I don’t really have an explanation for why I took a year off from this project this time. This movie wasn’t one I was dreading or anything (though I can’t say I was exactly excited about it), and I had plenty of idle afternoons that would have been nicely taken up with working my way through some “the” movies, but…I didn’t until this weekend. (Maybe I just know subconsciously that the Godfathers are coming and I am not ready with the “I told you so-s.”) Anyway, that’s month’s away….
Had I seen this one before?
No. I knew it was a classic and thought I knew the broad outlines of the plot. But, I really just knew the set up for Alec Guinness’s Colonel Nicholson and the iconic whistling entrance, mostly from the call back in The Breakfast Club.
Top 3 observations on this viewing?
- The plot of this movie is a lot more interesting than I thought. (Which was just, Brit obsessed with duty humiliated by vindictive Japanese also in his own way obsessed with duty.) The Brit is obsessed with duty, and as William Holden’s Shears says at one point, Nicholson is the type of person so obsessed with honoring the letter of the law that he loses sight of its spirit. Madness, indeed.
- I had absolutely no idea going in that that Holden was in this at all! Let alone that he is basically playing the metonym of “American individualism.” Movie-length wise (and it is long) you could cut most of the scenes we get of him, and the story would still work on a pure plot level, but he’s so charming that I can’t really complain.
3. I was worried about the opportunity for horribly racist depictions of not just the Japanese soldiers, but also the Thai and Burmese/Myanma people encountered in the jungle. And there’s definitely some Orientalism throughout here, but Sessue Hayakawa’s depiction of the Japanese office Colonel Saito, while clearly more an archetype than a person, was more layered than I expected, and I was glad to see that he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor by the Academy. (The fact that he lost to Red Buttons as a white man fighting racism in Sayonara…is less great…) But Hayakawa was apparently a star from the silent era, and he was beautiful as a young man and I’m glad I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole about his career thanks to watching this.
What did it beat? Did it deserve to win?
12 Angry Men – Love a righteous Fonda moment
Peyton Place – Haven’t seen it, mostly know it for the cultural moment it/the book/TV show of the same name were
Sayonara – Had gotten this mixed up with the truly racist The Teahouse of the August Moon, which is replete with yellowface, and this isn’t that, but I clearly know nothing about it
Witness for the Prosecution – I know the title and not much else
So, clearly I can’t judge it against it’s competition, but it earns its classic status with the tension of its ending alone for me.
Bechdel test pass?
No. And the cringiest parts all involve the various women Holden and his compatriots flirt with and frankly, I wish they had just let this very male story remain so.
Dessert wise, as is my war movie custom, I made a regionally inspired dish. A mango custard, it’s a little involved to prepare, but the texture turned out well, the taste was a little bland. My husband grated some nutmeg into his, which livened it up a bit.
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1 1/2 cups of mango pulp
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 cup cream
Directions
- Turn freezer to its coldest setting
- Put milk in a saucepan and bring slowly to a boil
- Separate the eggs
- Beat the yolks with half of the sugar until thick and light
- Pour a little of the hot milk into the yolk mixture, stirring constantly
- Pour the egg mixture into the milk
- Return saucepan to stove on very low heat
- Stir constantly to avoid curdling
- When it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove from heat
- Continue stirring until it cools to room temperature
- Pour into a freezer safe tray and place in freezer
- In a small heat-safe bowl (or the top section of a double boiler if you’re fancy like that) combine the water and gelatin
- Fill a small saucepan/bottom layer of the double boiler with water, and heat until the gelatin is dissolved in the water
- Stir the gelatin into the mango pulp
- Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks, careful not to overbeat
- In another bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks
- Add remaining sugar to egg whites until glossy
- Remove custard from freezer and scrape into yet another bowl
- Beat the cold mixture until smooth
- Fold in the mango gelatin
- Fold in the egg white mixture
- Fold in the whipped cream
- Pour into freezer safe tray
- Place in freezer for at least an hour
- Scoop to serve
I Get a Bit Obsessive 
