The Bridge on the River Kwai

Rating:
Summary: The Bridge As It Should Be Seen
Review: Like many people, I saw the BOTRK on television first, back in the media-challenged 1960's. Even through the pan and scan and low-res color of those ancient TV's, Lean's film riveted me to the screen. It wasn't until the late 1980's and hi-end VHS releases of films came out that I finally saw the widescreen version, and saw what I'd been missing for years. Lean was one of the few directors who could fill the widescreen and create drama without cutting a film to pieces in an attempt to generate excitement.

Alec Guiness etched himself into the ages with his performance as the pathological Col. Nicholson who abides by the letter of the law to the point of utter lunacy. When he and Sessue Hayakawa face off one sees the immovable object meeting the irressistable force. The whole attempt at breaking Nicholson plays like a prison/chain-gang film from the 1930's, but there is more at stake here - Nicholson's view is that order should be prevail regardless of circumstances, while Saito's view is that circumstances dictate order. The class and racial issues emenate from this conflict like waves of radioactivity.

William Holden appears in this film as a means of getting American finance - but he is nonetheless effective as the shirker, fraud, hero and cynic(his character from Sunset Boulevard onwards). Jack Hawkins is suitabily manipulative as the Oxford Don turned demonlition man.

But the real star of this film is the jungle matched to the widescreen. The sweep of green tangle in which this drama enacts strangles the life and sanity from the people enmeshed in the struggle. Lean knew how to create shots in depth, so his films are always more than what the characters are doing on the screen.

Like Apocalypse Now, another tale of Western soldiers in the jungle, this production was fraught with difficulties, the most damaging of which was a cameraman's failure to shoot the more important angle of the bridge's destruction. In the CGI world this could never happen, but in the awesome realtime destruction of BOTRK, Lean's crew had to rebuild the bridge, rescue the train, and redo the shot. It was worth it.

The DVD restores this film to it's proper aspect ration, sound, and probably has better color than the original, although, having never seen it in a theatre, I can't say.

For a real and disturbing look at what actually happened in Japanese POW camps, read "Prisoners of the Sun."

Rating:
Summary: an absolute classic
Review: A film by David Lean

The Bridge on the River Kwai is based on the fantastic novel by Pierre Boulle. The movie won 7 out of the 8 Academy Awards it was nominated for, including: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Alec Guinness). Watching the movie for the first time 45 years later, I'm happy to say that the film still holds up well over time.

It is a simple story. Set during World War II, the Japanese have a prison camp in Southeast Asia. They have an entire command of British prisoners of war, as well as a couple of Americans. The commander of the prison, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa, in an Oscar nominated performance) needs to have a bridge built across the River Kwai. The prisoners are to build it. This sets up a clash of will between Saito and Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), the officer in charge of the British. Nicholson still wants to lead his command, despite being in prison. He allows that the soldiers should work (to build morale, discipline, and to keep in shape), but absolutely forbids his officers to do manual labor. Saito demands that everyone works. Both men hold to their own personal code of honor and it is an intense emotional stand off between the two. While this is happening, the British soldiers are building Saito's bridge. Nicholson requires that take pride in their work and build the best possible bridge that they can.

That is half of the movie. The other half involves an American POW named Shears (William Holden). Shears seems to be fairly opportunistic and only out for himself. He manages to escape from the POW camp and eventually makes his way to freedom. While free and living at a British military base (waiting until he can return home), he is recruited into a mission to destroy the bridge that Nicholson is building. The bridge is strategically important and reluctantly Shears agrees. The storylines are separate for a while, but they do all come together near the end when the bridge is being completed and Shears (with British forces) are arriving to destroy the bridge.

This movie is a classic, and there is a very good reason for that. 45 years later (or so), The Bridge on the River Kwai is still a very good movie. This isn't your typical action movie with explosions every 10 minutes, but David Lean does a good job of building the tension throughout the movie. It may have some deliberate pacing at times, but if you're a fan of the classic movies, this is one you have to watch.

