Ridiculous

Rating: 1/10 (10 December 1999)

I first saw this film several months ago. I was stunned by what I saw. How is it that such an awful movie came to be known as a classic? What disgusted me most about it was the portrayal of the arrogant British officer (played by Alec Guiness) as an admirable and principled hero. What makes him arrogant? Trying to use laws to exclude him from working with the "grunts". What made this even more ridiculous was that the soldiers still obeyed and respected him after his little protest.
Another problem was the portrayal of the camp itself. The film sugar coats the real-life consequences POW's face for insubordination (there was not a single beating or execution in the entire film). I don't say this because I'm bloodthirsty, I say it because the lack of such violence trivializes the horrors of war.
So in summing up, I watched Bridge On the River Kwai expecting something worthy of being called a classic. What I got was a nearly farcical take on the war genre. Excellent performances (who plays a pompous englishman better than Guiness?) could not save this movie from its unintentional silliness.