Sadly Over-hyped

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the absolute best. I first saw this movie about half a year ago, in October last year, when I saw the ending; I decided that I was going to rewatch it for a very long time

If you watch The Bridge on the River Kwai and find yourself simultaneously admiring the spirit, the cheer, and the competence of the English, and finding it strangely insufferable, you are meant to do just that -- because this is a movie ultimately about the strange contradictions in the human heart. Alec Guinness is beyond superb, and I choose the word "beyond" advisedly: You cheer for him as he outlasts the hapless Japanese commandant, and yet it is all for what to the Japanese must seem a frivolous rule, a distinction between officers and men that should not have any purchase upon ragged soldiers in such a sweltering malarial hole as the valley of the Kwai. And the bridge, which is meant to transport Japanese supplies in occupied southeast Asia, the bridge, quite an impressive little feat of engineering, is built. Why? What is it for?All the principals in the film are at their peak: Guinness, the overmatched but deeply human commandant (Sessue Hayakawa, who won an Oscar for his role and deserved every gilded ounce of it), William Holden as the cynical American who detests Guinness more than he does Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins as an English don with a taste for explosives, and the young Gregory Horne as the all-in English schoolboy; and that's not to mention the beautiful and haunting-eyed Burmese women who lead Hawkins, Holden, and Horne through the jungle back to the Kwai.I'm an admirer of David Lean's films. This one has all the broad grandeur of Lawrence of Arabia, without the latter's occasional lunge into the baroque. "My God, what have I done?" Mr. Lean, what you have done is create a nearly flawless movie about some of the most important existential questions in human life.

The defining piece among David Lean's magna opera, THE BRIDHE ON THE RIVER KWAI ushers in Lean's artistically ripe years with his epic-scale storytelling coming about in the most picturesque locations among our mundane world. In the heart of its hearts, TBONRK is an anti-war infotainment, as it is book-ended by British Major Clipton's "it's madness!" exclamation after its breakneck finale, madness is constituent of war, no one can say otherwise, but as in any superlative narrative-leaning cinematic conception, Lean cannily adopts an ambiguous route in lieu of stating the obvious (one must also lure those ticket-buyers who are steeped in nationalism, patriotism and heroism into the auditorium) and lets the rousing spirit prevail among those allied WWII POWs in Burma, under the high-handed command of Japanese Colonel Saito (an Oscar- nominated Hayakawa, giving a forcibly layered presence against the role's discriminated condition), to build a bridge over the River Kwai that will connect Bangkok and Rangoon. The meat of the film's first half is a duel of will between British Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Guinness, walks away with his Oscar with august poise and solemn diction) and Saito, and who is the winner? The answer is as plain as the nose on anyone's face. Nicholson's obduracy ostensibly stems from his admired patriotism, to safeguard the last remnant of dignity against the ghastly adversity, but there is just a fine line between patriotism and jingoism, he will not bat an eye if he dies for his alleged good cause, naturally, it entails that no other lives can alter his mind, and shall we really extol such hidebound doctrine? This is where the film daringly touches a raw nerve in Nicholson's final triumph, why is he hailed by his fellow prisoners? He has done nothing for them from a pragmatic angle, what he achieves only fulfills his ego, an ego Lean beguilingly links with British's own colonial pride, to build a sturdy bridge in a foreign country and have his name inscribed in the plaque, disregarding its utilitarian consequences which will further extend the warfare and compound the affliction. On the other hand, we have the American Navy Commander Shears (an omnipotently, effortlessly charismatic Holden), who miraculously escapes from the prison camp alive, and swears that nothing can haul him back to that living hell. But, "there is always something unexpected", that is the tag-line of the picture, in the exchange between him and the British Major Warden (Jack Hawkins, spiking a dosage of empathy into his martinet blood), Shears is literally coerced into "volunteer" the mission to blow up the bridge because of his inconvenient "imposter" identity, yes, he is not a commander but a common soldier taking the uniform to secure better treatment in captivity (a very understandable action, surely is below Nicholson's hallowed principles). What happens in the second half actually shows that Shears' "insider" distinction makes no import in their mission or whatsoever, the army might just as well command any soldier as willing as the Canadian Lieutenant Joyce (Horne, a tenderfoot but swell swimmer), there is cruel irony seeping underneath the shock troops' daredevil heroism. As a rule, the mockery shouldn't be too offensive (it is not a vehement agitprop), Shears' penchant for hedonism and pragmatism alternates with Nicholson slippery to self-indulging delusion is the constantly battling tenors thrusting this film to the crunch, as Nicholson's "what have I done?" epiphany dished up with a ghost of vague contrition and followed by a chancy act of detonation, all we want to ask in the aftermath, is it really worth it?Apart from several peccadilloes, for instance, the technical incapacity of the Japanese party comes far too convenient (as it is not the case in reality) and the unpleasantness of war prisoners' state- of-play is categorically diluted, TBONRK is a sensational journey, peopled with vivid characters (its nearly male-exclusive cast, saving for some female exploitation footnotes, is all in full mettle), sublime landscape (including a striking worm's-eye view shot with collective wing-taking avifauna in the wake of gunshots) and well-imposed suspense, not to mention the food-for-thought deliberation it triggers in hindsight, one must see it to experience it!

A long film about "keeping a stiff upper lip", following orders, and leadership earned David Lean his first Best Director Oscar (though Howard Hawks was originally asked to direct it). Alec Guinness received his only Best Actor Oscar; Sessue Hayakawa his only nomination. This Academy Award winning Best Picture also won for Writing, Music, Editing, and Cinematography. Added to the National Film Registry in 1997. #13 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies list; #58 on AFI's 100 Most Heart-Pounding Movies list. #14 on AFI's 100 Most Inspiring Movies list.Guinness is the British Officer in charge of the P.O.W.s (including James Donald, among others) being held in a Japanese camp during World War II; Holden is an American among the prisoners who's lied about being an officer for the benefits therein, but escapes shortly after the captured British 'battalion' arrives. The ranking Japanese officer (Hayakawa) tries to force all the prisoners to build a train bridge in the jungle, but loses a "battle of wills" to Guinness, who insists that officers don't have to labor per the Geneva Convention.However, to keep his men's spirits up, Guinness agrees to build the bridge as long as he and his officers are put in charge. Faced with death if he doesn't meet the deadline for completion, Hayakawa acquiesces and subsequently "loses face". Safely in Ceylon, Holden is "found out" by a British Commando unit led by Jack Hawkins's character, and is more or less forced to join the team that plans to blow up the bridge before it can be used to assist the enemy.