The Bridges at Toko-Ri is a Korean War drama blends the epic and the personal masterfully.
The Production: 4/5
James Michener’s acerbic Korean War-set novella The Bridges at Toko-Ri has been brought faithfully to the screen under the helming of underrated director Mark Robson and with a top-notch star cast in solid support. It’s a canny blend of the epic and the personal, and unlike the patriotic films that emerged during and right after World War II, this one is decidedly more ambivalent about the war itself and our country’s presence in it.
It’s November 1952, and Navy pilot Lieutenant Harry Brubaker (William Holden) is somewhat bitter over his having to close his law practice, leave his wife (Grace Kelly) and two young girls, and be brought back into Navy service from the reserves to fight in the unpopular Korean War. Admiral George Tarrant (Fredric March), who has lost two sons in combat, looks on his rugged pilots as surrogate sons and attempts to explain to Brubaker that with a job to do, only the best men are called to do it. The major mission facing the team are five supply bridges at Toko-Ri, heavily guarded on all sides by Communist forces, which must be taken out. Squadron leader Wayne Lee (Charles McGraw) senses Brubaker’s apprehension over the mission after his having to be saved from a downed plane in the freezing Pacific recently by helicopter pilot Mike Forney (Mickey Rooney) and his assistant Nestor Gamidge (Earl Holliman), but Brubaker knows his duty and his obligations to his team and his country.
Oscar-winner Valentine Davies has done a masterful job bringing James Michener’s short novel to the screen. We’re given plenty of exposition in the film’s early scenes showing a naval aircraft carrier at work which incorporates the rescue of Brubaker from the icy drink. We’re allowed to see the human sides of the war with Brubaker’s brief furlough in Tokyo being reunited with his wife and children and the romantic entanglements of feisty Mike Forney which lead to brawls and many hard feelings. But the film’s major action is reserved for its concluding half where Lee and Brubaker first must fly over the target area to gather more detailed photographs of the bridges and then the actual mission itself which showcases the Oscar-winning special effects achieved by astoundingly realistic miniatures as the mission’s success ebbs and flows (though a secondary target is introduced that takes us all by surprise; it wasn’t mentioned in the briefings and occurs just when we think our heroes have sidestepped certain immolation). Director Mark Robson keeps all of these stories and the action sequences flowing beautifully and manages to cleverly blend real-life action, process photography, and the special effects miniatures in mostly seamless fashion. The film was a hit, but one can’t help wondering how much more the box-office might have benefitted from a more upbeat ending; alas, the carnage of war would be continually more keenly felt from this moment onward in international cinema.
William Holden makes a perfect everyman protagonist: noble but not blindly courageous. He realizes the perils he’s facing with each mission, and each close call makes him more acutely aware that every moment might be his last. Fredric March is low-key and earnest in his love of his men and his fear for their safety, his anxiousness etched on his face during each mission. Charles McGraw plays heroic for a change, a level-headed professional with a job to do and a strict determination to do it. Mickey Rooney and Earl Holliman are the film’s comic relief (though they figure in a couple of dramatic rescues, too) as the irreverent buddies who know their jobs but aren’t consumed by them. Second-billed Grace Kelly has some romantic interludes with Holden, but her major purpose in the film is to open eyes back home to the dangers and sacrifices being carried out in Korea. Her character had been kept in the dark by her husband for fear of worrying her, but she comes to realize that they aren’t being told the whole story back home in this war being fought by Koreans but financed by the Soviets. Look quickly to spy uncredited Dennis Weaver as an officer giving a briefing to the men before the final mission.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
For the first time on home video, the film has been framed at its proper theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. With a 1080p resolution encoded by AVC, the Technicolor images are marvelous to watch. Color is wonderfully rich and crisp (the blue eyes of so many of the cast are gratifyingly vivid), and clarity is first rate, certainly detailed enough to see that it’s Grace Kelly’s double used in all the location long shots and occasionally to see the miniature work in a couple of telling close-ups. The movie has been divided into 8 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix offers fine fidelity of the era. The film’s romantic and dramatic scenes might have been enhanced with a more impressive background score (Lyn Murray does merely yeoman work here), but dialogue has been well-recorded and the sound effects are all professionally combined into the single channel track. There are no problems with age-related hiss, crackle, pops, or flutter.
Special Features: 2.5/5
Audio Commentary: film historians Steve Mitchell and Steven Jay Rubin have a lively back-and-forth discussion of the movie adding lots of details on the planes, aircraft carriers, and helicopters as well as information on the important members of the cast and crew.
Theatrical Trailer (2:06, SD)
Kino Trailers: The Turning Point, The Horse Soldiers, The Counterfeit Traitor, The 7th Dawn, The Devil’s Brigade, 21 Hours at Munich, 633 Squadron, Hell Is for Heroes, Mosquito Squadron.
Overall: 4/5
Mark Robson’s The Bridges at Toko-Ri comes to Blu-ray in a bright, attractive high definition package that’s a pleasure to watch and listen to. Recommended!
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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