The Bridges at Toko-Ri

File:The Bridges at Toko-Ri1.jpg

Grace Kelly as Nancy Brubaker.

The Bridges at Toko-Ri is a 1954 American war film about the Korean War and stars William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March, Mickey Rooney, and Robert Strauss. The film, which was directed by Mark Robson, was produced by Paramount Pictures.<ref group="Note">Robson had earlier directed I Want You (1951), also dealing with the Korean War.<ref>Crowther, Bosley. "The Screen in Review: Samuel Goldwyn's 'I Want You' opens run at Criterion; Script by Irwin Shaw." Template:Webarchive The New York Times, December 24, 1951. Retrieved: August 30, 2013.</ref></ref><ref name="Frietas"/> Dennis Weaver and Earl Holliman make early screen appearances in the film.

The screenplay is based on the 1953 novel The Bridges at Toko-ri by Pulitzer Prize winner James Michener. The story, which closely follows the novel, is about the U.S. Navy pilots assigned to bomb a group of heavily defended bridges in North Korea. It emphasizes the lives of the pilots and crew in the context of the Korean War; a conflict that seems remote to all except those who fight in Korea.

Plot

Lieutenant Harry Brubaker is a Naval Reserve aviator called back to active duty to fly F9F Panthers in the Korean War. Returning from a mission with battle damage, he is forced to ditch and is rescued by a Sikorsky helicopter manned by Chief Petty Officer Mike Forney and Airman Nestor Gamidge.

Forney has been in trouble for brawling and wearing a non-regulation green top hat and scarf while flying his helicopter as encouragement to downed pilots in the water. Back aboard USS Savo Island,<ref group="Note">The real Template:USS was actually decommissioned after World War II, before the Korean War</ref> Brubaker is called to the quarters of Rear Admiral Tarrant, the Carrier Task Force 77 commander. Tarrant is interested in Brubaker, who reminds him of his son, a Navy Pilot killed in World War II. Brubaker complains about the unfairness of leaving his civilian attorney practice but Tarrant advises that, "All through history, men have had to fight the wrong war in the wrong place, but that's the one they're stuck with."

The Savo Island returns to Japan where Brubaker is given a three-day shore leave in Tokyo with his wife Nancy and their children. The reunion is interrupted when Gamidge asks Brubaker to bail Forney out of the brig after another brawl. Tarrant explains to a confused Nancy that Forney saved her husband from freezing to death when he ditched his jet, and warns her Brubaker will have to carry out a dangerous attack on the bridges at Toko-Ri once back in Korea.

Brubaker returns to duty flying wingman for Commander Lee on a dangerous reconnaissance mission to photograph the bridges. Lee uses the imagery to brief his pilots on their attack mission. Brubaker is unnerved but can't bring himself to quit the mission or write a final letter to Nancy. The captain of the Savo Island exiles Forney to a helicopter scow as punishment for his indiscipline, and as he leaves the ship he shares with Brubaker his personal "cure" for bad nerves. Brubaker follows his advice of standing on the bow of the ship facing the waves and finds renewed strength.

The squadron attacks through intense antiaircraft fire and the bridges are destroyed without a loss, but Brubaker's jet is hit after Lee leads them to a secondary target. He tries to return to the carrier, but loss of altitude and fuel forces a crash-landing. Forney and Gamidge attempt to rescue him, but communist troops shoot down their helicopter. Gamidge is killed, and Forney takes cover in a muddy ditch with Brubaker. They try to hold off the enemy with pistols and M1 carbines but are overwhelmed by North Korean and Red Chinese soldiers. Tarrant, angered by news of Brubaker's death, demands Commander Lee explain why he attacked the second target. Lee defends his actions, noting that Brubaker was his pilot too, and that despite his loss, the mission was a success. Tarrant, realizing that Lee is correct, rhetorically asks, "Where do we get such men?"

