Bob's poetry often tell a story from his past, whether from his childhood, his younger adulthood, or, as with the poem here from US 1 Worksheets Volume 66, as recently as last year after watching TV.
Bridge on the River Kwai
At the end of the presentation, NYU Film Professor Richard Pena sums up some of the film’s fine points: One, it was filmed in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, when the West planted its feet anywhere it wanted in the Third World, which kept Charles Laughton, bellringer in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, from taking the part of Lt. Colonel Nicholson, Alec Guinness’s part, since the terrain was too rugged and Laughton was somewhat hefty. (I watched The Hunchback, over and over on WOR’S
Million Dollar Movie—Laughton yelling out in his pained, heavy voice, Jacqueline, Gabrielle, Big Marie, names of the bells he tended). Two, Cary Grant had been originally considered for the lead that ultimately went to Bill Holden. It’s Nicholson who brings the exposed cable to the attention of his Japanese captors, which leads to the bridge blowing up after Nicholson, bleeding to death from a head wound after being shot, falls face first, on top of the detonator plunger hooked up to the black wire, the chugging diesel pulling troop and supply cars, the train led by folded Japanese flags up front, like praying hands, the engine puffing, pulling down the cars into the river like so much steel diarrhea, followed by the credits, the whistling, Colonel Bogey’s March, turned into a hit by Mitch Miller. And who hasn’t mixed up the title at some time in their lives? Was it On the River Kwai? Over the River Kwai, Into the River Kwai? From the River Kwai? Toward the River Kwai? Under the River Kwai?
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