Definitely great then, but slightly timeworn now

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2013)

This large-scale and realistic film was just a decade after the World War II had ended, without much technology assisting in creating credible atmosphere and effects. Even colour films were not so common... As the Brits had maintained more or less normal relations with their former colony Ceylon, they were able to film there, using lots of mass scenes and manual labour.
The idea behind is intriguing, and after a certain escape, the film consists of two parallel set of events intertwined in the end. However, many scenes are depicted too lengthily, bringing along temporary uneven pace and and diminishing excitement (or current viewers have just become too impatient...) As for the cast, only Alec Guinness as Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson and Sessue Hayakawa as Colonel Saito were catchy to me, I can't remember the others from other films, for example. Well, Guinness was awarded his only Oscar for the role (great, but lengthwise not a real leading one)... All in all, the film received 7 Academy Awards, showing that the opportunities of that period were used in a maximum way. I could particularly point out the directing and the music, with many songs becoming hits afterwards. A real pleasant supporting actor is the nature, forming a contrast to construction activities and prison camps (however, life of Japanese POWs was not as harsh as of German or Soviet ones).
Thus, The Bridge on the River Kwai is undoubtedly a great war film, but I am not sure it "accosts" modern viewers with Oliver Stone, Brian de Palma and Clint Eastwood in mind...