Bridge on the River Kwai

Pros: Top notch acting all around
Cons: None

Bridge on the River Kwai concerns itself with a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma. The Japanese commander (Sessue Hayakawa) wants the mostly British prisoners to build a bridge. The commander of the prisoners (Alec Guinness) is a martinet and...

Pros: Guinnes, Hayakawa, Holden, Hawkins. Boulle's novel. Wilson/Foreman screenplay. Lean's direction. Cardiff's photography. Arnold's score.
Cons: Film's anti-war message, black humor, went over the heads of the audience. Still does.

To begin with, though nothing is wrong with viewers and critics seeing BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI as a grand adventure story or an heroic war film, I think they miss the point. Adventure story and war film it may be, but David Lean's 161 minute epic is ...

Pros: Great locales, cinematography, direction, performances, themes, story, and DVD presentation
Cons: Has some potential to taint the bravery of the real men of the prison camp

Here's a film that can withstand whatever accolades you care to throw at it – masterpiece, epic, classic, or what-have-you. Although the film, as an artistic creation, falls to the credit of director David Lean, it was first the brainchild of ...

Pros: Wonderful performances by Guinness and Hayakawa
Cons: "Hollywood" side plot involving William Holden

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Bridge on the River Kwai on the big screen. Say what you will, but to me, the big screen adds so much to a movie-viewing experience, in particular movies such as this one, set during World War II in the hot, sticky...

Pros: Acting, cast, cinematography, direction, music score, writing.
Cons: A bit 'Hollywooodized'. Best seen on a restored, widescreen print.

In 1957, a movie was premiered that was the most awe-inspiring of its time. It was a massive project, involving a collaboration of several countries and the building of a bridge, then the largest single prop used for a film. It was the movie that put...

Pros: Superb acting. Brilliant cinematography. Great script and direction.
Cons: At times overly stereotypical and historically inaccurate.

Madness…madness are the immortal words of Maj. Clipton upon reflecting the effect of war upon men in David Lean’s 1957 epic The Bridge on the River Kwai : a film which explores the madness of war itself and its effects upon ...

Pros: Everything
Cons: You do need patience

In World War Two, in Southeast Asia, Sessue Hayakawa portrays the commandant of a Japanese prison camp. Alec Guinness is the British Colonel of a group of soldiers who were captured and placed in that prison camp. Jack Hawkins is another British ...

Pros: Ambiguity, performances, script, direction.
Cons: Nothing.

David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai triumphs through the force of moral ambiguity. We have an impressive array of "protagonists" and "antagonists" displayed here, but none of them are solidly "good" nor solidly "evil." Each contains a brand ...

Pros: Acting
Cons: Racism, pacing, location, and sexism

David Lean’s 1957 movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai” received many awards and is adored by many men -- and perhaps some jingoist women, too. Its special effects look quaint now, and its pervasive colonialist perspective is more obvious than it seems to...

Pros: Every performance, the score, the direction ... I could go on for days
Cons: None. None. None

As you may know, one of the great actors of our time, perhaps of all time, has died. This review results.

It is hard even to write the words: Alec Guinness is dead.

With him died a befuddled vacuum-cleaner salesman, a...

Pros: cinematography, sets, cast, unintentional humor, suspense
Cons: campy acting, mildly racist, actual brutality diluted

The Bridge on the River Kwai is undeniably a very good movie. The cinematography is excellent, with many distant crane shots that can only be accomplished with outdoor location filming, a swarming cast of extras, and large, expensive sets such as...

Pros: Great acting, interesting characters, decent plot
Cons: Moments when movie is just slow!

One of the things missing from the "Star Wars" prequel films were moments that establish place and mood. In "The Empire Strikes Back," there is a moment on Cloud City when Luke Skywalker looks down into the chasm below him and director Lawrence Kasden ...

Pros: Good action adventure, showcasing the talent of the late Sir Alec Guiness
Cons: Cinematography is showing it's age. The story line takes outrageous liberties with the known facts.

Having had the privilege of attending one of the premier showings of this movie in Bangkok, Thailand in 1957, I must admit that this flawed masterpiece is still one of my favorites. I saw it with my Dad, a WW II veteran who fought the Japanese in Burma....

Pros: Gripping, Frank, with no punches pulled, a masterpiece.
Cons: Those looking for an awful lot of action scenes might be disappointed.

Am I the only one who finds that the best war movies were all made quite a long time ago? The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven and now this film, far surpass 99% of what is served up today.

One of the greatest war...

Pros: Shows how the noblest aspirations can be perverted
Cons: (Sound of wind blowing)

Until "Saving Private Ryan" came out two years ago, "Bridge over the River Kwai" was certainly the best English-language film originally in color about World War II. It doesn't show the civilian suffering as well as "Schindler's...