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The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

December. 14,1957
|
8.1
|
PG
| Drama History War

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

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Exoticalot
1957/12/14

People are voting emotionally.

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Beystiman
1957/12/15

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

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Aneesa Wardle
1957/12/16

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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Fatma Suarez
1957/12/17

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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adrian-43767
1957/12/18

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

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bowmanblue
1957/12/19

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.

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Tweekums
1957/12/20

In Japanese prisoner of war camp in Burma a camp a newly arrived group of British prisoners are told that they are to construct a bridge over the River Kwai. Their CO, Lt Col Nicholson, informs the camp commandant, Colonel Saito, that as per the Geneva Convention he and his officers will not work. Saito orders the officers placed in a punishment cell while Nicholson is put in an iron 'hot box'. While they are being punished the man work on the bridge but progress is very slow. There is also an escape attempt by American prisoner Commander Shears and two British prisoners; the latter are shot and killed and it looks as though Shears is dead too after being shot at and falling into the river. As the progress of the bridge falls further and further behind schedule Saito talks to Nicholson; the latter tells him that his men would do a better job if led by their own officers… soon he has effectively taken over the project; moving the bridge to a better location, coming up with a better design and the moral of the men is improving… but in the process is he guilty of helping the enemy.Shears survives the fall into the river, and with the help of local villagers recovers and is eventually rescued and taken to a hospital in Ceylon. Here he is recruited, somewhat against his will, by Major Warden who is planning to lead a small group into the jungle to destroy the bridge.This film is rightly considered a classic; its cast doing a great job telling an interesting story. Alec Guinness is on top form as Col Nicholson as he gradually changes from an officer who bravely stands up to his captors to somebody who could be considered to be aiding the enemy; his motives are the moral and wellbeing of his men but as completion of the bridge nears he is clearly proud of the work they have done. William Holden impresses as Shears, a character who provides some of the films few lighter moments. Jack Hawkins is also on good form as Major Warden.This can be considered a film of two halves; the first concerning what is going on in the camp with Nicolson risking all to stand up to the Japanese and the second which largely follows the planning and execution of the raid against the bridge with occasional returns to the camp where we see Nicholson accidentally slipping into collaboration. There are of course some problems; most notably the character of Nicholson; it is unlikely that a senior British officer would have behaved the way he did… the officer he is loosely based on certainly didn't. This isn't an action packed film but it is certainly tense and never boring. What action there is, is impressive. Overall I'd definitely recommend this classic film… I'd also recommend reading a little about the actual events which inspired this work of fiction.

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mcaton15
1957/12/21

I watched this movie with my grandma at night she was over, everyone else was gone to bed and we were looking through Netflix for a movie to watch. After some looking we stumbled across Bridge on The River Kwai. Being an elder person herself she remembered it from her childhood, so we watched it. The film is slow, yes. But that doesn't harm it, even though it's 160 minutes long, it "only" feels as it is 2 hours long. This length gives you the ability to care about our principal cast. And the ending, though without grand dramatic music is extremely intense. And grandma and I where both at the edge of our seats. I've read that this movie is not completely historically accurate, this does not bother me as this isn't a documentary but a work of fiction to enjoyed. Definitely recommend to anyone with a love for film making, and it does sadden me that this film isn't rated higher, an all time classic.

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