..atruly epic lesson in the cruelty human inhumanity..

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2008)

Of all the many comments I've read here, so far, only one has mentioned the just-as-fabulous documentary on the rail-tracks winding through several Asian countries. I think it was "gcaplan". Every mile of this very long railroad cost hundreds-of-thousands of lives; "The History Channel's" brilliant documentary broadcast actual filmage.
"Bridge on the River Kwai" was only ONE of the tragedies the Japanese army - in their misguided obsession of "honor" - inflicted on fallen enemies and the citizens of countries they conquered, certainly in their brutality toward inmates of prison-camps. Doesn't it sound just a little like "the-master-race" mantra Hitler's officers trumpeted? Director David Lean definitely displays it (from the Wilson-Foreman script) to some degree; other viewers brought-out the fact that "Col. Nicholson" (Alec Guinness) would have been tortured to a more grotesque degree, or merely shot and discarded. Perhaps the "honor" Sessue Kayakawa's character portrayed was his respect for the "tight-lipped" Brit. As many viewers wrote, much of this film was fictional, as almost all war-films are. Cinematographer Jack Hildyard used every advantage of "cinemascope" in graphically and beautifully photographing the entire film, even the ugly parts of it.
"Bridge" documented the Asian holocaust, which many war-correspondents were writing about and the world was aware of, while Germany's holocaust became a shock only with its discovery, post-war.
This is a film everyone should see - few movies have documented the horrors of war. Every actor-actress were brilliant in their roles, including William Holden ("Comdr. Shears") and Jack Hawkins ("Maj. Warden". Guinness was stellar. BUT, it's the totality of the film that makes it the masterpiece it is. I personally feel it will forever remain a testament against any kind of war, never becoming "dated" as so many younger viewers are wont to say.
Its horrific brutality makes us swear "never again," that is, until we think of the carnage that is currently (2008) being waged in Iraq. We want to think USA soldiers would never become so brutal, although they are trained to be killing-machines......until we are shown graphic videos, details of the trials at Haditha (Iraq). We all have those traits lurking within us, when conditions force them upon us.
This gripping film entertains in a sordid demeanor, but should be required viewing for anyone who could be in a position to declare, promote and aid-and-abet any form of war. It deserves a much higher rating that most viewers gave it.