The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Bridge on the River Kwai
PG | 14 December 1957 (USA)
The Bridge on the River Kwai Trailers

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Reviews
Kattiera Nana

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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Wordiezett

So much average

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Cortechba

Overrated

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Mandeep Tyson

The acting in this movie is really good.

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ianmorley-80411

One of the absolute best. I first saw this movie about half a year ago, in October last year, when I saw the ending; I decided that I was going to rewatch it for a very long time

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DeadMan66

This movie which is about the command of troops for working to build a bridge. Prison camp from where the escape of chance is one in hundred of survival. So making escape plane will cause in increase of number of casualties. Therefore the officer decide to cooperate in building the bridge. But the story doesn't ends here. There is other part of story going on.Writing much about it is like to the spoil the movie. So I end here. And thank you for showing the good show.

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lasttimeisaw

The defining piece among David Lean's magna opera, THE BRIDHE ON THE RIVER KWAI ushers in Lean's artistically ripe years with his epic-scale storytelling coming about in the most picturesque locations among our mundane world. In the heart of its hearts, TBONRK is an anti-war infotainment, as it is book-ended by British Major Clipton's "it's madness!" exclamation after its breakneck finale, madness is constituent of war, no one can say otherwise, but as in any superlative narrative-leaning cinematic conception, Lean cannily adopts an ambiguous route in lieu of stating the obvious (one must also lure those ticket-buyers who are steeped in nationalism, patriotism and heroism into the auditorium) and lets the rousing spirit prevail among those allied WWII POWs in Burma, under the high-handed command of Japanese Colonel Saito (an Oscar- nominated Hayakawa, giving a forcibly layered presence against the role's discriminated condition), to build a bridge over the River Kwai that will connect Bangkok and Rangoon. The meat of the film's first half is a duel of will between British Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Guinness, walks away with his Oscar with august poise and solemn diction) and Saito, and who is the winner? The answer is as plain as the nose on anyone's face. Nicholson's obduracy ostensibly stems from his admired patriotism, to safeguard the last remnant of dignity against the ghastly adversity, but there is just a fine line between patriotism and jingoism, he will not bat an eye if he dies for his alleged good cause, naturally, it entails that no other lives can alter his mind, and shall we really extol such hidebound doctrine? This is where the film daringly touches a raw nerve in Nicholson's final triumph, why is he hailed by his fellow prisoners? He has done nothing for them from a pragmatic angle, what he achieves only fulfills his ego, an ego Lean beguilingly links with British's own colonial pride, to build a sturdy bridge in a foreign country and have his name inscribed in the plaque, disregarding its utilitarian consequences which will further extend the warfare and compound the affliction. On the other hand, we have the American Navy Commander Shears (an omnipotently, effortlessly charismatic Holden), who miraculously escapes from the prison camp alive, and swears that nothing can haul him back to that living hell. But, "there is always something unexpected", that is the tag-line of the picture, in the exchange between him and the British Major Warden (Jack Hawkins, spiking a dosage of empathy into his martinet blood), Shears is literally coerced into "volunteer" the mission to blow up the bridge because of his inconvenient "imposter" identity, yes, he is not a commander but a common soldier taking the uniform to secure better treatment in captivity (a very understandable action, surely is below Nicholson's hallowed principles). What happens in the second half actually shows that Shears' "insider" distinction makes no import in their mission or whatsoever, the army might just as well command any soldier as willing as the Canadian Lieutenant Joyce (Horne, a tenderfoot but swell swimmer), there is cruel irony seeping underneath the shock troops' daredevil heroism. As a rule, the mockery shouldn't be too offensive (it is not a vehement agitprop), Shears' penchant for hedonism and pragmatism alternates with Nicholson slippery to self-indulging delusion is the constantly battling tenors thrusting this film to the crunch, as Nicholson's "what have I done?" epiphany dished up with a ghost of vague contrition and followed by a chancy act of detonation, all we want to ask in the aftermath, is it really worth it?Apart from several peccadilloes, for instance, the technical incapacity of the Japanese party comes far too convenient (as it is not the case in reality) and the unpleasantness of war prisoners' state- of-play is categorically diluted, TBONRK is a sensational journey, peopled with vivid characters (its nearly male-exclusive cast, saving for some female exploitation footnotes, is all in full mettle), sublime landscape (including a striking worm's-eye view shot with collective wing-taking avifauna in the wake of gunshots) and well-imposed suspense, not to mention the food-for-thought deliberation it triggers in hindsight, one must see it to experience it!

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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."

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