Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) Film Review
It's 1943 in the Burmese jungle. When a squad of British soldiers arrive at a Japanese PoW camp, they're forced into helping construct a railway bridge crucial to the enemy - until resolute British Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) intervenes. While a battle of wills between the two leaders ensues, American prisoner Major Shears (William Holden) escapes.
If you're going to watch The Bridge On The River Kwai, understand one thing: it's a long film. The first of David Lean's epics, there's oodles of spectacle and grand cinematography, but the running time feels like it goes on forever. Actually forever.
![Copy picture](/images/stills/b/bridge_on_the_river_kwai_1957_1.jpg)
Now, it's an Oscar-grabbing war movie, so yesteryear's generation will tell you it's a classic. And maybe they're right. But yet, while boasting a top-notch cast, some interesting character dilemmas and the Colonel Bogey March whistle (the one often used for "Hitler, has only got one..."), Lean's bridge-building drama doesn't grip as much as its reputation promises.
That being said, Alec Guinness remains magnetic as the indefatigable and defiantly-stubborn Colonel Nicholson (nabbing a statue in the process), offering a classic battle of wills with Sessue Hayakawa's Japanese Colonel, which is where the movie really excels.
Where it doesn't excel though is the subplot which sees William Holden's all-American hero escape and then return to bomb the bridge (not in Pierre Boulle's novel), as it is clear the studio demanded a box office star and some adventure. It seems things haven't changed that much...
Reviewed on: 09 Feb 2011