We see the two commandos (Joyce and Shears) attacking Nicolson and Saito by the river whilst the injured Maj.Warden shoots the mortar from the hillside at the japanese troops rushing to help their commander.
But Warden later explains to a visibly shocked bunch of women carriers that 'there was nothing else I could do'?
What did he refer to? Nicolson being hit by shrapnel- and if so, was this meant to have been deliberate?
My assumption was that Warden had to kill all the team otherwise if any of them had been captured they would have alerted the Japanese to Warden's presence.
At the end of the film the Japanese were unaware that there was a uncaptured commando in the area. Warden's survival depended on all the injured being killed rather than captured.
The women were clearly shocked having realized that Warden had so ruthlessly killed off his own men.
Thanks, Mark.
I also wondered if Warden's briefly-mentioned but not fully explained capture by the Japanese (and presumable torture?) some time before -mentioned by the Force's commander at the HQ- had affected his own behaviour and attitude to killing, as Shears suggested en route?
Warden (Hawkins) did always say "Well, there's always the unexpected, isn't there?'?
Which of his own men did Warden kill ? I thought they were all killed by Japanese rifle fire ?
shareWarden did not kill any of the commando team !
shareI always thought the women had grown fond of the commandos, as a group, and perhaps individually. One of them is shown with shocked/concerned expression when Joyce is shot, another when Shears is shot. I believe all this was before the mortars were fired, or at least the fatal one that would have finished off the two and mortally wounded Nicholson.
shareit was a very hot day.
Where there's smoke, there's barbecue!
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I thought Joyce and Shears were killed before Nicholson ?
shareIt´s somehow puzzling; Shears and Joyce are both killed by Japanese fire, and as I remember it, it was before Warden fired the mortar. I assumed that he was firing at the Japanese or perhaps at Nicholson - who was a traitor in his eyes and therefore like another enemy -, but then why did he explain himself? or rather, why did he feel that there was a need to explain himself?
My theory is that Warden and the thai women finally question themselves about the sense of the whole enterprise and by extension, of the whole war; they abstract from the distinction between friend and foe and maybe realize that they have caused only death and destruction; it´s the same realization that Clipton makes, when he cries "madness".
Don't forget Warden also said " I could not risk them being taken alive" So who was he talking about ? He did not kill anyone on the commando team and Nicholson was a hero to the Japanese for building the bridge.
In my opinion Warden's last scene made no sense to me.
See: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050212/board/nest/224552235
share
Thanks for that maxman-5.
Just watched this film again to-night with my wife and once again I puzzled over the ending.
It doesn't make any sense. I find the attempts at explanation offered in this thread entirely unconvincing.
It's a mystery to me where Warden thinks he is going as well. A quick hop over the mountains past Lord knows how many Japanese soldiers? This is what happens when you have script dramas with a film and a director more interested in how things look. A lot of 'near enough' storytelling and hoping that people won't think too hard.
Yeah, every explanation, however interesting, hits a wall?
Baffling ending
I agree. It's a great ending with blowing the bridge and all, but I still don't understand what Major Warden (Hawkins)
was referring to. BTW, why did Col Nicholson (Guinness) collapse and fall on the plunger? Did he faint, or was he shot
by Major Warden? And if he was shot, did he die?
🤨
it's as if there is a shot missing of him deliberately firing a few more rounds at his two men to make sure they were dead.
shareYou are right. In the movie, it’s quite clear that Joyce and Shears were already killed by Japanese gunfire, which makes Warden’s last line nonsensical. In the book, they were still alive and had just been captured by the Japanese. Warden brutally wipes them all out (Joyce, Shears and Nicholson) with a barrage of mortar fire. This is missing from the film. He retells this to Colonel Green and reflects that it was the only thing to do:
“I thought hard, sir. I thought as hard as I possibly could, while the group of soldiers swarmed round Joyce and Shears. Shears was certainly still alive, and so perhaps was Joyce, in spite of what that dirty dog had done to him.(con't) share
“I could see only one possible way of taking action, sir. My two partisans were still in position with the mortar. They could fire just as easily on the group of Japs as on the bridge, and the group was just as easy to hit. I gave them that as their target. I waited a little longer. I saw the soldiers pick up the prisoners and start carrying them off. They were both still alive. It was the worst that could have happened. Colonel Nicholson brought up the rear, hanging his head as though he was deep in thought. I wonder what he was thinking, sir. I suddenly made up my mind, while there was still time.
“I gave the order to fire. The Siamese understood at once. We had trained them pretty thoroughly, sir. It was a splendid fireworks display. Another fine sight for those in the O.P. Close cross-fire. I handled the mortar myself, and I’m not such a bad shot.”
“Good results?” Colonel Green broke in.share
“Good results, sir. The first shells burst right among the group. A stroke of luck! Both our chaps were blown to pieces. I confirmed that by looking through my glasses. Believe me, sir, please believe me, I didn’t want to leave the job half-done either. All three of them, I should have said. The Colonel as well. There was nothing left of him. Three birds with one stone. Not bad!
“After that? After that, sir, I fired all the shells I had. There were quite a lot. Our hand-grenades as well. The position had been well selected. We sprayed the ground pretty thoroughly. I was a bit overwrought, I admit. The stuff was falling a bit indiscriminately, on the rest of the company rushing out of the camp, on the derailed train, in which everyone was shrieking, and also on the bridge. The two Siamese were as worked up as I was. The Japs fired back. Soon the smoke spread and crept up as far as us, more or less blotting out the valley and the River Kwai. We were cut off in a stinking grey fog. There was no more ammo, nothing else to fire. So we retired.
“Since then I’ve often thought about that decision of mine, sir. I’m now convinced I couldn’t have done anything else. I took the only line of conduct possible. It was really the only proper action I could have taken.”
“The only proper action,” Colonel Green agreed.