Cast

• William Holden as LT Harry Brubaker
• Grace Kelly as Nancy Brubaker
• Fredric March as RADM George Tarrant
• Mickey Rooney as CPO (NAP) Mike Forney
• Robert Strauss as "Beer Barrel"
• Charles McGraw as CDR Wayne Lee
• Keiko Awaji as Kimiko
• Earl Holliman as AMN (NAC) Nestor Gamidge
• Richard Shannon as Lieutenant Olds
• Dennis Weaver as Flight Intelligence Officer (uncredited)
• US Navy Commander Marshall Beebe as Pilot

Production

File:Bow view of USS Oriskany (CVA-34), circa in 1953.jpg

USS Oriskany during the Korean War

Writing

Michener based his novel on actual missions flown against the railroad bridges at Majon-ni and Samdong-ni, North Korea, during the winter of 1951–52, when he was a news correspondent aboard the aircraft carriers Template:USS and Template:USS.<ref name="Gray">Harribine, YNCS Don. "The Bridges at Toko-Ri: The Real Story by Capt Paul N. Gray, USN, Ret, USNA '41, former CO of VF-54." Template:Webarchive uss-bennington.org. Retrieved: August 29, 2012.</ref><ref name="Articles">Tatara, Paul. "Articles: The Bridges at Toko-Ri." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: August 30, 2013.</ref> Michener based the character of Harry Brubaker on Lieutenant Donald S. Brubaker, who like his counterpart, was a 29-year-old Naval Reservist from Denver recalled to active duty aboard Template:USS. The basis for Admiral Tarrant was Rear Admiral John Perry, the carrier division commander at the time; that of Lee was Commander Marshall U. Beebe, CAG aboard Essex in 1951 and technical advisor for the film; and Forney on Chief (NAP) Duane Thorin, himself a colorful enlisted pilot known for his trademark non-regulation green headgear.<ref name="kauf">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The pilot's rescue attempt at the climax of the novel and film was a composite of a pair of unrelated rescue attempts on February 8, 1952, both in the area of Wonsan, North Korea, with the second one involving a propeller-driven Douglas AD-1 Skyraider from Valley Forge that had been shot down while bombing the railroad bridges at Samdong-ni. However, though the shot-down aviators in the second attempt were initially listed as missing in action, they survived their ordeal, and they were captured by North Korean soldiers.<ref name="sears12">Sears 2010, pp. 225–248.</ref>

In the attacks against the historical bridges, the McDonnell F2H Banshee fighter-bombers (represented by Grumman F9F Panther) that are at the heart of the story did not bomb the bridges themselves, since they did not have the capability of carrying the heavy aerial bombs that were needed. Instead, they carried out the perilous mission of suppressing enemy anti-aircraft fire.<ref name="a1sdidit">Sisk, Richard. "Hollywood Captured Armstrong's Korean War Missions." Template:Webarchive Military.com News, 2012. Retrieved: August 27, 2012.</ref>

Development

Film rights were purchased for $100,000 by the team of George Seaton and William Perlberg, who had a production unit at Paramount.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> They wanted Spencer Tracy for the role of admiral, but this was played by Fredric March.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Filming

File:The Bridges at Toko-Ri2.jpg

Grace Kelly and William Holden

Exteriors were shot aboard Template:USS and Template:USS, 27,100-ton Template:Sclasss standing in for USS Savo Island.<ref name="Frietas">Frietas 2001, p. 86.</ref> The aircraft used in the film is the Grumman F9F-2 Panther, a Korean War workhorse still in service and equipping the air groups of both carriers at the time the film was made. In the novel, however, Brubaker's squadron flew McDonnell F2H Banshees. The squadron depicted is an actual unit, Fighter Squadron 192 (VF-192) "Golden Dragons," which was aboard Oriskany during the filming, and from its part in the movie, thereafter, billed itself as the "World Famous Golden Dragons." VF-192 had two war deployments to Korea, but aboard Template:USS and flying Vought F4U-4 Corsairs.<ref group="Note">Former child star and actor, Frank Coghlan, Jr., who was also a serving U.S. naval officer, provided the armed forces liaison for the film.<ref>Wise and Rehill 2007, p. 131.</ref></ref> The movie also took advantage of the early uses of helicopters in the military. Rooney's character flies a S-51/HO3S-1/H-5F, G, H Sikorsky "DragonFly" which was well known as a naval rescue aircraft.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Location filming was also done in Post-War Japan at the US Naval Base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, and the historic Fujiya Hotel at Hakone. A ranch in Thousand Oaks, California, was also used for filming.<ref>Beck, Simon D. (2016). The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion. McFarland. Pages 49-50. Template:ISBN.</ref>

