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Alec Guinness
William Holden
Heihachiro Okawa
Jack Hawkins
Sessue Hayakawa
James Donald

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In a P.O.W. camp stationed in Japan during WWII, a Colonel (Guinness) convinces a Japenese General to build a bridge his way, which drives the Colonel insane.

03/03/2012 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

The Bridge on the River Kwai review

Viewing this again made me enjoy the finer details of the movie. A British World War II film involving an insensitive Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), tactical Lt. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) , compassionate Major Clipton (James Donald) and resourceful United States Navy Commander Shears (William Holden). Film had excellent screenplay with quotes: Major Shears - "For what? How to die like a gentleman...how to die by the rules when the only important thing is how to live like a human being." Col. Nicholson - "But there are times when suddenly you realize you're nearer the end than the beginning. And you wonder, you ask yourself, what the sum total of your life represents." Cinematography was mesmerizing, performances solid and score endearing. Only r...

Rating of
3.5/4 

02/17/2012 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

"The Bridge On The River Kwai" by Yojimbo

A stubborn English Colonel locks horns with a similarly duty-bound Japanese prison camp commander over the building of a strategically important railway bridge during the second world war. David Lean's prisoner of war story is a tale of obsession, and it is the battle of wills between Alec Guiness and his Japanese counterpart that forms the core of the story. Examining the cliche of the British stiff upper lip, although Guiness' obstinate refusal to co-operate with the enemy gives his men the spirit to carry on, it is more his own personal obsession (bordering on insanity) than heroism that eggs him on. On the other side of the coin, it is William Holden's hustling commander, actually more interested in self-preservation (echoing his role in Stalag 17) who must show him the error of his w...

Rating of
3.5/4 

02/11/2009 (0 of 0 found this helpful)

Spectaculur spectacle from David Lean.

David Lean films are all shot just about perfectly all the ones I have seen anyways. That reason alone gives you one reason to watch the Bridge over the River Kwai, but there are also many others. The performances are all great particularly Alec Guinness shows his stuff as he always does in this slightly humorous role of a colonel who has an odd sense of duty, and Sessue Hayakawa, as a Japanese commander who has the camp basically taken from him. It is not like any war epic you will see because the story is much more complicated than they usually are with its incredibly original and deep characters, or a prison camp movie because of what occurs in it. There is simply nothing like the bridge over the river Kwai, although I never go full positive and act blindly to the slightly tacked on y...

Rating of
4/4