adrian-43767 In my humble opinion, this is Director David Lean's finest film (just above BRIEF ENCOUNTER, OLIVER TWIST and GREAT EXPECTATIONS) and, albeit less famous, spectacular and beautiful than LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, it is a more self-contained and perceptive film, in regard to human emotions and pitfalls.Frankly, I do not give a toss whether this film is historically inaccurate. It does not claim to be true to life, and there is a great lesson to learn from it, notably that following principles to a T does not pre-empt the emergence of contradictory situations, such as when Colonel Nicholson (sublimely played by Alec Guinness), who had refused on principle to have his officers work 'like coolies,' ultimately is quite ready to relent on that demand when he becomes entranced by the notion that the bridge could last 600 years, and the British Army remembered for its construction.Guinness deservedly picked up the Best Actor academy award for his role as Col. Nicholson, who stubbornly wants to maintain conventional and civilized values in the jungle and in the face of an enemy of a different and opposing culture, embodied by the Japanese camp commander, brilliantly played by Sessue Hayakawa.Holden acts as a kind of comic relief, an American caught in the middle of British POWs in Burma, and his role is reminiscent of the one which won him an Oscar in STALAG 17, where he acted as the in-between fellow who managed to bribe the guards and get the goodies, but who has enough decency in him to earn the viewer's sympathy.Jack Hawkins is superlative as the British commander who leads the operation to destroy the bridge on the River Kwai. Why he did not pick up a best supporting actor Oscar beats me. He is the very embodiment of the stiff upper lip British officer with touches of sardonic humor and complete professionalism.And, finally, James Donald, as the medic with the bird's eye view (an eagle is seen flying over the forest some 3 or 4 times during the film), who sees all with detachment and concludes that war is madness. His is a minor but crucial role, and he delivers with great aplomb.Photography, action sequences, script, and soundtrack are all of the highest quality. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is, without a doubt, one of my all-time favorites and perhaps the greatest anti-war war movie ever made. 10/10

cinemajesty Movie Review: "The Bridge On The River Kwai" (1957)This splendid novel-adaptation going-out from author Pierre Boulle (1912-1994), royally-received to be directed by exceptional film-maker David Lean (1908-1991), threading every single shot to the scene to sequence to the finished movie, putting a fictious as dramatized "World-War-II" South-East Asian conflict brought onto an Burma-Siam-Railway enterprise thread to fail by issuing the title-given bridge into an adventure story of British soldiers, led by enduring the utmost single-cell, a breeding hot-box-torture of the imaginable with regard to motion-history-making character of Colonel Nicholson, portrayed by Alec Guinness (1914-2000) to the famous scene of marching to prison under the "Colonel Bogey March" accompanied by a run-down, bootstrapped platoon of leather-shoe broken, nevertheless morally-stabil soldiers of the Royal British Army into a painstaking-design detailing prisoner-of-war (POW) encampment ruled by an ordeal-wishing, hard-to-get-by as constant-overlooking Japanese Colonel Saito, portrayed by Academy-Award-nominated, but then failing to present legendary producer Sam Spiegel (1901-1985) with a "clean sweep" of 8 Academy-Award nominations to 8 wibns at the Oscars in its 30th edition on March 26th 1958 due to arguably overacted scenes of defeat by actor Sessue Hayakawa (1889-1973), when lucky-punch ease-spreading Hollywood actor William Holden (1918-1981) hardened in movie-future-perfect-action-cinema promising trainings by suspense-debriefs delivering actor Jack Hawkins (1910-1973) as Major Warden, earns all favors of an awestruck smash-hit-supporting international audiences in holiday season of 1957/1958, paving a the way for a new kind of "deus ex machine" enduring secret agent ingnited in the year 1962 by Albert R. Broccoli (1909-1996) and Harry Saltzman (1915-1994) by the code name of "007".© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

sir-mauri Wow this is still a powerful work. The Bridge on the River Kwai is David Lean's WW2 epic made several years before his masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. It's not on that level of perfection, but it's still a damned great movie. They don't make films like this anymore. I remember being shown this film in a movie appreciation segment by a teacher in elementary school. I then would watch it every chance I got as I grew older. Alec Guinness and William Holden give what may be their best performances. Younger people raised on fast-paced CGI hyper-edited ADHD movies would probably complain that this is boring. Their loss, and dead wrong. THIS is how films should be made. Take your time with location work and character development. There is one particular shot in the jungle where the commandos are hunting a stray Japanese solder. They startle hundreds of bats from sleep, and the bats fill the sky. The shadows of the bats flicker on the jungle below, making the search even more difficult due to the eye being drawn all around to the shadows flickering on the leaves. Brilliant scene. If you haven't seen this movie, you owe it to yourself to watch it. "Madness."

elvircorhodzic THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is a great war drama based on the conflict and ideals. Parodic moments are visible in a fictional story. Nevertheless, I think that this story, which is based on the novel of the same name, is very interesting and sincere. In the second part of the film, the story takes on the characteristics of an adventure thriller.A large contingent of British prisoners arrives in a Japanese camp. The prisoners have to build a bridge on a river. Two colonels collide and one prisoner manages to escape from the camp. Failing to break the resistance, and facing a fact that the bridge will not be built in a given period, Japanese colonel accepts a proposal of a British colonel (prisoner) that he and his soldiers build the bridge. One of the protagonists considers that bridge must be built perfectly in order to remain an example of the skills and knowledge of British soldiers. However, a special unit was tasked to bring down the newly built bridge...Conflicts are extremely tense and uncertain in this film. It is difficult to draw a line between the bad guys and the good guys or the winners and losers. Dialogues have been filled with quite a dose of irony and humor. Conflict of the characters is based on discipline, obsession and professionalism. Scenery is a little masterpiece. Mr. Lean has directed a story so powerful and so wise that time in the film simply "flying".Alec Guinness as Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson is, to say the least, a split personality. A brave and persistent colonel is transformed into a stupid snob. His character is incredibly interesting. Under the cover of a war hero and a true leader an idiot is hiding. Mr. Guinness has given us one of the best and the most important militaristic portraits in the film.William Holden as Commander Shears is a soldier who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is resourceful and sarcastic .... and maybe a little romantic. The only protagonist who pays attention to women in this film.Sessue Hayakawa as Colonel Saito is brutal, stubborn and lazy. I would say, this colonel was incapable for any kind of action and work. This is a parody. That's the point. Jack Hawkins as Major Warden is determined character, who puts war aim ahead of human life.The last words of one of the protagonists describe this movie the best .... in this case in a positive way of course. This film is one of my favorites.