Rush 6: The Brit Shot

In a scene occurring an hour and eight minutes into, "Bridge on the River Kwai," we see four British officers traveling across the River Kwai via ferry. The shot is a long shot, uninterrupted by cuts. The camera is fixed on the ferry and the officers, meaning all dynamicism in the shot is provided by the  background: the River Kwai itself, and British soldiers jumping, playing, splashing, and possibly working in the water around the bridge.

The scene is ultimately a comic one. The assertion by the uptight officers that good British values will construct a bridge is contrasted by the care-free cavorting of the troops behind them. This ironic juxtaposition is further highlighted by the difference between the solid foreground of the four British officers, and the wild background of the jungle and splashing troops. If tragedy is a story of clashing values (family versus country, etc), then this scene is not yet tragic. We see officers who are oblivious to the world around them, assuming that their values will readily supplant the ones ignored behind them.

In terms of impacting the historical audience for the film, 1960s America (not the diagetic context of the film, WWII), there is the connotation of the war in Vietnam, but there is also the question of the emergence of Japan as an industrial power post WWII. The logic of the film up to this point, and this scene in particular, posits that the Japanese were incompetent when it came to the quality control and rigor needed for modern manufacturing (they created the environment of chaos personified by the jungle and revelrous British soldiers), and that it was the influence of the western world which would provide the stability and eye for detail which ultimately enabled success.