I wasn't impressed

Rating: 5/10 (1 April 2003)

Supposedly based on a true incident this is a story of a group of British POWs forced to build a bridge for the Japanese during WWII. The prisoners are led by Alec Guinness (winning a well-deserved Oscar) who keeps butting heads with the Japanese commander (Sessue Hayakawa). Meanwhile another group of British and Americans (one played by William Holden) will do anything to blow up the bridge.
The popularity of this film completely escapes me. It's much too long--the script really drags everything out--this could have been done in half the time. I was actually falling asleep a few times and looking at my watch constantly. Also, Hayakawa's thick accent makes 90% of his dialogue unintelligable and his performance is pretty bad. And the ending is a washout--it contains bad special effects and it doesn't carry any impact at all.
On the good side--Holden and Guinness give out very good performances, there is some admittedly beautiful scenes (director David Lean did know how to shoot epics), the whistling song has become a classic and there's a wonderful dinner scene between Guinness and Hayakawa. For all those things I'm giving this a 5.
But overall, I found this a big, bloated, boring movie. I can't recommend it.