Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

starring William Holden, Alex Guiness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa

directed by David Lean

161 minutes

Colonel Nicholson (Alex Guiness), the commanding officer of a British Army unit that was ordered to surrender, clashes with Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), his Japanese counterpart who runs the camp where he is kept prisoner. Saito wants Nicholson's men to build a railroad bridge across a river in Thailand during World War 2. Saito eventually gives in to Nicholson's terms. Nicholson builds a better bridge that Saito ever could have hoped to build.

Commander Shears (William Holden) an American enlisted man pretending to be an officer, escapes from the camp where Nicholson and his men are held. He makes it back to friendly territory but then gets talked into returning to the Kwai River with Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) to help blow up the bridge that Colonel Nicholson and his men are building. 

Thoughts

I saw this movie for the first time back in the 1970s. I was probably 7 or 8 years old. I recall being very impressed by it.

The first half of this movie is mostly focused on Nicholson and the second half is mostly focused on Shears. There were some really great moments in this movie. Moments that lasted and gave the tension a chance to build, especially in the second half of the film.

All four lead actors were very good. There was at least one moment when I thought William Holden gave a speech that felt out of place for a movie that was otherwise damn near perfect. There were also a few moments where it felt like the story had gotten on a track and I thought I knew how the actors were going to play it from then on out but I found myself pleasantly surprised more than once when a character took a turn that I didn't expect.

I really do like the character turn that Colonel Nicholson makes in this movie. He seems ridiculous at first, then he seems impressive, then he seems ridiculous, and then at the very end sees clearly what he's become.

This movie held up to my childhood memories of it. I think I must have seen it more than just the one time before this but it has to have been at least 25 to 35 years since I last saw it. I remembered a lot of scenes in this film, but not all of them. The tense moments still got to me even though I had very clear memories of the movie.