This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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

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)

There are many Second World War films that will definitely stand the tests of time and be looked at as - almost - 'historical' representations of the events that transpired. I'm not entirely sure that 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' will be one of those, as it's far too 'niche' to maintain its popularity, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad film. For a start, if you're looking for huge 'Saving Private Ryan' style battles involving the heroic Allies blasting their way through legions of German troops, you'll be very disappointed here. With the exception of a couple of brief shoot-outs and the odd knife to the back, there's little in the way of action here.It's about an unfortunate bunch of British (mainly) prisoners of war who are incarcerated in a Japanese POW camp. There, they're forced to help build a bridge (over the river Kwai, believe it or not!) in order to aid the Japanese war effort. You may think that a WWII film based around a POW camp would mean that our plucky Brits would spend their time and efforts devising new and ingenious ways to tunnel their way out of there. Not here. The camp doesn't even have any fences due to it being on an island, therefore there's nowhere really to escape if they tried. Instead, the story predominantly focuses on two character - one is the Japanese warden who runs the facility and the other is the British officer 'in charge' of the captive prisoners (there's also a sub-plot regarding how the rest of the Allied war effort perceives the camp and what they're doing about it, but that's secondary to the one-on-one between the two leads in my opinion).Now, I wouldn't go as far as saying you'd be able to 'identify' with the Japanese guard, but you will definitely get to know him and his motivations and, dare I say it, his character even develops as the film progresses. However, the most interesting character is his British opposite, played by none other than (the original) Obi-wan Kenobi himself, Sir Alec Guinness. He's a man in charge of both keeping his soldiers' morale up, but also the 'good name' of the British army/Empire. He'll go to almost any lengths to ensure that neither are brought down in reputation in any way. And, his choices lead to some interesting outcomes which I won't go into in great details here.So, if you're looking for an outright war film, you won't really find it here. Instead, you'll get (quite a long) character study about stubborn madness, maybe even a little 'Stockholm Syndrome' and - what I perceived as - a variation on the 'Captain Ahab and his whale' type story. Alternatively, if you're just looking to see what old Ben Kenobi looked like without a lightsabre, you'll find that here, too.

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a remarkable epic by David Lean, and in my opinion, better than his later work of Lawrence of Arabia. The trials and tribulations of the various people on both sides, trying to make their way through a war and return home with honor, while separated from combat in the confines of a remote POW camp, makes for a gripping tale. It also provides provocative material on leadership and duty. As a military man myself, it is interesting to see how Nicholson (Alec Guinness in his best performance) attempts to balance and justify helping and serving his men while also subjugating himself to a degree of collaboration with the enemy and gaining personal honor for himself. Saito's struggles in having to swallow his pride and admit reliance upon those he has imprisoned is also fascinating.The resulting climax of this movie is a spectacular finish to an epic adventure through both the jungle and the human condition. This film is a must see for anyone.