Review of The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) by Nick R — 04 Jan 2009

There may be no honor among thieves, but wartime enemies are a different matter. At least that's the belief of Alec Guinness's Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai, who insists that the Japanese overseers of their sweltering Burmese prison camp treat his men and him with decency. But as this consummate commander and paragon of English pragmatism organizes the construction of an enemy railroad bridge, a team of Americans led by escaped POW Major Shears (William Holden) is on its way to blow it to bits.

Director David Lean plays the looming conflict for maximum irony, setting Guinness up as the tragic counterpart to Holden's unsentimental Yank. As usual, Lean loads his film with tons of details, filling the widescreen image with elaborate action and immaculately constructed sets. But holding this epic World War II film together are the performances of its three iconic leads, the stiff and traditional Guinness, the loose and cynical Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa as the Japanese colonel unknowingly stuck in the middle of a battle of cross-Atlantic wills. Where the final scenes of destruction are justly lauded for their stunt work, choreography, and editing, one of the most memorable elements of Kwai remains Malcolm Arnold's whimsical, whistled "The Colonel Bogey March.".