The Bridge on the River Kwai
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Movie Reviews of The Bridge on the River Kwai
Movie Review: A Movie Classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my all time favorite movies and I needed to upgrade from the tape to a DVD. Amazon service and pricing was as always the best!Movie Review: Timeless Entertainment
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to confess, this is not my first review of THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. Way back (and I mean waaaay back) in college, my freshman English Composition teacher informed her students for extra credit she would welcome a critique of this movie, which was showing over the weekend on one of the local TV channels. I had heard of the film (which had been theatrically released some twenty years before), but had never seen it. "You will be pleasantly surprised," my instructor advised.
And I was. After viewing this David Lean epic, I eagerly wrote a two-page critique (which I still have, somewhere). I don't remember what kind of a grade I got. . .I only remember how impressed I was with this sweeping, grand tale of honor, duty, grit, and madness. And having just seen this movie again, I continue to be impressed. This Oscar winner is as timeless in its entertainment value today as it was three decades ago, or five decades ago. Like the bridge itself, Lean patiently builds this story to a remarkable climax, an absolute showstopper.
No need to summarize the plot; it's been thoroughly and impressively presented on the product page. What bears repeating is this is a hauntingly beautiful film where antagonists suddenly find themselves completely and irrevocably interdependent: the Japanese need the British POWs to build a railroad bridge over the River Kwai; the Brits need this project, this bridge to aid their enemy, to stay busy, focused, and boost their morale. And yet, so ironically, a special forces team has been dispatched to destroy this interdependency; all these components explode (pardon the pun) when brought together, when hard decisions have to be made in the blink of an eye.
Alec Guinness is absolutely sensational as the stubborn, by-the-book leader of the POWs; I've seen this great actor in several movies, yet this will forever remain his signature role. Jack Hawkins, William Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa are exceptional, too. David Lean (who, curiously enough, was not even the studio's first, second, or even third choice for director) has achieved cinematic immortality with THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, a masterpiece that fluidly transcends the generations.
--D. Mikels, Author, Walk-On
Movie Review: Bridge on the River Kwai
Summary: 5 Stars
An excellent portrayal of life in a Japanese prison camp. This was so well done that the exceptional quality of the filming shines out over some of the films created today.Movie Review: "Madness... madness... "
Summary: 5 Stars
I haven't seen David Lean's award-winning "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) for so long that I forgot how great it is. It's not a conventional war film and therefore there's very little action; the "action" is mostly psychological. I remember watching it on TV a few times with my dad when I was about 7-10 years old and even then, with such little understanding of the world and its social workings, I was fascinated by the picture and knew it was great -- even then.
THE PLOT: A platoon of British soldiers are brought to a Japanese POW camp in Burma during World War II to help build a strategic railway bridge over the River Kwai. The Jap Colonel in charge of the camp, Saito, insists that the British officers work along with the enlisted men. The British Colonel, Nicholson, stubbornly objects to this based upon the Geneva Convention, a copy of which he carries around in his pocket. He insists that there are rules to be followed, even in war. What ensues is a battle of wills between the two. Ultimately Nicholson is put in charge of building the bridge, which he takes so much pride in he fails to see that he's aiding the enemy. Meanwhile, an American sailor, Shears, escapes the camp and later leads a group of Brits on a mission to destroy the bridge.
Although Colonel Nicholson, played by Alec Guinness, is a fascinating character -- an ultra-proper stiff-upper-lip Brit -- and certainly worthy of respect as far as his utter boldness goes, he's what my dad would call a "goon." (My dad served during WWII and died in 1988). Nicholson is so infected by pride, stubbornness and a sense of superiority that he can't see the obvious. Yes, he's a realistic and fascinating character, but I find him to be a total moron, who can't see the forest for the trees. It goes without saying that I can't relate to him at all.
Colonel Saito, the Japanese commander of the camp, ultimately accepts that it's in his best interest to allow Nicholson to believe he's running the show in order to get the bridge built. This is obviously a struggle for Saito because he has pride as well; but he refuses to allow it to get in the way of fulfilling his mission. 'Let Nicholson build the bridge and believe he's in charge and superior,' he seems to figure, 'In reality he's my pawn and a pawn of the Japanese military machine.' (Others may interpret this scenario differently, likely suggesting that Saito is the loser in the test of wills, moping around in bewildered defeat throughout the rest of the picture, but that's not what's really going on here IMHO).
William Holden expertly plays Shears, the American who escapes the camp and comes back to attempt to destroy the bridge. He's the the character I relate to most. On the surface he appears completely selfish -- doing whatever he must to survive, including lying and bribing. Shears has lived with the madness of war the longest and naturally develops a sarcastic, anti-hero callousness to protect himself and survive with his sanity intact. Despite the negative, selfish vibe you'll initially get from Shears, he never loses his humanity. He refuses to become an inhuman machine like Nicholson or Major Warden (Jack Hawkins), the latter whom leads the British mission to destroy the bridge.
