I hated this movie -- glorifying collaboration with the enemy

yes, you're right, and I hate it for that reason too

Same here. I have always had this problem with this film because the Japanese (with very few exceptions) were abolutely brutal to their prisoners. In this film, they are living in relative comfort.

My Canadian great uncle spent some time in a Japanese POW camp. He couldn't stand the movie. He especially despised the way that film showed that the Japanese had some 'code of honour.' 'Bah,' he would say, 'the [Japanese] have no honour!'

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Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this deadly bore!

But it is wrong even on that count. When Nicholson is brought out of the oven the movie depicts him as winning a moral victory over Saito, that Saito was powerless to defeat British resilience in the face of defeat to build his bridge. It also depicts the enlisted men as responding to Nicholson's "heroism" for officers not to work, entirely at a cost to the enlisted themselves. This is total fiction, and is ridiculous given the circumstances of the setting.

First, Saito wouldn't have simply thrown the officers and Nicholson into isolation, wait weeks, and then cry when his plan didn't work. At the first instance, when Nicholson refused to carry out Saito's orders, Saito would have thrown Nicholson in the oven and then shot each officer one at a time until Nicholson relented. He may have even shot enlisted. When he ran out of men, either due to shooting or to the harsh work environment, he would simply request more POWs. He would never have sacrificed his authority as weakly as the movie depicts. Japanese commandants simply would not do that.

Second, the enlisted would have whacked their own officers eventually when the officers refused to work. Officers may be gifted special privileges under Geneva, but in Japanese work camps those privileges were often rescinded, and an officer's duty is to lead. In this case, that means acting out the work to appease the Japanese as best as possible while getting as many of your own men to escape as possible. IF you can't get the men out, you sabotage the works while keeping as many of your men alive as is possible.

Simply put, the plot of this movie is entirely ludicrous, and is an insult to POWs and the incredible brutality they faced. No wonder they didn't like it.

The plot of this movie is a little is something an average Fox News watcher is going to have trouble understanding. The person who started this thread was probably raised on movies like American Sniper and Rambo. He'll have a visceral reaction against any kind of script that contradicts his simple world view.

The plot of this movie is a little is something an average Fox News watcher is going to have trouble understanding. The person who started this thread was probably raised on movies like American Sniper and Rambo. He'll have a visceral reaction against any kind of script that contradicts his simple world view.