This will be the second piece centered around Pierre Boulle’s work. Previously, we leveraged Planet of the Apes to discuss theory of mind. Similarly, this piece will center around human behavior, but rather than compare us to our primate ancestors, we will compare amongst ourselves. The Bridge on the River Kwai, which debuted ten years prior to respective Planet of the Apes novel and film, showcases some of our most fundamental human behavior patterns.
Nicholson and Saito – A Story of Principle
The film begins with a group of captive British soldiers marching into a Japanese POW camp in the Siamese Jungle. The captives are led by Colonel Nicholson, an altruistic veteran commander anchored by the rules of Western Civilization. The camp is commanded by Colonel Saito, a tyrannical militant whose values are forged by the Nietzschean master-slave dynamic. Both men, who appear to be of the same age, can be viewed by as unrelentingly principled. As stated by Major Clipton, the British medical officer; “Are they both mad? Or am I going mad? Or is it the sun?”
Upon their arrival, Nicholson bombards Saito with the rules of the Geneva Convention stating officers will not perform manual labor. Saito responds by, literally, throwing the rulebook in his face. In his mind, they are captives to be dominated by an iron fist in ruthless war. Following the exchange, he punishes Nicholson and the other officers by forcing them to stand in the baking sun while their soldiers work. The day ends with them locked in exposed metal boxes known as ovens.
Over the coming days, as construction on the eponymous bridge falls behind, Saito becomes increasingly weary of missing the May 12th deadline. If missed, as he tells Nicholson, he would “have to kill himself.” He asks Clipton to attend to the weary Nicholson and persuade him to work alongside the soldiers. Nicholson refuses, stating he and his officers will not do manual labor under any circumstances. Eventually, Saito concedes, and releases them in hope they can complete the bridge on time. They eventually do, and Saito is left crying in his failure to prove superiority.
Nicholson and Clipton – Principle versus Reason
“You’re a fine doctor, Clipton, but you’ve a lot to learn about the army.”
Throughout the film, Clipton is portrayed as a loyal soldier. He is a protector of those under his medical supervision and an agent of reason, as evidenced by his encounter with Nicholson in the oven. Clipton is perfectly aware of his role within the camp. He’s easy to empathize with, for his logic is more conventional than the altruism conveyed by Nicholson. The above quote follows an exchange between the pair during the final days of the bridge’s construction after he questions the logic behind its impeccable workmanship. Clipton is unable to fathom why Nicholson has pushed to build the bridge up to British standards when it is to serve their enemy.
During the chaos in the final scene, Nicholson realizes how his principles have blinded him as he calls the Japanese soldiers to defend the bridge against the British. After he detonates the explosives, Clipton utters the last lines while surveying the death and destruction surrounding the collapsed bridge. “Madness! Madness!”
Sears – Pragmatic Survivalism
Commander Shears, or so his papers state, is the film’s great survivalist. Before capture by the Japanese, he is one of two shipwreck survivors. His contemporary, the real Commander Shears, dies whilst navigating through the jungle in hope of rescue. Knowing the preferential treatment of officers, he adopts Shears’ name a la Don Draper. His cover lasts until his recovery at the British hospital in Sri Lanka when Major Warden, leader of the covert Force 316, exposes him as an ordinary 2nd Class Shipman whilst arguing for his involvement in a mission to destroy the bridge.
Shears is the one of the first people Colonel Nicholson encounters at the camp. He warns him of the putrid working conditions and advises him escape from the camp, though seemingly impossible, is equally likely to kill his men as working. Shears does escape, and again is the sole survivor. He is well aware of his cat-like redemption, especially during his recovery in Sri Lanka. Because of this, he refuses to reason with Major Warden when his ankle injury slows Force 316’s progress. “I’m not going to leave you here to die, Warden, because I don’t care about your bridge and I don’t care about your rules. If we go on, we go on together.”
Whereas Clipton is a servant, Shears is a cavalier, although both view Nicholson similarly. Neither can grasp the persistent piety of his command. He sees Major Warden as an extension of Nicholson – dehumanized pawns playing war games. As it happens, the latter is the final person he sees before dying on the bank yards away from the detonator.
The Motives of Human Behavior
Without knowing their complete history, it is difficult to precisely articulate the motives for the behavior of these four characters. That said, we will attempt to do so:
Colonel Nicholson – Nobility
Commander Shears – Survival
Colonel Saito – Supremacy
Major Clipton – Service
The interactions between these four motives are a consistent theme not just in this fictional account, but throughout human history. The order listed is also not coincidental, as it’s the order of which they appear in the generational cycle.
This cycle has been central to the last two books I’ve read, both written by William Strauss and Neil Howe. The first is The Fourth Turning, written in 1997. The second is Generations, written in 1991. Both argue in favor of a cyclical human history reflective of the four seasons, the central concept of many eastern philosophies. We will expand on the lessons of these two works soon, and many more times after that.
Bridge on the River Kwai, despite its fictional and controversial account, affords us a deep examination of fundamental human behavior patterns. It further opens the door for a much larger philosophical discussion surrounding the permanence of human values. Whether Boulle intended to connect it to Planet of the Apes or not, he did so masterfully via a central, primitive thread. Behavior.
Be More.
Become Polymathic.
Quote of the Week: “Don’t you realize how important it is to show these people that they can’t break us, in body or in spirit? Take a good look, Clipton. One day the war will be over, and I hope that the people who use this bridge in years to come will remember how it was built, and who built it. Not a gang of slaves, but soldiers!” – Colonel Nicholson