For example, as Warden and his party travel through the jungle Warden becomes injured and insists that the rest leave him behind to die, arguing that he would do precisely the same if anyone else was injured. Shears blows up at this point; he's seen enough of this idiotic machine-like do-or-die mentality. He yells, "You make me sick with your heroics! ... You and Colonel Nicholson, you're two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what? How to die like gentlemen? How to die by the rules? When the only important thing is how to live like a human being!"
As captivating as the first hour is with the psychological conflict between Nicholson and Saito, the remaining hour and 41 minutes is even more engaging as the two storylines develop and ultimately converge: Nicholson building the bridge and celebrating its completion, along with his now-comrade Saito, while Shears & Warden and their team travel to the bridge and attempt to implement it's destruction.
I just saw the film the other day but hadn't seen it for 8 years or so and actually forgot exactly how it ended, as far as who dies, etc. Don't worry, I'm not going to give any major details away; you've probably forgotten the details as well, that is, if you've even seen it before. In any event, the ending is brilliant and potent. The Allied doctor of the camp looks on in utter disbelief at the climatic results. "Madness... madness..." is all he can manage to mutter. Powerful.
Needless to say, this is filmmaking of the highest order on every level. The Sri Lanka (Ceylon) locations are breath-taking. The only negative I can muster is that parts of the score are understandably dated seeing as how it was released in 1957. But that whistling theme is hugely memorable, of course.
I could probably write a book about all the great scenes, lines and points the film makes but I'd rather you discover (or re-discover) everything for yourself. There's so much depth here that you'll get something new with each viewing. It goes without saying that "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is one of the best pictures ever made and one of my all-time favorites.
Movie Review: "With you it's one thing or the other, destroy the bridge or destroy yourself!"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Take a good look, Clifton. One day the war will be over. And I hope that the people who use this bridge in years to come will remember how it was built and who built it - not a gang of slaves, but soldiers, British soldiers, Clifton, even in captivity."
Still one of David Lean's very best films despite its faults, unlike most of his epics, the plot of The Bridge on the River Kwai is focused enough to allow the film its debate on the nature of heroism and command without seeming forced, and is divided clearly into two halves. The first is a battle of wills between two madmen and their respective codes of honour; the British Colonel Nicholson, who seeks to turn defeat into victory, and the Japanese Colonel Saito, whose cruelty comes from his inability to see his lack of shame over their surrender.
Nicholson is so determined to use the building of the bridge as a weapon against his Japanese captors to rebuild his troops' morale that he is blind to the strategic consequences ("I hope these Japanese appreciate what we're doing for them." mutters Donald's medical officer). As Nicholson exceeds his requirements, he assumes Saito's role, even to the point of forcing officers and those on the sick list to work - the very points they had earlier clashed over - forcing the Japanese Colonel to face a surrender of his own. Ultimately reduced to the meek voice of acquiescence at one of their conferences, he alone achieves his objective but only at the cost of his self-respect. He alone realises what he has become.
The second half is more standard adventure fare, as anti-heroic escaped prisoner Holden (his casting clearly based on his similar role in Stalag 17) is press-ganged into returning to the bridge with gung-ho masochist Jack Hawkins to blow it up. If at the camp Donald is the voice of common sense, Holden is the voice of the common man. Faced with the wounded Hawkins' self-sacrificing heroics, he responds with a tirade against everything he stands for; ("With you it's one thing or the other, destroy the bridge or destroy yourself!"). But though he rejects the insanity of heroic codes and proclaims that the only true dignity lies in survival, he dies upholding just such an ideal. This is just one of the contradictions of an undeniably problematic ending, which opts for the spectacular at the cost of much of the substance of the film.
In reality, the bridge was never destroyed, but Lean discards history to give the audience the large explosion they've been waiting for. Depicted with intriguing ambiguity as to Guinness' motives, it nonetheless tends to obliterate the assertion of Pierre Boulle's novel that all the suffering has been in vain by allowing a victory, albeit at hideous cost. War is no longer a pointless and vainglorious farce played with human lives, but a place where even a cynic and an unwitting collaborator can redeem themselves through the nobility of self-sacrifice.
Yet if ultimately the film lacks the commitment of Bryan Forbes astonishly bleak King Rat or even Spielberg's dark Empire of the Sun, there is still much to admire, not least a quartet of great performances from Guinness and the under-appreciated Holden, Hawkins and Hayakawa. Lean is much more in control of his narrative than when he started making love stories with casts of thousands, his masterful use of the Scope frame coming over particularly well in this restored version (no new footage but a cleaned-up print) which finally gives blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman their screen credits.