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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Wrong river but great story
This is one of those movies worth re-watching. All the things you expect from the British when they are captured by the Japanese and forced to build a bridge.
This movie was shot in Sri Lanka as it best fit the story. However the real river was not the Kwai. That just happened to be a better name for the river. And the real bridge was not wooden.
My favorite character was William Holden as Shears, The only pragmatic charter in the movie. Shears did not have to keep a stiff upper lip or save face or any of that sort of stuff. Where as Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson and Sessue Hayakawa as Colonel Saito, had to go face to face with each other's interpretation of honor.
This is best depicted in one statement from Shears:
"You make me sick with your heroics. There's a stench of death about you. You carry it in your pack like the plague. Explosives and L-pills -- they go well together, don't they? And with you it's just one thing or the other: destroy a bridge or destroy yourself. This is just a game, this war! You and Colonel Nicholson, you're two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what? How to die like a gentleman... how to die by the rules... when the only important thing is how to live like a human being."
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Previous edition repackaged and repriced. . .
Sony has reissued their previous 2-DVD edition of David Lean's BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI in a new package. No new material, but a lower list price, so it's within the reach of most fans of epic storytelling. Also check out Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, given the same treatment. Two fine, fine films, deserving of the double dip.
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A Movie Classic!
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!
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Timeless Entertainment
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
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Bridge on the River Kwai
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.
