The Bridges of Toko-Ri is a movie that has a foot firmly planted in the best of both worlds. Indeed, it is a movie that comes from both Mars and Venus. The romantic love between Holden’s Lt. Brubaker and his wife, played by Grace Kelly, is sweet, if you like that sort of thing. And the action sequences kick powerful ass, if you like that sort of thing. And, resting in between, there is a psychological drama being played out throughout the film that I am sure almost any viewer can appreciate.
Harry Brubaker should not have been sent to Korea. In WWII, he saw extensive active duty as a bomber pilot in the Pacific. Now, though he was technically inactive, he is back on an air craft carrier of the shore of Korea. This war doesn’t seem to make sense like the last one. He is tired, and he is being beaten down bit by bit by the continued stress of his missions. Brubaker expresses the weariness of a nation who believed the line about happiness coming when the world was free again, and yet who found themselves suffering and dying again after such a short peace.
The Bridges of Toko-Ri has its slow and creaky parts. For my side, I am glad that Grace Kelly is in the film only briefly. (By the by, who’s decision was it to out these two uber-WASPs into a breeding pair? Two blue-eyed blonds in a marriage are aesthetically dull, and their romance never really heats up for me.)
The picture is best, and I mean really affective, when it focuses on the pilots who risk their lives simply because they are expected to. With able support from Frederick March, Mickey Rooney and the always wonderful Robert Strauss, the film’s essence is the flying men of the Navy, and we get its message loud and clear.
Oh, and the kick-ass special effects don’t hurt, either.
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