborated with each other. Carl Foreman was the first, and originally the only, writer of the film. When Director David Lean was not happy with Foremen's work he was replaced Foremen with Michael Wilson. The biggest problem that Lean had with both of the writers you ask? Both were living in England and had to work on the script secretly because both of them were blacklisted in Hollywood for being communists. So, when the Academy nominated the film for Best Screenplay they honor went to Pierre Boulle, and it was he who accepted the trophy when it won the award. The writing was not the only problem that this film had to overcome. The musical score was another issue entirely. When Malcolm Arnold was told that he was going to be doing the score to the film he had a whopping 10 days to do it. Even though he won the Academy Award for his score he says that it was the "the worst job I have ever done in my life". When it came to the explosion of the bride it almost ruined everything. The timing of the train was off because one of the camera men could not get of the way in time and the train crashed into a generator that ran everything. The whole set had to be rebuilt overnight in order to shoot it again in the morning. The problem did not stop there. After the filing of the bridge explosion was done they shipped the reels off to London so they can be kept safe. They usually would put them on a boat and send them right over, however, they could not do this at the time. The crew was forced to send them by air freight and the reels never made it to London. Thus, a worldwide search for the reels was executed. One horrifying week later, the reels were found sitting out in the hot sun on a tarmac in Cairo. Luckily, the film was not exposed to the sun but due to the colour stock being heat sensitive, they thought that all of the shots were could to be discolored and ruined. By some miracle, none of the scenes were discolored. Despite all of the dramatics that this drama had to go through to be made, this Columbia film beat out: United Artist 12 Angry Men and Witness for the Prosecution; 20th Century Fox's Peyton Place; and Warner Brothers' Sayonara to take home the Oscar for Best Picture at the 30th Annual Academy Awards.
I am not going to lie. By the time I got to this film I was sooooooooooooooooo sick of war films. I understand, just by making the list of Best Picture Winners, that war films make for amazing movies. However, when trying to watch them all in a year it's very hard to stay focused on another war film after a while. What I do have to say about this film is that it presented a very different side to war films. It's the first of the Best Pictures to show what it was like to be a captured soldier and what all of that entails. It showed the stubbornness of one man doing what he thinks is right and it leaves you questioning "is this really what is right for your men or you not wanting you pride to be hurt"? it's a film that is going to make me think for a while if what he did was right or wrong. If he really wanted to rally his men to stay alive, or just to show off his own leadership skills. I am glad I stuck out this film because I almost didn't watch it because I saw it once before a long time ago. I am glad a watched it because it was a very different film than what I had remembered.
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