The Bridge on the River Kwai

Item: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Rating: 9
Author: Christopher Null

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"Extraordinary"

The Bridge on the River Kwai Review

By Christopher Null

Oddly enough, it's hardly about a bridge at all. And though the building of a magnificent wooden bridge -- by British and other Allied soldiers being held by the Japanese as prisoners of war -- has a supporting role, Alec Guinness won his only non-honorary Oscar for this film (did you know he'd be nominated for writing the following year?), and boy is it deserved. As the British colonel who protects his troops against overwhelming oppression by the Japanese -- then happily agrees to build them a monumental bridge, oblivious to the fact that it will greatly aid the Japanese war machine. His look of horror and sudden understanding, when the bridge comes crashing down, courtesy of Allied commandos, is worth the little statuette alone.

Facts and Figures

Year: 1957

Genre: War

Run time: 161 mins

In Theaters: Saturday 14th December 1957

Box Office Worldwide: $33.3M

Budget: $3M

Distributed by: Columbia Pictures

Production compaines: Columbia Pictures Corporation, Horizon Pictures (II)

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 4.5 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Fresh: 47 Rotten: 3

IMDB: 8.3 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: David Lean

Producer: Sam Spiegel

Screenwriter: Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman

Starring: William Holden as Cmdr. Shears, Alec Guinness as Col. Nicholson, Jack Hawkins as Maj. Warden, Sessue Hayakawa as Col. Saito, James Donald as Maj. Clipton, Geoffrey Horne as Lt. Joyce, André Morell as Col. Green, Peter Williams as Capt. Reeves, John Boxer as Major Hughes, Percy Herbert as Grogan, Harold Goodwin as Baker, Ann Sears as Nurse, Heihachirô Ôkawa as Captain Kanematsu, Keiichirô Katsumoto as Lieutenant Miura (also as K. Katsumoto) (as Keiichiro Katsumoto)