Lean's Epic is Certainly Among the All-Time Greats

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2011)

Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)
**** (out of 4)
British soldiers held in a POW camp must build a bridge for the Japanese but while the prisoners are building it they're unaware that there are already plans for it to be destroyed. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI picked up seven Oscars and it's also picked up the reputation as being one of the greatest war movies ever made and in my opinion it deserves ever bit of praise it's gotten over the years. Yes, you could get upset that the "true events" weren't shown 100% accurate but this is a movie and not a documentary. With that said, Lean's epic is grand on just about every scale and it's truly amazing how much power the two halves of the film are. I say two halves because we pretty much get two different stories being told in the movie. The first half deals with British Col. Nicholson (Alec Guinness) battling with Japanese Col. Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) over the rules of war. The second half of the film deals with the building of the bridge and the Allies plan on destroying it. Of the two portions of the film I must say that I prefer the first half due to the brilliant performances by Guinness and Hayakawa. The two men are so perfect in their roles and they bring such an intensity to their performances that you really do get sucked into their situation and try to see both points of view. Guinness has always gotten the recognition that he deserves and he even picked up an Oscar for his performance but I think it's unfair that Hayakawa has gotten overlooked in some ways. I thought Hayakawa did a remarkable job with the performance because you hate him for being the enemy and doing the things that he does but at the same time the actor is so good at showing someone doing the job put in front of them that you can look past him being a villain and see that he's a human as well. The scenes with the two actors battling and trying to break one another are tremendously done and certainly rank among some of the greatest stuff ever made. The supporting cast includes a strong William Holden as an American soldier caught up in the events and Jack Hawkins as a doctor who doesn't always see things the same as Guinness. The film on a technical level is pitch-perfect from the terrific cinematography to the striking music score and of course the landmark whistling, which has certainly became one of the most memorable things of any film ever made. Lean's direction is just right for the material because he can not only handle the more psychological stuff earlier in the film but also the more action paced finale. As for the ending, the final ten-minutes is pure, 100% suspense as the action really goes into emotion and ends in a very emotional and powerful way. People will always argue about what is or isn't the greatest pictures ever made and you can even break those arguments down into sub-genres. When the debate starts about the greatest war movies ever made it's nearly impossible to think of any list not including this movie.