It succeeds largely because it makes us care about its principal players.
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
This movie was so popular when it was made, it inspired a joke every school kid knew: "Why'd the little girl cut onions in the river? To see 'The Bridge on the River Kwai.'" Over four decades later the movie still holds up as one of the best war epics of all time. It succeeds largely because it makes us care about its principal players, unlike many of today's action movies, which rely mainly on digital effects, pyrotechnics, and loud, uninspired soundtracks.
"Bridge" won seven Academy Awards in 1957: Best Picture, Best Director (David Lean), Best Actor (Alec Guinness), Best Cinematography (Jack Hildyard), Best Editing (Peter Taylor), Best Scoring (Malcolm Arnold), and Best Screenplay (credited to novelist Pierre Boulle because the actual screenwriters, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, were blacklisted at the time). "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is one of the great must-see blockbusters of modern cinema, and Columbia TriStar's Limited Edition two-DVD set gives it due credit.
It's a small wonder the film did so well, given the simplicity of its plot. British prisoners of war build a bridge. British saboteurs blow it up. But, of course, it's more than that. Based on Pierre Boulle's novel, it is a magnificent psychological study and character clash as well as an epic action adventure. The story is divided into two parts. I'll tell you something of part one, in case you've somehow missed seeing the film, and a hint at part two. The scene is 1943 and a Japanese POW camp in the Burmese jungle, part of a link in a proposed Bangkok to Rangoon railway that requires the camp prisoners build a bridge to accommodate the movement of Japanese troops. The camp commandant, Col. Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), is under orders to complete the bridge by a given date. The colonel feels that if he doesn't get the job done on time, he will have to kill himself. It's that important a task that he cannot lose face.
The first character we meet is Commander Shears (William Holden), a cynical, selfish American naval officer. His specialty is goldbricking, no easy trick in this POW camp. So, when into their midst marches a new bevy of British prisoners led by their hard-nosed first officer, Col. Nicholson (Alec Guinness), Shears doesn't give them much chance for survival. He's buried too many good men in the nearby graveyard to think that these prisoners will be any different, especially given the martinet nature of their leader.
The foremost thing Saito wants Col. Nicholson to do is order his officers to work along with the enlisted men. Nicholson refuses on principle, citing the Geneva Convention's rules of war against such a condition. Saito is not interested in "rules." He wants to get his bridge built. Most of the next hour is taken up in a battle of nerves between Saito and Nicholson, as Saito tries to coerce Nicholson into cooperating. Needless to say, Nicholson never gives in, even if it means death to him and his officers, and the British undergo much physical abuse. Both Saito and Nicholson are headstrong in their beliefs to the point of the ridiculous. Col. Nicholson eventually wins when Saito finally realizes he's never going to get his bridge built without Nicholson's help. Meanwhile, Shears manages to escape the camp and finds his way to British-held Ceylon. There he intends to relax until he can get shipped back to the States.
We enter part two: Col. Nicholson decides it's in the best interests of his men's morale to give them something substantial to do, so he agrees to build Saito's bridge for him and, going a little cuckoo, to do a first-rate job at that! Back in Ceylon, a reluctant Shears is persuaded to return to the POW camp as part of a commando team led by a dedicated officer, Major Warden (Jack Hawkins); it is here, naturally, where the bulk of the action occurs. The result of this psychological conflict and derring-do is film entertainment that appeals to the mind as well as the senses.
Director David Lean was no stranger to screen legends when he came to do "Bridge." He had already made "Blithe Spirit," "Brief Encounter," "Great Expectations," and "Oliver Twist." He was later responsible for "Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago," "Ryan's Daughter," and "A Passage to India." And one of his favorite actors was Alec Guinness. William Holden may have gotten star billing, but it's Guinness who commands our attention (and who won the Oscar). He is brilliant in his portrayal of the unrelenting, inflexible commanding officer who places pride and principle before the realities of life and war. He is more than a little mad at the beginning and gets more so as the story proceeds. Sessue Hayakawa is almost as good as the equally stubborn Japanese commandant who must grit his teeth and bear the humiliation of losing face to a crazy British officer if he is ever to get his bridge built. Holden's depiction of the hero is more in line with what we commonly think of in terms of standard war films--rugged and stalwart once he makes up his mind.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]5727[/release]