I recently watched a beautiful movie –‘The Bridge across the
river Kwai’ and penned down my thoughts about the movie. I recommend that you watch this movie and let’s
talk about what it contributes to our learning in life.
My Thoughts -
Choosing between right and wrong is not always as easy a
decision as it sounds. Because, what is right cannot determined in absolute
terms; the movie ‘The Bridge on the river Kwai’ is a testimony to this
observation.
The movie is a World War II story of a British soldier’s
unit and the days they spend in Japanese captivity – first treated as slaves
but eventually winning the respect of a tyrant enemy. The sole responsibility of this turnaround
could be credited to the British Commander Colonel Nicholson who adapts dynamic
and fitting tactics to deal with his Japanese counterpart Colonel Saito. The
movie, like most of the war movies, succeeds in displaying a wide array of
emotions that suffering of war brings upon.
However, this movie offers a few unique perspectives that are worth
noting.
1.)
Have a value system and guard it to life.
2.)
If you flourish on getting garlanded as a
leader, be ready to pay back with gusto when it counts!
3.)
Learn to respect yourself before you expect the
world to respect you.
Colonel Nicholson during his first few meetings with Colonel
Saito tried to win the rightful conduct for his unit and was jeered at
repeatedly. Never did he act out of code and bravely confronted the Japanese
abuse of the situation. To win dignity and respect from others one should first
award them to himself! In one of the scenes during this phase- suffering from
acute weakness and dehydration, the Colonel did not let himself be dragged in
front of his unit; he indeed marched like a soldier should and won his terms
from Colonel Saito!
4.)
When you negotiate – negotiate hard!
Upon his release, Colonel Nicholson recognized how he held
upper hand over Colonel Saito due to the pending construction of the bridge.
Col Nicholson did not mince words when they mattered and smartly procured all
the things he desired from Col Saito for his unit and officers. He was deft
enough to do this without hurting Japanese ego!
5.)
What is ought to be done is ought to be done!
There is only one righteous path.
There comes a time in movie when Major Clipton gets
perplexed by the honesty with which Col Nicholson gets into the project of
building the bridge across the river Kwai for Japanese – the enemies! To which
the colonel replies with an astute message of giving the best even as a POW and
that he would be proud to be recalled by the future generations as the builder
of this bridge. This philosophy is exactly the one preached in Indian
scriptures as ‘Dharma’ or ‘Swa-Dharma’ to be precise. Every being has to
perform his duties in a righteous way – but this righteous way is itself a
function of circumstances. Hence, we as humans shall perform what is right
under all conditions.
The ending act of Colonel in the movie, when he blows up the
bridge himself, is also a manifestation of realization of ‘Swa-dharma’. Colonel
Nicholson was able to think through the right way to act given the sudden
change in circumstances. He sided with Japanese when he thought was right and
played his part as the British Colonel when he became aware of the orders of
higher authorities.
The movie teaches many lessons and I am sure
other viewers would be able to append/modify what I tried to summarize.