Release

Although the film was released in Canada in December 1954, it opened in the rest of the world, including the U.S., in 1955.<ref name="Vancouver News-Herald 1954, p. 7">Vancouver News-Herald, December 31, 1954, p. 7</ref><ref name="New Hollywood Cast System 1955, p. 94">"New Hollywood Cast System," New York Daily News, January 15, 1955, p. 94</ref>

Reception

The Bridges at Toko-Ri was well received by critics and public alike.<ref name="Articles"/> As an example of the films that came out of the Korean War, it was considered more of a multi-faceted account that dealt with both ordinary seamen and command officers involved in combat.<ref>Dolan 1985, p. 111.</ref> Typical of the reviews was one by Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, who noted how the film adaptation was true to the original story and was "vividly and movingly developed in this punctilious film."<ref>Crowther, Bosley. "Movie Review: The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)." Template:Webarchive The New York Times, January 21, 1955.</ref> The close cooperation of the U.S. Navy led to spectacular aerial scenes as well as carrier action.<ref>Harwick and Schnepf 1989, p. 54.</ref><ref>Evans 2000, p. 32.</ref> A raid sequence with large scale models intercut with combat footage was a particularly effective scene that was later recognized in the Academy Awards.<ref>Parish 1990, p. 78.</ref>

Awards and honors

The Bridges at Toko-Ri won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects (1956) and Alma Macrorie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Editing (1956).<ref>"Awards: The Bridges at Toko-Ri." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: May 10, 2012.</ref> Mark Robson was also nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures in the Directors Guild of America Awards (1956).<ref>"Awards: 'The Bridges at Toko-Ri' (1954)." Template:Webarchive IMDb. Retrieved: May 10, 2012.</ref>

Anti-war themes

Atypical of the World War II movies produced by Hollywood, The Bridges at Toko-Ri was considered a quiet anti-war<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> themed movie. The Korean War never got the same attention in media as World War II as its geopolitical purpose in world security was considered dubious. Brubaker's character questions the purpose of the Korean War with the Rear Admiral and others. The final scenes of the movie document the hopeless deaths of the main protagonists as they lie in a muddy ditch in a foreign land. As the movie progresses through dangerous missions (ditching, flak fly throughs), Brubaker experiences moments of panic and PTSD as the Bridge mission looms closer and closer. Grace Kelly's character being a metaphorical representation of the country's confusion over the Korean War but remaining dutiful and unquestioning in its purpose.

In popular culture

In a scene from the 2021 movie Licorice Pizza, Sean Penn plays an aging actor named "Jack Holden" who starred with Grace Kelly in a film called The Bridges of Toko-San. Despite the name changes, this scene is an obvious allusion to William Holden and The Bridges at Toko-Ri (as is Tom Waits' character, director "Rex Blau", an obvious allusion to Mark Robson, director of Toko-Ri, in the same scene).

References

Notes Template:Reflist Citations Template:Reflist Bibliography Template:Refbegin

• Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. Template:ISBN.
• Evans, Alun. Brassey's Guide to War Films. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2000. Template:ISBN.
• Frietas, Gary A. War Movies: The Belle & Blade Guide to Classic War Videos. Bandon, Oregon: Robert D. Reed Publishers, 2011. Template:ISBN.
• Harwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films, General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
• Parish, James Robert. The Great Combat Pictures: Twentieth-Century Warfare on the Screen. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, 1990. Template:ISBN.
• Provencher, Ken. "Bizarre Beauty: 1950s Runaway Production in Japan". Template:Webarchive The Velvet Light Trap (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press), Issue 73, Spring 2014, pp. 39–50. Template:ISSN. (Subscription required.)
• Sears, David. "Chapter 12: Epics in failure." Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press, 2010. Template:ISBN.
• Wise, James E. and Anne Collier Rehill. Stars in Blue: Movie Actors in America's Sea Services. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2007. Template:ISBN.

External links

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