Fantastic film, but fantasy all over

Rating: 9/10 (14 February 2010)

As entertainment, this is an exceptional film off course, like all Lean's films are.
My late uncle Jan, he died last year, happened to be one of the POW's working on the Birma railroad for about 3 years. Although he didn't like to talk much about his experiences, he left a little school paper in which he wrote down, after the war, his major experiences.
Well, most of his fellow POW's died alongside the railroad. Not just because of the hard work and mistreatment, not just because of the poor food, but very much because of the RAF bombing the railroad camps. Ar least, the railroad camps in which Dutch prisoners like my uncle lived. This is what frustrated him most, later: not the fact he had to work as a POW, not the mistreatment by Japanese and Korean guards, not the the hunger and thirst, but the danger of being killed by allies who, after the war, were celebrated as heroes.
In august 1945 my uncle was released, almost starved and practically blind because of the lack of proper food for many years, but alive. He has never returned to the Dutch East Indies and back in Holland, he married, became a sailor, got 7 children, and never a medal or any recognition.
Still, the movie is enjoyable, but it is just no more than that. By the way, the Japanese were excellent engineers. They did not need any help from an English officer, except for moving earth, timber and rock.