bridge on the river kwai

I don't know why, but this film totally seized my imagination during my high school days.

Everyone else was mezmerized by Jaws or under the spell of Star Wars.

But I was drawing this bridge.

Colonel Nicholson and his bridge.

I still have all kinds of drawings and sketches dating back to the mid-seventies stashed away somewhere.

I even remember drawing it on my desk during math.

I honestly don't know why.

I was in absolute heaven when Birmingham High started lunch hour showings of classic films during tenth grade. Bridge on the River Kwai was the first they showed. I had really only seen it on our small color tv at home, with vague memories of it from the theater in the mid-sixties.

I really don't understand my fascination with it (no doubt a good counselor could help here - but then people have been saying that for years).

Watching it now, I see much more than an anti-war film with the message that war is madness; I see something parabolic and even prophetic in my own life. And I find its ironies (ironies that border on absolute absurdity) delectable. The whole film for me is truly a feast each time I view it.

Bridge on the River Kwai is based on the novel by Pierre Boulle (Bridge Over the River Kwai). I've read the rather compact and fast-paced novel several times over the years - it's ending is actually much more satisfying to me, but it would simply have never worked on the big screen.

Released in 1957, Bridge was the top-grossing film of 1958. It pulled in seven Oscars (including best picture, best director, best actor) - a record that was to stand until 1959 when Ben Hur received 11 -- a total equalled by Titanic but still unsurpassed. Another interesting tidbit: the film was first telecast as a three-hour special movie by ABC on September 25, 1966, which was rare for a network to do at the time (maybe this is when I vaguely remember first seeing it) and drew huge ratings.

I'd love you to pull up a chair and join me next Saturday, October 9th in the VineArts Studio and take in a bit of cinematic history. See a classic film and ponder some of the deeper layers and ironies of life.

Here is a bit of a peak - the one scene that I've found posted on YouTube -- one of my favorites, actually. A poignant moment of transparency between captive and captor (and just which is which anyway?)
Hope to see you at the movies on Saturday...