The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai
by David Lean

The Bridge on the River Kwai
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, James Donald, Sessue Hayakawa, William Holden
Director: David Lean
Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
Cinematographer: Jack Hildyard
Editor: Peter Taylor
Producer: Sam Spiegel
Writer: Carl Foreman
Writer: Michael Wilson
Writer: Pierre Boulle
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 99
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 161 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-11-21
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures

Movie Reviews of The Bridge on the River Kwai

Movie Review: Veterans HATE this Movie
Summary: 1 Stars

A documentary on the History Channel interviewed many of the veterans who were POWs that actually lived through what the movie attempts to dramatize ... every single one of these vets hated what was portrayed in this movie. I don't care how good a movie was made, if it's an insult to the veterans who were there, then it's an embarrassment.

Summary of The Bridge on the River Kwai

ALLIED COMMANDOS ARE DISPATCHED DEEP INSIDE THE BURMESE JUNGLETO BLOW UP A STATEGIC BRIDGE BUILT BY BRITISH POWS. SPECIAL FEATURES: SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, PORTUGUESE,CHINESE, KOREAN, AND THAI: LANGUAGES IN ENGLISH, FRENCH,SPANISH AND PORTUGUES: THEATRICAL TRAILERS AND MUCH MORE.
Director David Lean's masterful 1957 realization of Pierre Boulle's novel remains a benchmark for war films, and a deeply absorbing movie by any standard--like most of Lean's canon, The Bridge on the River Kwai achieves a richness in theme, narrative, and characterization that transcends genre.

The story centers on a Japanese prison camp isolated deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where the remorseless Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) has been charged with building a vitally important railway bridge. His clash of wills with a British prisoner, the charismatic Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), escalates into a duel of honor, Nicholson defying his captor's demands to win concessions for his troops. How the two officers reach a compromise, and Nicholson becomes obsessed with building that bridge, provides the story's thematic spine; the parallel movement of a team of commandos dispatched to stop the project, led by a British major (Jack Hawkins) and guided by an American escapee (William Holden), supplies the story's suspense and forward momentum.

Shot on location in Sri Lanka, Kwai moves with a careful, even deliberate pace that survivors of latter-day, high-concept blockbusters might find lulling--Lean doesn't pander to attention deficit disorders with an explosion every 15 minutes. Instead, he guides us toward the intersection of the two plots, accruing remarkable character details through extraordinary performances. Hayakawa's cruel camp commander is gradually revealed as a victim of his own sense of honor, Holden's callow opportunist proves heroic without softening his nihilistic edge, and Guinness (who won a Best Actor Oscar, one of the production's seven wins) disappears as only he can into Nicholson's brittle, duty-driven, delusional psychosis. His final glimpse of self-knowledge remains an astonishing moment--story, character, and image coalescing with explosive impact.

Like Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai has been beautifully restored and released in a highly recommended widescreen version that preserves its original aspect ratio. --Sam Sutherland


Director David Lean's masterful 1957 realization of Pierre Boulle's novel remains a benchmark for war films, and a deeply absorbing movie by any standard--like most of Lean's canon, The Bridge on the River Kwai achieves a richness in theme, narrative, and characterization that transcends genre.

The story centers on a Japanese prison camp isolated deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where the remorseless Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) has been charged with building a vitally important railway bridge. His clash of wills with a British prisoner, the charismatic Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), escalates into a duel of honor, Nicholson defying his captor's demands to win concessions for his troops. How the two officers reach a compromise, and Nicholson becomes obsessed with building that bridge, provides the story's thematic spine; the parallel movement of a team of commandos dispatched to stop the project, led by a British major (Jack Hawkins) and guided by an American escapee (William Holden), supplies the story's suspense and forward momentum.

Shot on location in Sri Lanka, Kwai moves with a careful, even deliberate pace that survivors of latter-day, high-concept blockbusters might find lulling--Lean doesn't pander to attention deficit disorders with an explosion every 15 minutes. Instead, he guides us toward the intersection of the two plots, accruing remarkable character details through extraordinary performances. Hayakawa's cruel camp commander is gradually revealed as a victim of his own sense of honor, Holden's callow opportunist proves heroic without softening his nihilistic edge, and Guinness (who won a Best Actor Oscar, one of the production's seven wins) disappears as only he can into Nicholson's brittle, duty-driven, delusional psychosis. His final glimpse of self-knowledge remains an astonishing moment--story, character, and image coalescing with explosive impact.

Like Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai has been beautifully restored and released in a highly recommended widescreen version that preserves its original aspect ratio. --Sam Sutherland

Stills from The Bridge on the River Kwai (click for larger image)







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