The material with which Cunningham et al were working with in this film was tremendous; unfortunately, their handling of it was not. Part "Bridge on the River Kwai," part, "The Great Escape," part "The Passion of the Christ" (heavily sanitized), the film probably suffered from trying to live up to the mastery of its predecessors.
To begin with some positives, though: the photography is very good. Although some of the shots do a poor job of creating a sense of visual rhythm, each frame can stand alone as a still photograph. The shots are nicely balanced, and the lighting is rarely amiss. The acting also leaves little to be desired. This is one area in which Cunningham succeeding as a director: he really did a nice job of fostering an actor-friendly atmosphere and brought out the best in the respective players.
However, as successful as Cunningham was in directing the shooting and acting, he was equally unsuccessful with the rest of the film-making process. To begin with, there is a comic litany of unlikely objects magically appearing in this remote Japanese prison camp. From a set of bagpipes, to a collection of clean dress uniforms, to a violin, to a wheelchair that would have made FDR envious, some of the decisions that were apparently made to enhance the dramatic effects of certain scenes stretched the imagination more than a little bit. It was also remarkable how well-shaven the POW's remained during their two-and-a-half year imprisonment.
But those are relatively minor issues, I suppose. More damning is the general lack of perspective that the film provides, both narratively and spatially. For example, there is no feeling as to how long the march from the battlefield to the camp was, although I assume that it was supposed to be a long, arduous ordeal. Cunningham's issues providing narrative perspective were perhaps the most important flaw in the film. As a viewer, I was never able to grasp the difficulties that these men had in this camp. While the narrator (I believe the presence of the narrator to have been a mistake to begin with for this particular film) kept making references to the precariousness of their hold on life and sanity, the film never visually or narratively reinforced the grinding-down provided by the everyday reality of the camp. There are a handful of exceptional instances of oppression shown, but nothing that leaves you feeling the physical and mental exhaustion the prisoners faced every day. Instead, you see a lot of scenes of the prisoners as they perform Shakespeare, or discuss philosophy. On an intellectual, rational level, it is apparent how important these activities could have been to the prisoners, but this importance is never captured aesthetically.
There is also precious little character development. Firstly, too many characters are important for all of them to be sufficiently developed in a feature-length film. There are too many stories to tell, without enough time to tell them all. The characters ultimately remain relatively static, in spite of the wonderful potential supplied by the plot to turn any one of these men into a compelling portrait. This lack of character development also saps the strength of many of the philosophical/religious overtones. Because it is difficult to connect to many of the characters, their sacrifices and transgressions mean much less than they should.
Finally, as I hinted at before, the presence of the narrator eventually undermined any subtlety that the film may have had. While is some places the narrator's comments merely cheapened the "showing" (as opposed to "telling") of important thematic elements in the film, in many places the narrator's comments completely replaced any attempt to "show" the reality on which he was commenting upon, including his comments on the hardships of the imprisonment.
While I have heard/read many people who have responded very emotionally to this film (in a positive way), I have a hard time understanding their sentiment. The film simply relies too heavily on abstraction rather than visual/narrative demonstration of the reality it is trying to depict to inspire any strong emotions in me. While the plot and characters contain a true treasure trove of potential, I feel like most of the potential was wasted on this particular film-making team.
To begin with some positives, though: the photography is very good. Although some of the shots do a poor job of creating a sense of visual rhythm, each frame can stand alone as a still photograph. The shots are nicely balanced, and the lighting is rarely amiss. The acting also leaves little to be desired. This is one area in which Cunningham succeeding as a director: he really did a nice job of fostering an actor-friendly atmosphere and brought out the best in the respective players.
However, as successful as Cunningham was in directing the shooting and acting, he was equally unsuccessful with the rest of the film-making process. To begin with, there is a comic litany of unlikely objects magically appearing in this remote Japanese prison camp. From a set of bagpipes, to a collection of clean dress uniforms, to a violin, to a wheelchair that would have made FDR envious, some of the decisions that were apparently made to enhance the dramatic effects of certain scenes stretched the imagination more than a little bit. It was also remarkable how well-shaven the POW's remained during their two-and-a-half year imprisonment.
But those are relatively minor issues, I suppose. More damning is the general lack of perspective that the film provides, both narratively and spatially. For example, there is no feeling as to how long the march from the battlefield to the camp was, although I assume that it was supposed to be a long, arduous ordeal. Cunningham's issues providing narrative perspective were perhaps the most important flaw in the film. As a viewer, I was never able to grasp the difficulties that these men had in this camp. While the narrator (I believe the presence of the narrator to have been a mistake to begin with for this particular film) kept making references to the precariousness of their hold on life and sanity, the film never visually or narratively reinforced the grinding-down provided by the everyday reality of the camp. There are a handful of exceptional instances of oppression shown, but nothing that leaves you feeling the physical and mental exhaustion the prisoners faced every day. Instead, you see a lot of scenes of the prisoners as they perform Shakespeare, or discuss philosophy. On an intellectual, rational level, it is apparent how important these activities could have been to the prisoners, but this importance is never captured aesthetically.
There is also precious little character development. Firstly, too many characters are important for all of them to be sufficiently developed in a feature-length film. There are too many stories to tell, without enough time to tell them all. The characters ultimately remain relatively static, in spite of the wonderful potential supplied by the plot to turn any one of these men into a compelling portrait. This lack of character development also saps the strength of many of the philosophical/religious overtones. Because it is difficult to connect to many of the characters, their sacrifices and transgressions mean much less than they should.
Finally, as I hinted at before, the presence of the narrator eventually undermined any subtlety that the film may have had. While is some places the narrator's comments merely cheapened the "showing" (as opposed to "telling") of important thematic elements in the film, in many places the narrator's comments completely replaced any attempt to "show" the reality on which he was commenting upon, including his comments on the hardships of the imprisonment.
While I have heard/read many people who have responded very emotionally to this film (in a positive way), I have a hard time understanding their sentiment. The film simply relies too heavily on abstraction rather than visual/narrative demonstration of the reality it is trying to depict to inspire any strong emotions in me. While the plot and characters contain a true treasure trove of potential, I feel like most of the potential was wasted on this particular film-making team.
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