Jon Pinon

6/8/12
Bridge on the River Kwai Essay
Modern World History

David Leans Bridge on the River Kwai is certainly not your typical war story,
for it tells a tale of soul-crushing work being applied to a specific task, only for it to be
decimated in the end. Led by Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), a large group of war
prisoners are forced to construct a perfect bridge over the Kwai River under the watchful
eye of Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa). The POWs are restricted to the Japanese Work
Camp #16, represented at the beginning of the movie with a small burial ground which
symbolizes the grueling conditions. Extreme heat was endured, as could be clearly noted
from the soldiers sweat and red skin in the beginning. The Japanese felt no need for the
installation of fencing and sentry posts, being that the work camp was located in the
middle of a jungle and escapees would most likely perish anyway. As previously stated, a
small cemetery was present and showed that previous prisoners had actually died from
the work. Quite evidently, the sick bay was plentiful with people who were either injured
on the job or ailing from a disease they had contracted. Labor was mandatory for
prisoners of all ranks: a policy which upset Colonel Nicholson at first. According to the
Geneva Convention, military officers had to be exemplified from partaking in any manual
labor, even if they had been taken as war prisoners. Colonel Saito, on the other hand, had
no intention to support those guidelines and condemned the officers to iron boxes for
their negligence. As history has shown, the Japanese believed strongly in a philosophy
they called bushido, meaning zero tolerance for surrender or defeat. Either of the two
signified ultimate failure and humiliation in the eyes of the Japanese, and so it was treated
as such. Saito, in his disgust for the promotion of the Geneva Convention in his camp,
stated I hate the British! You are defeated, but have no shame! You are stubborn, but
have no pride! You endure, but have no courage! With their difference in this matter
alone, it was obvious both men stood firmly behind their countries policies, refusing to

give in to one another. Though Nicholson is quite stern regarding all of this at first, he
will later have a change of heart.
With full awareness of the Japanese philosophy of bushido, Nicholson remains
somewhat stubborn and looks down upon Saito and his associates as barbarians. As
opposed to refusing his job, though, he has now gained motivation to undertake it and do
it perfectly. He declares to the fellow POWs that he wants to show the Japanese (and,
technically, the rest of the world) what British soldiers are capable of accomplishing and
that they can accomplish it with dignity, discipline, and passion. If this happens,
Nicholson feels, Saito will be able to see it and will feel shame for his countrys
uncompromising military way. This is initially not viewed as collaboration with the
enemy, being that Nicholson simply wishes to display the pride of the British for the
adversaries to behold. One man, on the contrary, disagrees with all that and refuses to
stand for it: the American Major Shears (William Holden). Whereas Colonel Nicholson is
fueled by pride and Colonel Saito stands for the strict honor of bushido, Major Shears is a
soldier who refuses to give in to the opposition regardless of any sort of circumstances.
He fights for the rights of humanity, in which he feels that neither Saito or Nicholson
promote with their beliefs. Shears barely manages to escape the work camp with his life.
He is discovered near a village, taken to a nearby hospital to recover, and recruited by a
British commando troop. The goal of the troop is to demolish the very bridge that he had
once been ordered to work on, as it would be used by the Japanese army to invade
Burma. While Shears is reluctant at first, being that he is not really an actual officer, he
soon decides to go through with the task for two reasons. First, the officer who chose to
recruit him threatened to send him back to his country with the charge of impersonating
an officer. Then we have the true reason: his own honor and disdain for concession to the
enemy. Though the operation cost many lives (including his own), Shears accomplished
his mission, leaving behind a scene of carnage and the demises of Nicholson and Saito.
At the very end, the medical officer gazes at the destruction and delivers the films last
words: Madness! Madness!