The Bridge on the River Kwai (Original Version)

Why I waste my time watching all of the newest films that come out (of course, not all of them are bad) when there are plenty of tried-and-true classics waiting to be discovered is something I'll never completely understand. It's not even like I have the excuse that I don't know about them, or even don't have the time (because I do). Still, I do like the feeling of seeing something for the first time and THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI delivered everything I expected and more. The story is set during WWII and is about a group of British POWs who arrive at a Japanese labor camp in the Burmese jungle (modern-day Myanmar). They are tasked with building a bridge over the Kwai River, but initially have difficulty because the camp's commander Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) has a clash of wills with their own commander, Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guiness). There is also an American POW, Shears (William Holden) who manages to escape but is "recruited" to lead a team back to the jungle to blow up the bridge. If there's one thing that David Lean knows how to do, it's craft an epic film and that's exactly what he did here. It did drag a little bit for me in the first hour, but it was an engrossing watch after that point. It almost goes without saying that this film is perfect from a technical standpoint, and some truly great images were captured. The acting was also just as good, especially from the three key players: Alec Guiness, Sessue Hayakawa, and William Holden. Each of them brought their A-game and turned in probably the best performances of their entire careers. One aspect of the story I really liked was the psychological battle of wills that occurs between Saito and Nicholson. Both of them were equal in rank, but also similar in their approach to their own specific situations. One might say that they were cut from the same cloth. William Holden rounds out this trio of characters by portraying a man who is drafted for a difficult task in spite of his desire to just keep on surviving, and in a cruel turn of irony, puts him at cross-purposes with Nicholson who feels like he is doing good work by building the bridge. Although the film plays it rather close to the vest in terms of message-making, only really making its statement in the final minutes, I thought that it handled the subject of war in a rather balanced and mature way despite taking a stand against it. Nobody is turned into a villain, instead having each major character be an unwitting foil to the other in a way that suggests what is later explicitly stated (by the medic) as madness. It's not perhaps the most original of anti-war statements, but it was portrayed to extremely good effect. Also, the last 20 minutes or so is as riveting and tense as anything that has come out since. Granted, it's not perfect as there is a rather superfluous romance between Shears and his nurse but, studio-mandated love interest aside, this film stands as not only one of the best anti-war films ever made, but one of the best films period.

