Review of The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) by K S — 21 Jun 2008
Madness indeed. This to me is strictly a British film which only adds the American POW character to make this a marketable film for the US. William Holden was an ideal choice mainly because of his role in Stalag 17, another successful WWII prison camp picture.
There are not many laughs in this picture. The focus of the story is on Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa. Col.Nicholson (Guinness) agrees to help Col.Saito (Hayakawa) reach his deadline of building one transport bridge that stretches the length of the Kwai river primarily using British troops as the labor. Nicholson however does not view the perfect construction of such a bridge as aiding the enemy as much as he views it simply as a morale booster for the imprisoned British troops. Nevertheless, his decision does backfire in the end.
This is a one of a kind war picture due to the plot not pertaining to Americas involvement in WWII. The locations had to have made for a laborious effort from cast and crew. For a film that is nearly three hours long no scene is spared. Despite the historical inaccuracies, the film itself holds up rather well and again proves how genuine this era of film-making was in comparison to the hyper-inflated budgeted war films of today.
Good show old man, good show...
This review of The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) was written by K S on 21 Jun 2008.
The Bridge on the River Kwai has generally received very positive reviews.
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