The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

Valentine Davies (writer)
James Michener (novel)

Release Date:

December 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War

Plot:

Set during the Korean War, a Navy fighter pilot must come to terms with with his own ambivalence towards...

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Fighter Pilot | Korean War | Fear | Navy

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

William Holden	...	Lt. Harry Brubaker
Grace Kelly	...	Nancy Brubaker
Fredric March	...	Rear Adm. George Tarrant
Mickey Rooney	...	Mike Forney
Robert Strauss	...	Beer Barrel
Charles McGraw	...	Cmdr. Wayne Lee
Keiko Awaji	...	Kimiko
Earl Holliman	...	Nestor Gamidge
Richard Shannon	...	Lt. (j.g.) Olds
Willis Bouchey	...	Capt. Evans (as Willis B. Bouchey)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:G | West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18

Filming Locations:

Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, Hakone, Kanagawa, Japan

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

William Holden's younger brother, Robert Beedle, was a Navy fighter pilot who was killed in action in World War II. After this film was released, he was remembered by his squadron-mates as having been very much like the character of Lt Harry Brubaker.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Based on the 1953 novel by James Michener, the aircraft flown were actually F2H Banshees, not the more prevalent by 1955 F9F Panthers.

Quotes:

Lt. Harry Brubaker: I'm a lawyer from Denver, Colorado.
Mike Forney: Judas, how'd you wind up in a smelly ditch in Korea?
Lt. Harry Brubaker: I was just asking myself that same question.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Fifties" (1997)

Superb film

This is a truly superb film on any number of grounds. First, and generally unknown, it is based on a real incident, the so called "Battle of Carlson's Canyon" which was waged early in the Korean War in an attempt to interdict North Korean supplies on their way to the front. James Michener had gone out to the carrier ESSEX (CV-9) and had been very impressed with the men of VF-172, a Banshee fighter squadron. The book is astonishingly realistic...if one compares what he wrote as a novel with the contemporary Navy strike reports (which were then highly classified), it is amazing how much he got "right." It is also a good look at carrier aviation in the last days of the "straight-deck" carrier with hydraulic catapults and a paddle-waving landing deck officer...all that disappeared after Korea with the introduction of the angled deck, the steam catapult, and the Fresnel-lens mirror landing system. The book is in my view the finest air war novel ever written, bar none, and the movie is the same for the film genre. Incidentally, when made into a film, Grumman Panthers were used in place of Banshees, and one of the pilots who flew in the making of the film was a very young Lt. j.g. named Alan Shepherd--later one of the Mercury and Apollo astronauts. Not to be missed!!!