A great ensemble-character study amidst World War II

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2002)

Grand director David Lean delivered himself as one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation in 1957 with the WWII epic "The Bridge On The River Kwai". Addressing the effects of racism, insanity and pride upon humans in war, Lean easily transcends the typical "anti-war" story and creates a great character study that defines one of the most subtle examples of 'battle of wills' ever seen on film. Decades later, this film still looks and plays wonderfully. The film progresses at a measured, decaffeinated pace, and may put-off those used to state-of-the-art explosions that are (nowadays) supposed to occur every 15 minutes in a war film.
Set in a Japanese prison camp - simply named Camp 16 - in southeast Asia in 1943, a group of British military prisoners, led by Alec Guinness' dry Colonel Nicholson, are forced to build a bridge on the River Kwai. The bridge will link the cities of Bangkok and Rangoon, thus enhancing the Japanese's war efforts against Britain and their allies. Colonel Nicholson, a reserved but willful officer, rejects Commander Saito's instructions under the Geneva convention policies, but soon gives way to Saito's orders when he realizes the construction of the bridge will serve as an example of British supremacy over the Japanese. Meanwhile, Major Shears, portrayed by William Holden, is an American soldier who has escaped from Camp 16 and poses as an officer to gain sick leave from a British military hospital. The British army soon discovers Shears' true identity and blackmails him into joining a secret raid to demolish the bridge.
Here in the new millennium, where less-than-stellar locations and tepid cinematography can be compensated for with digitally created sunsets and skylines, this film is a cinematic marvel. Shot in Sri Lanka, the forests, deserts, streams and waterfalls that Lean captures are simply breathtaking - and completely genuine! Given the primitive state of filmmaking in the late 1950's, the attention this film and Lean initially received is totally warranted, and it remains beautiful today. Most impressive is a sequence where we see an extended group of bats fleeing a tree when a gun shot is fired. Lean navigates back and forth between the British prisoners forced to build the bridge and the covert crew assigned to demolish it, unaware that the first train to cross the bridge contains said prisoners. Also impressive is the lack of music, even the assured climax transpires without score.
As for the performances, it's understandable that an American film star like William Holden receive first billing, but the film clearly belongs to Alec Guinness (who won the Best Actor Oscar that year). Guinness' interpretation of Colonel Nicholson is brilliant. We witness Nicholson gradually descend into obsession with the completion of the bridge, while all the while retaining his mannered, stiff-necked British demeanor. His battle of wills with Commander Saito - ashamed and suicidal that the British are building a bridge his army could not do properly - is much more engaging than the journey through the jungle that Shears and his crew experience, which may be why we spend more time watching Nicholson. A great triumph for David Lean and Alec Guinness, and one of the best war films ever made.