I was fortunate to be able to visit the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai on a recent trip to Thailand. The bridge is about a three hour drive from Bangkok not far from the border with Burma. In Kanchanaburi I picked up a tourist brochure called "The Death Railway & the Bridge on the River Kwai". This is from its introduction... "In June of 1942, 61,000 British, Australian, American, New Zealand, Danish and Dutch POWs as well as an estimated 200,000 laborers from India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia,Singapore, Burma and Thailand were put to work by the Japanese Imperial Army to construct a railway line 415km long to link Kanchanaburi to the Japanese Base camp in Thanbyuzayat in Burma, this ensuring a direct line from Singapore through Malaya and Thailand to link up with the railway network in Burma. Apart from supplying their bases in Burma, the Japanese had also planned to use the railway to launch an attack on India. The decision to build the railway was made by the Japanese Cabinet following the decisive defeat of its navy at the battle of Midway in June 1942. At that time a large Japanese army was based in Burma and another in New Guinea and adjacent islands. Both depended for support and supplies on the navy which after Midway no longer enjoyed its former supremacy. The Japanese were aware hat the British had surveyed a proposed railway linking Burma and Thailand in 1910 and that they had abandoned the project in 1912 because of difficult terrain, endemic disease and high monsoonal rainfall. To planners studying the map in Tokyo however, the construction of a 415 kilometer railway seemed an obvious solution to supplying the army in Burma and thus avoid the hazardous seas route around Singapore and through the Straits of Malacca. Accordingly two Japanese railway regiments totaling 12,000 men were assigned to the railway project...The deadline for completion was August of 1943 and in June of 1942 the Japanese began moving prisoners of the war to Burma and Thailand. Construction of the railway began on the 16th of September 1942. First estimates by the Japanese engineers suggested that it would take at least five years to build, but under tremendous pressure, the POWs were forced to complete the bridge in 16 months. On the 25 December 1943 the "the Railway of Death" was completed... The effect was devastating. 16,000 allied prisoners of war lost their lives when this railway was built dying together with 100,000 slave Asian laborers who aren't mentioned all that often...Every kilometer of railway track cost the lives of 38 allies." Historian Andrew Roberts writes, "When considering the horrific cruelties inflicted on European POWs by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second World War, it is important to see them in the overall context of atrocities such as the Rape of Nanking. Whereas 6.2 per cent of British Commonwealth prisoners of the Japanese died between 1941 and 1945, the figures were 23 per cent for the Dutch, 41.6 for the Americans and a monstrous 77 per cent (230,000 out of 300,000) for Indonesian forced laborers...The literature covering what one historian has called 'The Horror in the East' is voluminous, and the Kachanaburi death camp on the River Kwai, Unit 731's anthrax experiments, Chang Jail in Singapore, Korean 'comfort' women, the Bataan Death March and so on have particularly foul places in the long history of man's inhumanity to man." ( The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War ). Japanese Commander: "If you work hard you will be well treated, but if you do not work hard you will be punished." The museum had photographs and artifacts from the construction of the bridge... The Bridge over the River Kwai was bombed by allied aircraft during the war. I stopped at the nearby Kanchanburi cemetery to see some of the graves of the victims of the "Railway of Death". When I finally arrived at the bridge after a 3 hour car journey this is what I first saw... Walking over the bridge, I met a musician who was, of course, playing the famous Colonel Bogey's March tune on his violin. I put a couple of US dollars into his violin case. He stopped playing and asked me to come over and check out something on the bridge. I was curious as he had me feel with my hand on the outer side of the steel bridge -- I could detect the unmistakable marks of bullet holes that had been caused by strafing from allied planes during the war. The movie, Bridge on the River Kwai, won the academy award for best picture in 1957 and is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time. It was directed by David Lean, shot on location in Ceylon and based on a novel by French author Pierre Boulle. Alec Guinness, who had served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve during World War II and piloted a landing craft in the 1943 invasion of Sicily, won the Academy award for best actor, playing the role of the unbending Colonel Nicholson. William Holden and Sessue Hayakawa co-starred. The movie's theme message of collaboration was, perhaps, more appropriately suited to occupied France rather than Southeast Asia -- the real life Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey did not collaborate and worked to delay the railway's completion. Contrary to film's dramatic conclusion, the bridge was NOT destroyed by the allies during the war. It was hit by allied bombers (see above) but it was reconstructed and, as you can see, is still standing today. If you liked Bridge on the River Kwai you will also enjoy America Invades America Invades: How We've Invaded or been Militarily Involved with almost Every Country on Earth by Kelly / Laycock and Italy Invades

Have seen this movie manu times, from vcd to dvd. Nostalgic.

Ok

Soy fan de los grandes clásicos del cine y cuando supe que Sony Pictures había restaurado en formato 4K Ultra HD el clásico "The Bridge On The River Kwai" o "El Puente Sobre El Rio Kwai" la compré de inmediato. Se ve espectacular, mejor que nunca, con una calidad de imagen fuera de serie. Llegó rápido y en perfectas condiciones, el único inconveniente es que ya no trae Slipcover de colección.

An excellent transfer. Vibrant colours. The Malcolm Arnold score has been re-channelled for stereo effect. Sumptuous presentation with the vibrant steel box. A great film.

