Some problems with the dealings of race

Rating: 8/10 (3 January 2008)

I'll start off by saying that I'm an Irish-English-German-French descendant American. That David Lean was an excellent director shows very well here.
Sessue Hayakawa actually had my sympathy. He could have just let Guiness die in the hole and forced labor under the threat of death. Instead, he liberates him and the English man is victorious and the Japaneses cries by himself. By the way, I didn't see much Japanese or even much Asians in an area that's supposed to be Asis. Hayakawa even gets stabbed by death to show a young English recruit to prove courage.
Guiness played the stiff upper lip Englishman who pridefully supervises the buildin of the bridge for the Japanese. It turns out to be his downfall as Willian Holden and Jack Hawkins come to destroy it.
Holden is definitely the most likable of the group but then I did start by saying I'm an American. Odd scene where the white guys get muddied up by the yellow girls as if the whites were gods.
But the dialogue is thoughtful and brings up interesting issues. Made prior to James Bond, the training camps of the British must have been influential for those films.
The palaces where the English plan their strategies are something to behold. In fact, all locations used for this film are quite outstanding.
And it nary a boring moment in the film. It moves fairly quickly and the showdown one of best I've seen in war films.
Willian Holden managed to star in many important films of the 1950's and this is definitely one of his best.