'The Bridges at Toko-Rio' is a Korean War navy picture based on the novel of the same name by James Michener. Well received at the time by both critics and audiences, I felt it played slow, almost like it was running at three quarters speed. Still there is a good movie in here and it's got some moments that I felt were quite strong. For one thing it actually uses Micky Rooney well, and few films after his childhood where able to do so.
The movies lead is William Holden as a conflicted navy flyer, with Grace Kelly having little to do as his devoted wife. Fredric March is the fatherly commanding officer, and Earl Holliman and Robert Strauss are here as well, the latter because he was so well received with Holden in 'Stalag 17' the previous year.
The scenes of bombing the titular bridges I thought were quite well done in their mixture of miniatures and actually flying. A bunch of planes close to the ground stuff that you really don't see too often in movies even today. The lengthy segment of the film with our characters on leave in Japan seemed to be announcing to American audiences that it is okay to like the Japanese now. ***
No comments:
Post a Comment