This is a notable, enthralling and critically-acclaimed movie (it won 7 Oscars' and 3 BAFTAs, including the 'main' Film/Director categories) with extensive production-values, a big cast (with many famous actors in lead roles, it was only Alec Guinness that won the awards...) and very good effects to portray the final scenes involving 'that' bridge.. I got this on Blu-ray despite already owning it's 'Special' 2-disc DVD Edition, as whilst the DVD version had clearly been given some good treatment (it is to my eyes free of those annoying little white specks/scratches) with an excellent set of extras, this HD offering released some 10 years later features a '4K restoration'. So, whilst this Blu-ray didn't offer much more in the extras department (and actually also removes some !) it had the credentials of looking and perhaps sounding, courtesy of an accompanying DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, even better than the DVD which was already quite good. Well, after watching it for the umpteenth time, this time on Blu-ray I can categorically confirm that it DOES offer noticeable improvements in the viewing experience. The restoration has dealt with what could viably be 'fixed' from what was apparently quite a 'problematic' production and resulting 'flawed' film footage.... Directed by the legendary David Lean, this is my favourite film of his and, along with 'The Cruel Sea' features my favourite performances by the actor I feel is most prominent/significant in the film - Jack Hawkins. He, along with Alec Guinness and William Holden get joint top-billing but I feel that Hawkins pips both of them in the performance stakes. Guinness won the awards and Holden is similarly proficient, with his part/presence leaving me of the opinion it was 'necessary' to gain production/finance from US studios - his character and actions always remind me of the similarly 'misplaced' aspects to the 'Hilts' character, an almost solitary US personality in another great WWII film 'The Great Escape'.... I will leave the finer arguments often held amongst others about the faithfulness/'dilution' of the story and depiction to the real-life situations suffered by many of our countrymen in WWII under Japanese 'rule', but what is inescapable about the film are the superb production-values, the attention to detail in certain acts and the unusual level of humour that exists through the majority of the running time. The major plot aspect is the determination to maintain military discipline in adversity, but a lot of the finer details might be missed as they are again of a military 'nature' but not by me (I served in HM Forces for 18 years), with a snippet of a scene at the commando training camp covering all those 'finer' aspects with firstly a comedic big arrow sign directing 'guests' to the abode of Shears, the attention paid to a departing 'guest', the hilarious way a PT instructor has to be selective with his admonishment of those duly distracted from the task in hand and then the delightful touch of the Jack Hawkins character having to perform a 'change step' action, to regain synchronisation with his Colonel after resuming their walk. Finally, this was until recently the ONLY film I've seen where the act of looking though binoculars was correctly depicted (ie a single circular view, NOT 2 adjoining circles....) until I recently saw 'Iron Man 3' - kudos Shane Black ! Contrary to some other reviews I've subsequently read, I never detected any print damage on the SE DVD so this Blu-ray already had one less thing to improve compared to similarly aged films. For me, where this Blu-ray improves things is with solely the picture, it is often much lighter and consistently much sharper. The only 'flaw' with the DVD picture I ever noticed were regular frame 'wobbles', with the appearance of a ripple passing across the picture. I compared and all those I knew that existed on the DVD are absent on the Blu-ray. I never felt that the musical soundtrack to this film was THAT dominant, there are only a few periods of forceful music and little else of great 'activity' note occurring. So, it is perhaps unsurprising that I couldn't really detect any great difference between the DD5.1 DVD soundtrack and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 version on the Blu-ray. Both sound as good as each other, with neither particularly excelling when compared to films like 'The Battle of Britain' for example - in fact, both are crisp/clear but really quite 'flat' and certainly lacking any obvious spatial qualities, with all the audio being essentially 'front and centre'.... With this film being quite long and with Blu-ray being high-capacity, the rather ugly layer-change that occurs on the DVD is gone. New extras are a "Crossing the Bridge" picture-in-picture track, "The Steve Allen Show with William Holden and Alec Guinness" featurette and "The Bridge on the River Kwai Premiere" narrated by William Holden. However, some extras from the SE DVD are absent: the Isolated Music Score option and the Cast and Crew Biographies.... The Blu-ray also has no equivalent of the quite substantial booklet which came with the SE DVD, a poor replacement is the unusual inclusion of some interior box artwork - I've attached a photo of it. So, for me this film has a print quality which improves on the SE DVD by being a lot sharper and providing better contrast, plus previous image 'wobbles' have been removed. The sound quality was not noticeably better, so it's still a bit 'flat'. However, for an excellent film like this which had notable visual aspects the more important matters are the ones which have been improved to great effect. A few of the SE DVD extras are 'missing' but some new ones are added.