Spectacular movie! Alec Guiness, as always, was Brilliant as was David Lean. That opening scene marching into the Japanese POW camp was a good show of British 'Pluck', resilience and resolve. This was at a time when the British empire was still holding out tenaciously to it's brilliance.
William Holden's performance is outstanding in this flick. It is 1957. Of course it is a reflection of American-Anglo self-reflection after WWII vis-a-vis Japanese and the film fails to show that conscripted Koreans were the real devils in the Kanchanaburi camps. Nevertheless, it is quite a tale - really two in one - the building of the Bridge and Holden's improbable journey out and back with the ironic and tragic ending.
Did Comet cleanser ever use the RIVER KWAI theme song for it's TV ads? I have memories of us kids walking around in the early '60's singing "COMET, IT MAKES YOUR MOUTH SO CLEAN / COMET, IT TASTES LIKE LISTERINE / COMET / IT'LL MAKE YOU VOMIT / SO EAT COMET / AND VOMIT / TODAY. I saw Andrew Zimmern eat a fox bat on 'Bizarre Foods'. Yum.
I love John Landis' casual folksy approach to TFH; Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson's careers have been blacklisted... was Landis'. It's a bit of a Woody Allen joke but I loved his early funny stuff. AAWIL one of my favourite film of all time, but we are talking 1981!!!
This is actually the third film that David Lean and Alec Guinness. The first two were Great Expectations in 1946, and Oliver Twist in 1948. Terrific movie along with Sessue Hayakawa, William Holden and Jack Hawkins. Guinness and Lean would go on to make Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Lean's final underrated film A Passage to India.
Michael Wilson later co-wrote the screenplay for PLANET OF THE APES with Rod Serling -- also based on a Pierre Boulle novel. Boulle wrote other great novels, any one of which would make for a good movie. I'm surprised his other works haven't been adapted, the way Stephen King and Michael Crichton have been. By the way -- SPOILER ALERT -- in the original novel, the bridge isn't blown up. Col. Nicholson, in his madness, prevents it . . . his pride in the accomplishment of his 'superior' culture absurdly leading to an act of de facto treason. By the way, it was Charlton Heston's idea for his character 'Taylor' -- in BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES -- to detonate the Doomsday Bomb, in imitation of (or in homage to) the ending of BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI . . . and it's evident that Heston didn't know that the film version included the exploding bridge despite the novel lacking this outcome. Interestingly, in the KWAI novel the Japanese are referred to as 'monkeys' or 'apes' -- perhaps a prelude to Boulle's later novel, maybe?
And there I thought I was the only one who called William Holden Bill. Bill Holden. Complicated fucked up guy who could shine -at times - like the great movie star he was. I was always a fan. But I certainly wouldn't call this a Bill Holden movie per se.
Yes I agree. The movie really doesn't take any sides but shows the insanity of war and those insane dark forces that lead and who created the war situation. William Holden and Alec Guinness were superb. Also the cinematography is great, because Sri Lanka is a naturally gorgeous country that comes through in the film. The Sri Lankan landscape shot in color is also one of the stars of the movie. Got the same feeling in one of the indiana jones movies and Tarzan. I wish more movies were shot in Sri Lanka. Because the country looks great on the movie screen in color. The natural beauty of the place comes through on the big screen. One film director said Sri Lanka is a natural film set. After seeing movies like Bridge on the River Kwai, Tarzan and Indiana Jones I have to agree with him.
Really? Bill Holden over Bogie in Casablanca? I dunno... I'm sure there are example of earlier Anti-heroes in movies before Rick in Casablanca but he was certainly a premier example of disaffected and self serving. It was always clear where he stood however.
Think I heard the real soldiers that were prisoners there dispised this movie . Great entertainment but not accurate as to the brutality the captured soldiers endured .
Yep, a top movie and the Blue Ray version is impeccable in every detail. Blue Ray and DVD have bought back a lot of movies that are presented in their original ratio aspects, CinemaScope, 70mm, Cinerama and they probably look better than when originally released and in those ancient decades of the Pan and Scan black and white 16mm television prints. Interspersed with ads including cuts to fit in the running times between commercials and the next program. Ishhhh....
I think John Landis could've made a good war movie. Even though he kinda did with that twilight zone segment where Vic Morrow died while Landis was at the director's chair. Now I like to listen to Landis, he's fun to listen too. He make's good movies too. Landis gets a lot scrutiny for what happened which is understandable. But friends of mine say they've met Landis and got pictures and auto graphs from him. And they say he's a very nice down to earth guy and will take time to talk to all his fans. Yeah what he did back 1983 was bad. But you can't hate the guy for what happened back then, he's a different guy now. He wasn't probably the only one responsible for what happened. I've heard that he just doesn't like to talk about it.
Another glib film review, I couldn't help but notice how he stopped short of saying, "slave labour", which it was, as well as inhuman & he called the Japanese "hard tasksmaters", I think "murdering bastards" would be more accurate, they beheaded pows, starved them, beat them & tortured them. The surviving pows looked very similar to the people found in concentration camps, emaciated, many at deaths door. At least tell the truth even it it is only a review.
