I ponti di Toko Ri

The famous Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer, Ted Williams, must have had a grimly ironic appreciation of The Bridges at Toko-Ri when this film came out. After serving in the Marines in World War II, Williams was called back to the Marines for the Korean War and for the better part of two years flew the jets that you see Bill Holden flying here in the Navy.

Just as the Korean War interrupted one of the best baseball careers of the last century in real life, in this film William Holden is recalled from a thriving law practice in Denver, Colorado, not to mention from his lovely wife Grace Kelly and their two children. He flies carrier based jets bombing targets in the Korean War wondering like Ted Williams what he did in life to get called for two wars.

A few years earlier Warner Brothers did a fine film called Task Force which depicted the history of naval aviation through the eyes of its protagonist, Gary Cooper. The history went as far as the end of World War II and we were still flying propeller planes.

Maybe today's viewer can identify with a film like Top Gun where the skills are now a learned routine. But the Korean War was the first fought with jet aircraft and pilots had to really learn and develop new skills to take off and land on an aircraft at supersonic speed. Everyone, even the Russians, were all new at this in 1950 when the Korean War started.

Some critics have said Grace Kelly was wasted in this part, basically doing a role June Allyson perfected. Actually if you pay close attention, she's not terribly different from her role as housewife and mother in The Country Girl where she got her Oscar. She's just married to someone different is all. She has a very effective scene with her husband's commander Admiral Fredric March when she flies to Japan to be with Holden, taking along their two children.

My favorite in this film however is Mickey Rooney. He plays a helicopter rescue pilot and we first meet him and his co-pilot Earl Holliman rescuing Holden from the deep blue sea. Rooney is an irreverent sort, on duty with a green scarf and green top hat, looking like one of the little craitures from Ireland. Quick to brawl, but a real friend when you need one, I love his philosophy that you can say anything to officers as long as you put a sir on the end of it. There weren't going to be too many promotions in his future.

The Bridges at Toko-Ri is filled with a lot of Cold War nostrums and dated in that respect for today's audience. But it is a great tribute to those jet pilots, the crews that supported them, and the families that loved them, trying out those new skills in a brand new kind of war.

This is an exceptional picture, which clearly depicts the personal difficulties, particularly which Fighter Pilots must endure in times of combat. Mr Holden and Grace Kelly give fine portrayals of the young married couple, who must overcome the obstacles of a dangerous mission--A certain bombing Raid ( mentioned in the title) As the left behind wife, Kelly does a wonderful job, showing empathy for her husband, concern for herself, etc, and Holden is equally compelling as a troubled aviator in a difficult situation--All in all a fine Movie--good performances all around. T(W) G.

There's a moment in Mark Robson's The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) when the viewer begins to seriously suspect that the protagonist of this story, Harry Brubaker (William Holden) isn't going to see his wife and children again. Set in the second half of the "Police Action" known as the Korean War, when both the United Nations' forces and the Communists were locked in a stalemate, Brubaker, a disgruntled lawyer, called up to fulfill his reservist duty as a pilot on an aircraft carrier, fumes at the injustice of having to fly again. "I've done my part!" Lt. Brubaker seethes at his commanding officer. Nothing will stop him from his boiling resentment, nor can he stop thinking about his family; his wife (Grace Kelly) and two daughters come to see him on liberty in Japan, only adding to his internal misery.

Then there are the heavily defended bridges that channel freight through a mountain range in North Korea. To attack the bridges, the carrier pilots must fight their way through murderous anti-aircraft fire. The bridges are important, but more than that, they symbolize how far the U.S. and its allies are willing to go to defeat the Communists.

And this will cost lives.

In this age of computer-generated wizardry, the special effects of BTR really stand up. Using models for jet aircraft attacking the bridges actually works here; the viewer gets the feel for the claustrophobic geography of the place where the aviators must strike. The movie is filmed extensively on one of the navy's Pacific Fleet carriers, adding to the general realism.

But good SFX won't take away the sting of the tragic end Brubaker faces, first in his learning of how hard it will be to survive the attack, then as the North Koreans close in on him after being shot down. The rescue chopper's pilot (Mickey Rooney), also shot down, hunkers in a muddy drainage ditch with Brubaker, taking shots at the North Koreans while dodging grenades lobbed at them.

The last third of the movie is excruciating to watch. And to think this was made in the land of vanilla, the early 1950s!

My recommendation is to see The Bridges at Toko-Ri with your expectations of a happy ending locked away, and your appreciation of the real pilots who fought in this dirty, little war way out front. As Brubaker's commanding admiral (Frederick March) says in quiet and emotional admiration, "Where do we get these men?"

I was a sailor assigned to the Oriskany and observed the filming; and I met Mickey Rooney and Earl Holliman. Those are some fine men; and they entered our shipboard environment seamlessly. During the filming, on his off time, Mickey Rooney performed for the crew with his own one-man show in one of the hanger bays. He played drums like one would never expect him to. He was a good musician, and great fun to be around. I would sure like to thank Rooney and Holliman for making our lives pleasant in such a distant and lonely place.

Once I was walking down a passageway and saw a very small pilot in a flight suit. I didn't think that one would find pilots that short because of the Navy's requirements for aviators. Then, I saw his face, and it was Mickey Rooney. Rooney and the film crew stayed on board for Thanksgiving, and that has to be the most memorable Thanksgiving I ever had.

To me, that film is a time capsule, and every time I see it, it brings back fond memories of life on the Oriskany. The Oriskany was the last Essex class aircraft carrier built, and it was about three years old when I was on it. Sadly, it's been scuttled, and turned into fish habitat.

Anyway, like I said, Holliman and Rooney are excellent people; I never met Holden, but he was there too.

A couple of years before he made film history with "The Bridge On The River Kwai" William Holden starred in this rather little known Korean War drama, one of the first to be released shortly after the war. Not too many films about the Korean War get made and this is one of the best of a very few. Holden portrays a lawyer who is ordered by the Navy to do his part for the war in bombing missions. A better known cast including Grace Kelly, Fredric March, Mickey Rooney and Earl Holliman costars with Holden (besides Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Sessue Hayakawa, Holden's supporting cast in "The Bridge On The River Kwai" were mostly unknowns) so it's good for big star watchers and it's an overall great film but it won't reach the heights of Holden's later "Bridge" film.