David Leans The Bridge on River Kwai - Movie Review Example

Movie Review The diverse cultures that exist throughout the world have resulted in both cultural communication and negotiation. Cultural communication has been brought about by the fact that we need to appreciate the different cultures that exist within our society. On the other hand, negotiations have come out because of the event that we should take into consideration the ideologies that are held by different people and be ready to compromise, whenever we are called upon to do so. This essay seeks to provide more insight on the aspect of cultural communication and negotiations, with special emphasis on David Lean’s 1957 film, The Bridge on River Kwai. The movie, which has a historical setting notably the Second World War, shares the same ideology as the events that took place between 1942 and 1943 when constructing Burma Railway. In the movie, British prisoners set out to serve their sentence at a camp that was controlled by Japanese soldiers. Upon arrival, however, the commander in charge of the camp brings to their attention that all the prisoners are to take part in the construction of the bridge along river Kwai. The Colonel in charge of the British soldiers however does not support this ideology. Colonel Nicholson holds the opinion that the Geneva Convention prohibits his team of British prisoners from taking part in such activities and orders his team not to take part in such activities. The ideological differences held by the leaders of the two camps leads to a lot of rivalry within the camp, with both the British prisoners and Nicholson their Lieutenant being punished by Commander Shears. Nicholson is locked up while his troops are forced to withstand the strong heat brought about by the prevailing harsh weather conditions. In a sudden change of events . Nevertheless, Commander Shears pardons Nicholson. Motivated by the spirit of getting it right, Lieutenant Nicholson orders his troops to restart the construction of the bridge along river Kwai as portion of the work that had been done is not worth. Soon after the construction work has been completed, the Major Warden and Lieutenant Joyce plot a ploy to destroy the bridge. To help them in accomplishing their task they plot explosives and several wires under the bridge. Luck does not however go their way as the water levels reduce exposing the explosives under the bridge. Lieutenant Nicholson and Colonel Saito join hands, and amidst the prevailing circumstances, they manage to prevent Lieutenant Joyce from reaching the explosives. While going through the movie, one will not fail to recognize the forms of cultural communication and negotiations that come out from the tactics that are employed by both parties. This perhaps explains the reason as to why the movie is one of the films that have been recognized by the United States Library of Congress, National Film Registry. Moreover, this may be the reason as to why several scholars’ cultural communication has taken a keen interest in the film. The global village to which we belong currently has resulted in a global age where the occupants of the world have been brought closer by the continuous advancements in technology. Similarly, it has resulted in a situation where people from various cultures work together on more than one occasion. In as much as working with people from different cultures has in the recent past been portrayed as ideal, several scholars hold the opinion that it can be either exciting or frustrating. The mixed bag comes out when people are lost on what to say or not to say when in the company of those from other cultures. This is made challenging by the fact that some of the cultures have some taboos that limit people from going all out and interacting with one another. The challenge is further heightened by the fact that on several occasions, people are normally called upon not only to build connections with people from other cultures, but also to ensure that they come up with mechanisms of motivating one another, and of structuring projects whenever they are called upon. The only positive aspect amidst all this is the ideology that several communication dimensions have been established with the aim of coming up with strategies that heighten communication among members of various cultures. One of the dimensions of cultural communication is the linear-active culture, which is a situation where the involved individuals are task oriented and highly organized planners. Such people are ready to go the extra mile just to ensure that they get whatever they are doing right. In so doing, they prefer taking on their activities one on one until such time that all the tasks have been duly carried out. Weighing this to David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai, we observe that this is the dimension adopted by Colonel Nicholson and his British prisoners soon after being pardoned by Commander Shear, who was in charge of the Japanese prison camp. This is majorly because the British prisoners, with the assistance of a section of the Japanese work round the clock to ensure that the bridge along the Kwai River is properly constructed and within the appropriate duration. From the illustration, there is no doubt that challenging situations shall continue to arise. Nevertheless, we should settle on the dimension that makes it comfortable for us to achieve our objectives, and there is no doubt that linear-active culture is such an objective. Multi-active culture is another dimension of cultural communication that can be embraced. Though the multi-active and the linear-active share the fact that in both dimensions the tasks are completed, some difference can be noted when the two dimensions are weighed to one another. One such difference is the fact that planning takes a back seat when it comes to the multi-active dimension, yet it is found at the forefront during the linear-active dimension. The multi-active dimension was the mechanism embraced by the Japanese at first when they were trying to construct the bridge. Though their aim was to get the job completed, the Japanese did not adhere to their scheduled diary. In fact, Colonel Nicholson marshaled his troops to redo the construction work after observing just how wrong the bridge on Kwai river was being constructed. Another dimension that can be embraced while coming up with strategies to communicate with those from various cultures is the reactive-culture. The reactive culture, which is courteous and full of respect for all the parties involved is highly regarded by several individuals majorly because it quietly listens to the proposals that have been brought forward by all the parties involved. Moreover, when decisions are made, the proposals are taken into consideration. In David Lean’s the bridge on the river Kwai, reactive culture comes to foreplay when Colonel Nicholson puts up a request to Commander Shear to marshal the Japanese troops to take part in the reconstruction of the bridge on the river Kwai. Irrespective of the fact that they have ideological differences between them, Commander Shear saw the sense of the Japanese taking part in the rebuilding process. Following such compromise, the bridge on the Kwai River was properly built, and within the stipulated duration. It is for such reasons that people of different cultures are encouraged to appreciate the perceptions held by others, and consider them whenever need arises. Another dimension to communication culture is individualism versus collectivism. Under individualism, for example, the individualism index has been established hence resulting in high IDV or low IDV. High IDV, for example, revolves around the mentality where individual initiatives are rewarded as compared to collective responsibility. Similarly, ties between individuals are perceived to be extremely weak, and this implies that survival is for the fittest as people survive on their own without input from the community. The low IDV on the other hand focuses on the mentality where right from birth, people are integrated into cohesive groups that make them support one another when need arises. In the bridge on the river Kwai, both individualism and collectivism are practiced. Individualism comes out at the beginning of the movie when Commander Shear is not ready to take into consideration the ideologies that are held by Colonel Nicholson. The spirit of collectivism, on the other hand, comes out when the two forces merge, with the aim of bringing out the best out of the human resource at their disposal. Uncertainty Avoidance is similarly another dimension that can be adopted by cultural communication. It is a situation where a culture that is at risk tends to break ties with some of the cultures that are out to undermine it. This has resulted into the Uncertainty Avoidance Index, which measures the level of tolerance that exists within parties. Denmark, Ireland and Sweden are just but some of the countries with a low UAI index. On the other hand, Greece, Portugal and the Arab world has long been associated with high UAI index, and this has not worked to their favor. The dimensions of cultural communication penetrate far and wide. It takes into consideration power and distance that tends to measure the level of social tolerance within society. Cultural communication similarly takes into effect the aspect of masculinity and femininity, which is a situation where cultures value issues such as acquisition of wealth, social support among others. Cultural communication cannot be mentioned without recognizing both long-term and short-term orientation. This measures how a society perceives time about the future, present as well as the past. In the bridge on river Kwai, for example, long-term versus short-term orientation comes to play when comparing how the joint team of British and Japanese constructed the bridge to how the Japanese were doing the construction. In conclusion, it is far-reaching to note that diverse cultures shall continue to exist, amidst all this, however, we should learn not only to appreciate and interact with one another, but to motivate one another, and to come up with strategies that ensure that we achieve our set targets. Read More