Bridge On the River Kwai
Has a more British movie ever been made? The sheer Britishness of doing a futile task well for the sake of having done it well, even in service of the enemy is not nearly as heroic as the film tries to make it. I was surprised to learn Col. Shears was played by William Holden, since he looks very different in Network and the Wild Bunch. I didn't even realize he was in Sunest Boulvard. Alec Guinness did his usual suffering for a noble cause gig and the movie moved along and an entertaining enough pace. Geoffery Horne is a nice little diversion in the last quarter of the film. Labels: alec guinness, bridge on the river kwai, four stars, geoffery horne, william holden
This was only 90 minutes and still took me 3 viewings to get all the way thru it. That should tell you how difficult it is to watch. Wikipedia tells me it has innovative use of forced perspective, long takes, and soundtrack recorded to match the film, but honestly the story and acting were just not very interesting. George O'Brien looks like Frankenstein, which is not helped by the fact he was slumped over and hulking the entire film, or that his two reactions were wither to strangle or kiss the women in the film. Janet Gaynor looked all of 12 years old which made this super awkward to watch. The symbolism and archetypes were so blatant, and obvious they actually backfired. About the only enjoyable thing was the 'peasant dance' at the fair.
An interesting premise for a film, but it seems a bit self serving. The clever movie-within-a-movie premise of showing actual hobo life--though one wonders if that was staged as well. The movie is a bit self-righteous at the end with McCrea's giving out money to all the itinerants he sees. The whole depiction of the chain gang is also a bit suspect--the idea of a famous director being put in one without the chance to appeal. Veronica Lake also serves no discernible purpose that I can see.