Rating:
Summary: DVD Bonus Material
Review: I was 12 when BOTRK owened and I've grown up with it. While the DVD transfer is excellent (picture and sound), what I am always after is the BONUS material. If you know the film as well as I do, seeing the BONUS disk first will add tremendously to your enjoyment of the feature.
The longer documentary (about 40 minutes - much of it in widescreen and color) is enough in itself. The other featurettes are mostly a b/w review of what you've already seen. The tid-bits are fascinating: the SHEERS character (William Holden) is not in the novel and was added simply to get an American male star attached to the picture for box office appeal. The same thing is true of the various women who appear, from SHEER's brief love interest in Ceylon to the women bearers who carry equipment through the jungle - all added to inhance international appeal. Most interesting was the story of Lean's harassment of Japanese star Hayakawa (COL. SIATO). He has to cry in one sequence and just couldn't get it. Lean yelled at him constantly, saying he was a bad actor. When Hayakawa did the scene again, he was actually crying! Also, when Guiness is in the "hot box" or "sweat box", he begged Lean for something cool to sit on; Lean refused and Guiness sweated real sweat! The train wreck that actually wrecked the train BEFORE they blew up the bridge, etc. I kind-of liked the Bonus Disk more than the feature. But that is the true beauty of DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Classic "Lean" epic about true WW2 exploit
Review: David Lean blossomed as a film director during the 50's. While he directed a number of earlier classics during the 40's, Bridge on the River Kwai was the first of many epic films that never lost the most important part of any epic tale--the human element.

Bridge focuses on the Japanese attempt to build a bridge linking their railroad through a perilous jungle in Southeast Asia. The prisoners of war are used essentially as slave labor to reach this goal. Colonel Nicholson(Alec Guinness who won an Oscar)are captured with his British troops. Nicholson's can-do attitude creates a myopic outlook which prevents him from seeing that he is collaborating with the enemy when he agrees to help complete the bridge. It's the infusion that Japanese Prison Commander Saito needs; his prisoner worker population is shrinking rapidly. Dysintery, Malaria, heatstroke and other inhabitants of the jungle have killed most of the workers. The bridge is behind schedule and the Colonel Saito is very displeased.

One of the last remaining prisoners is Shears (played with marvelous cynicism by William Holden). He just wants to do as little as possible and return home alive and well from the war. He has an escape plan. When he informs Nicholson of this, he's told that the British will not attempt to escape as there "is no place to escape to". Nicholson feels they'll be better treated in the camp and doesn't want his troops to face the harsh jungle. He orders his troops not to escape given the circumstances.

Shears and two other prisoners make a break for it. Of the three only Shears survives, is shot and eventually found within Allied territory. He's taken to a British stronghold to recover. Shears provides info on the bridge. He doesn't want become involved in an effort to go back and blow it up. Blackmailed by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins)he ends up volunteering for the mission with Warden and one other American.

Lean's direction captures the atmosphere of the jungle perfectly. While amazon.com rates the image as a 4 out of 5, I'd give it a 3. While a restoration effort was attempted, it's nowhere near as complete as that done for Lawrence of Arabia (another Lean film)or Hitchcock's Vertigo and Rear Window. Bridge has a much more brutal look which captures the essence of the jungle and the odds facing Shears and Warden. On the other hand, the film has a lot of analog artifacts and, although I can't be certain, looks like the negative has faded a bit. While it isn't in as bad a condition as Lawrence (or Vertigo)was, it certainly could use a face lift to improve the appearence.

The sound is pretty good overall. Columbia has expanded the original soundtrack into a Dolby 5.1 master and, while it doesn't take advantage of the full range, it coulds much better than the earlier VHS edition.

There are two editions of this classic film. The first has a second disc full of worthwhile extras that includes behind the scenes footage, a documentary on the film, appreciation by director John Millius many more items. The two disc set is certainly worthwhile for fans of the film.

