The Bridge on the River Kwai

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The film I have chosen for my 1950’s film analysis is The Bridge on the River Kwai. Directed by David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai follows a battalion of British soldiers who find themselves trapped in a Japanese POW camp during WWII in 1943. The British soldieries are led by Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) who is ordered by the commandant of the POW camp, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), to build a railroad bridge over the Burmese river Kwai. Colonel Nicholson refuses to help build the bridge based on the fact that the Geneva Convention strictly forbids using officers as laborers. After a lengthy battle of wills between Saito and Nicholson, Saito, realizing that the bridge will never be completed on time without Nicholson’s help, relents and allows Nicholson to lead the project. With the officers no longer serving as laborers, thus keeping in line with The Geneva Convention, Nicholson agrees to lead the project because of his belief that the bridge will serve as a morale booster for his men. As the bridge goes up, Nicholson becomes obsessed with completing it to perfection...

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