MovieChat Forums > The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Discussion > Alec Guinness sells the film with ONE li...

Alec Guinness sells the film with ONE line

posted 10 years ago by q_leo_rahman
8 replies | jump to latest

“If you had to operate on Saito, would you do your job or would you let him die?”

That line is so perfect, and sums up Nicholson’s motivations and character. He is an army officer to the core, totally devoted to his duty and to serving his country. He was ordered to surrender otherwise he would have been more aggressive against Saito; his endurance in the oven is due to wanting better conditions for his men; his dedication to building the bridge comes from making it a true achievement of the British Army.

Thus his character is perhaps the most brilliant example of tragic irony ever captured on film. He was ordered to surrender and it’s implied that as an insider he could have undermined the Japanese forces, but he instead ended up collaborating with them in building the Kwai Bridge. His goal, above all else, is to provide a principle and a monument to stand for Britain, yet it is still collaborating with the enemy and an act of betrayal (which he realizes this when the bridge is complete). He fights hard to get the bridge completed, yet he destroys all he worked for in his last moments.

It’s sheer madness, but it’s madness with method to it – and this sums up the film. It is a clash of wills, a desire to serve one’s country on both sides, to the point that Saito and Nicholson end up in an unusual and unlikely alliance to get the bridge completed. Shears bitterly sees the war as a futile waste caused by two forces trying to defeat the other and get their own way, and this parallel can be seen within the film itself. Saito is broken by Nicholson and Nicholson is broken in the end when he realizes he has been betraying his own country.

And yet his character holds such humanity and dignity that even though most WW2 veterans would consider Nicholson an unrealistic character he makes it such a compelling character and a soldier you would find in any army. It can be hard to understand such a character sometimes, but the above dialogue defines Nicholson and makes the character uniquely unbending and understandable. And it also reflects the nature of the film: the struggle of people trying to achieve something during a time of war when other people will try to tear down that achievement. A ponderous and tragically ironic statement.

07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.

[–] cwente2 10 years ago

This film is loaded with irony. I like your quote, but I think this one is even more to the point:

(paraphrasing) "There comes a time when you realize you're nearer the end than the beginning, and you ask yourself, you wonder, what your being here has meant to anyone or anything. . . I must admit, I've had some thoughts along those lines . . . from time to time."

Grand stuff, indeed.

[–] nutsberryfarm 10 years ago

while the ending was silly. i like 'what have i done?'



'The only mystery in life is why the kamikaze pilots wore helmets.'-Al McGuire ✈

[–] edcar47 10 years ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in most other WWII movies POWs have to at least try to escape or engage in some sort of sabotage. Look up Colditz Prison in Germany, for starters. The British Colonel here is clearly cracked in the head - heat stroke, no doubt.

[–] GinaRenee 10 years ago

That's covered early in the film when Nicholson says that his unit was ordered to surrender, and thus he considers them honor-bound to stay where they are.

[–] tango09212 10 years ago

I agree that's the line of the movie. Although I think William Holden Steals the film

[–] edcar47 10 years ago

When you read military history you find that it is not uncommon for junior officers (and a colonel is junior to a general) to interpret orders their own way, to bend them to their liking or to find some way to disregard orders altogether. According to the history behind the movie that I have read on this site, the actual colonel was not ordered to surrender - he was ordered to evacuate himself (which in layman's terms means "get the heck out of there"). He disobeyed or disregarded that order and stayed with his men. So much for any pollyannish notion that all orders are to be obeyed. Jeb Stuart's standing order was to be the eyes and ears of Lee's army. Instead, at the start of Gettysburg he was nowhere to be found, plundering a Union supply train. And don't forget the defenders of the Alamo who were ordered by Sam Houston to evacuate the Alamo (since it had already been proven by the defenders themselves that it was impossible to defend). Travis and Bowie famously ignored that order and the rest is history.

[–] greenleafie 8 years ago

“If you had to operate on Saito, would you do your job or would you let him die?”

This line is key to Nicholson's character, but I also think he had a touch of egomania, and succumbed to his own self-obsessiveness. Besides seeing the "bigger picture"- beyond the war- or even seeing to the welfare of his men, he also built the bridge as a monument to himself. When Joyce explains to him what's going on, Nicholson actually calls to the Japanese for help, to prevent the bridge's destruction. Had he been thinking more clearly, he might have figured things out for himself (he was, after all, a colonel,) and not been so fast to lead Saito to the detonation point.

Nicholson was a noble man, but he had also gone 'round the bend. He forgot his circumstances. Another line that is key to his character, when he drops his swagger-stick into the water, he says, "Blast!" so he was not above an expletive or two.

I'd be curious to know what Clipton's answer to the question would be. I suppose it might depend on the circumstances.

[–] cfwente 8 years ago

My analysis, too. But, I think, there is more to our conclusions about Nicholson made clear in his line - also at the bridge - (paraphrasing) "There comes a time when you realize you're nearer the end than the beginning. You ask yourself what the sum total of your life has been -- what your being here meant to anybody or to anything... I've had some thoughts along those lines from time to time." (something like that.) In his own mind, aided by the "Heart of Darkness" conditions the film depicts, we see the bridge as being the only real accomplishment of Nicholson's life (which passes away simultaneously with his own life and by his own hand) Ironically, the same can be said of Saito. The "heart" of the characters and of the film, imo. Supremely ironic, quite sad, and very profound -- setting this film apart from many, many others of the same or similar genres.