Vastly overrated

Rating: 5/10 (14 November 2014)

A vastly overrated movie.
Starts off well, showing how British prisoners-of-war are treated by the Japanese, especially their harrowing forced labour. Is quite gritty, especially for its time.
From this it develops into a battle of wills between the British and Japanese commanders. Then its a movie about pride and morale.
The William Holden side-plot was interesting, and provided some light relief.
Ultimately, however, it's a movie about stupidity, treason and collusion with the enemy... And the man who commits all these acts is treated as a hero.
For me the movie was fine for about 70-80% of its duration, but then totally fell apart at the end. The last few scenes are ridiculous: how anyone can act like that - sabotage a mission, get allied soldiers killed - and then be treated as a hero, is beyond me.
I've now watched this movie at least four times, all at different stages of my life. From the second time onwards I have been expecting to get a different insight, being older and having a more evolved knowledge of the world, but I keep coming to the same conclusion.