The single disc edition is a dual layer like the first disc of the two disc set. It looks like it came from the same master. It features the full film, trailers and a brief talent biography on Holden, Guinness, Hawkins and Lean. It hasn't been updated since Guinness' death a couple of years ago. It's not bare bones but for the price difference it should suffice for most fans. It features the same interactive menu (a clever use of actual scenes from the movie)and a motion scene selection.

Bridge is a great film and it's certainly worthwhile in either edition. Which one you purchase depends on how much of a fan you are of the film and whether or not you'll watch the background material more than one time. The picture and sound are very good but it's also clear that Columbia sound undertake a more complete restoration of the this classic film.

Oh, a bit of trivia--the main titles have been changed. When the film was released screenwriters Michael Wilson (Lawrence of Arabia, Planet of the Apes) and Carl Foreman (The Guns of Navarone)were still blacklisted writers in Hollywood. Novelist Piere Boulle (who spoke no English)fronted for them receiving screenplay credit and received the Oscar for screenplay. It's only fitting that their names have finally been added to the opening credits. This happened shortly before Foreman's death (if I'm not mistaken)so at least one of them lived to see a wrong righted. Both (or their heirs)also finally received their Oscars with their names engraved. It was fitting given the film's themes and the price the main character (a stand in, no doubt, for both Wilson and Foreman)pays in the film.

Rating:
Summary: An epic World War II masterpiece
Review: After more than forty years, this movie remains one of the great war movies of all time. It proves that you don't need an enormous budget, a teen idol, and stuff blowing up all over the place to make a World War 2 masterpiece. The movie centers around a bridge being build by Allied POWs over the Kwai river (hence the title). Colonel Saito is the man in charge of the bridge, and the British Colonel Nicholson (played by Alec Guinness) is commander of the British POW troops. An American, Shears (William Holden), escapes from the camp, and later guides a crack British demolitions team back to the site of the bridge so they can blow it up.

A large part of the movie centers around the power struggle between Saito and Nicholson. The latter refuses to be treated harshly, and insists that his British forces will not cooperate in building the bridge unless he and the other officers can lead the project and do not have to do manual labor. Saito is a hardheaded despot, who cares nothing for Geneva convention rules but is forced to compromise if he wants his bridge finished on time. Throughout the movie, these two butt heads until they finally reach an understanding, and from that point on they work together very admirably and build a fine bridge.

The problem with having built such a spectacular bridge, however (in which Nicholson rightly takes great pride), is that the allies want to blow it up. At the end of the film, Nicholson is forced to make a choice between his pet project and his loyalty to his country. The result is a suspensful finale worthy of this great epic production.

The scenery is beautiful, the cinematography grand, the performances exceptionally great. No wonder this film won 7 Oscars. This is rightly considered one of the best movies ever made.

Rating:
Summary: Has Masterpiece Quality
Review: The jungles and mountainpeaks, rivers and animals make this a cinematic masterpiece. I would love to visit Ceylon but of course not during war. Its beauty is just absolute. The picture's story was also quite good. The overall theme to me was is there honor in wartime. To we become quite human and do what we can to survive or do we cling to the rules and stay soldiers to the end. In the movie Alec Guiness plays the rule oriented Major caught in a prison camp being told to build a bridge with his other subordinates, should he keep up the farce and play Major or leader until they are freed, following the rules no matter if it kills him. William Holden who is one of the subordinates disagrees, one other sees his point. Guiness becomes obsessed with his leadership and the bridge is his projection of obsession and his eventual demise. A stunning visual feast. Ceylon is and should be a dream come true not a place for negative energy to florish.
Lisa Nary

Rating:
Summary: "Madness... Madness" and Yet
Review: Directed by David Lean, this film focuses on an attempt by a team led by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) to destroy a strategically important bridge over the Kwai river in Burma in 1943, a bridge built by British prisoners during World War II. An epic in every possible sense, the inhumanities of the Japanese are probably underplayed somewhat so that we can focus on two essential conflicts of will, one between Japanese Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) and British Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) and the other between Warden and Shears (William Holden) who is forced to join Warden's team and thereby avoid a court martial for impersonating a U.S. naval officer. It should also be noted that Nicholson struggles with a conflict between his obligations as a British officer (i.e. to resist his enemy in any and every possible way) and his determination to demonstrate British superiority over the Japanese captors. Colonel Saito has his own conflicts, notably between imposing his will on Nicholson and the British troops and getting the bridge built. At the heart of this magnificent film are several moral dilemmas which help to explain why we become so emotionally involved with its narrative.

One of the many pleasures of seeing this film (especially in its DVD format) is the juxtaposition of lush tropical settings with the raw emotions of those who are building the bridge and those who are determined to destroy it. I am also struck by how carefully Lean develops the semi-adversarial relationships between Nicholson and Saito and between Warden and Shears. Although "Madness... Madness" is frequently quoted as an evaluation of those relationships, I disagree. Saito has been ordered to built the bridge, Nicholson agrees to accomplish that task but on his terms, Warden has been assigned to destroy it, and Shears (who considers all this "madness" but plays a key role in achieving that objective) lacks the circumspection which Lean enables us to have. Of course, war itself is madness...and yet there is (or at least can be) a redeeming if misguided integrity in how adversaries conduct themselves amidst that madness.

The excellence of this film was acknowledged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, receiving in 1957 seven Oscars for  Best Actor (Guinness). Best Adapted Screenplay (Pierre Boulle), Best Cinematography (Jack Hildyard), Best Director (Lean), Best Editing (Peter Taylor), and Best Score (Malcolm Arnold). Years later, it was ranked #13 among "America's Greatest Movies" by the American Film Institute. I consider it ludicrous that Gone With the Wind (#4) is ranked higher than The Bridge on the River Kwai by the AFI. For those with a sensitive palate, the former is junk food whereas the latter is gourmet cuisine.

Rating:
Summary: Very possibly the greatest war movie ever.
Review: This is a great movie about a great story. It was a big budget movie featuring awesome scenery and cinamatography. As if that were not enough, the film is embellished with bravo performances by William Holden, Alec Guiness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa and others. No wonder "Kwai" won no fewer than seven academy awards in 1957 including Best Picture.

The story is brutally simple. British (and one or two American) POWs in Southeast Asia are being forced to work in railway gangs for the Japanese. The struggle between the British POWs and the Japanese makes for a great story, as the British Senior POW and the Japanese commander engage in a battle of wills. The outcome of the film packs a wallop, and I found it to be very satisfying. This movie never drags, and is punctuated with humor although the overall tone is deadly serious.

One nice thing about this film is that although it does not in any way glorify war or whitewash the awful consequences of war, it also avoids gratuitous violence, and is suitable for fairly young viewers to watch.

This is quite possibly the greatest war movie ever made. What more can one say?

Rating:
Summary: london bridges in Japan
Review: The movie is about a Japanese prisoner of war camp, during World War II, and a British unit that enters into it with a commander who is determined to keep unity and professionalism during their imprisonment, a truly noble idea. However, he is faced with a POW camp leader who doesn't abide by the rules. At the same time there is another important character; this is one American leader who has been prisoner at the camp since it was built. He just wants to escape and look out for his own interest. The director does a good job of contrasting both the stubborn and proud British officer to the independent and cunning American leader, and this can be said to compare and contrast the stereotypical Americans and the British in general during World War II. I liked how these views came into conflict, but in my opinion it took to long to show the conflict and then too long to resolve it. Well, it's okay, maybe one to chalk up among the many World War II movies you should see but it's nothing special.

Rating:
Summary: Should be a very limited edition
Review: About as offensive as it gets. One of the great crimes against British POW's depicts us as having collaborated with the enemy to the point that they decide to turn the camp into Butlins on our behalf. If ever there was a case for war then Japanese imperialism is it but as usual liberal film makers want an anti-war statement that makes us the cultural imperialists who make the Japanese commander feel bad about himself. Altogether now, ahhhhhhh. And this wasn't made all that long after the war, either. Saying it doesn't really matter because it's a good yarn and well made is for the morally weak. Not that I actually have any morals, but if I had, that last statement would sound impressively statesman like, I assure you.