The Bridge on the River Kwai

Sam Spiegel’s film, Bridge on the River Kwai is difficult to categorize. It is a war movie, but not the type that glorifies war. It has action and adventure, but to say it is an action/adventure film would be an overstatement. It is a criticism on the madness of war, on excessive pride, on the class system. Perhaps most intriguing, it is a character study on how several men, each a bit crazy in his own way, react to the circumstances of the war around them. Kwai is set in the jungles of Burma in 1943. Though the opening sequence depicts what appears to be a tropical paradise, we soon learn that the setting is a Japanese Prisoner of War camp, ruled by the ruthless Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa). Saito has been ordered to build a railroad bridge over the river, with the prisoners providing the labor. Death rates are high because of illness, overwork, and, we are told, “Saito.” When British Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) marches into camp at the head of a new group of prisoners, it seems Saito may have met his match. Saito declares that all prisoners, enlisted men and officers alike, will perform manual labor to build the bridge. A battle of wills ensues when Nicholson insists that in accordance with the Geneva Convention, it is not permissible to require officers to do manual labor. Saito initially considers having all the officers gunned down, but instead leaves them standing in the blazing sun all day. He then has Nicholson put in a torture device known as “the oven,” and locks up the remaining officers. Nicholson will not relent, and eventually Saito releases him and agrees that the officers will not do manual labor, but must supervise the work. It seems Nicholson has won this round. The characters of Nicholson and Saito embody their own personal and cultural views of honor. Our first glimpse of Nicholson is as he leads his men into the prison camp, marching properly (for the most part) and, lacking a military band, whistling the Colonel Bogey march. For Nicholson, rules, order, and discipline are what honor consists of. Saito has a very different view. When Nicholson offers him a copy of the Geneva Convention and speaks of the rules, Saito responds, “Do not speak to me of rules. This is war! This is not a game of cricket!” For Saito, honor means doing his part for the greater good of Japan, whatever that takes. His orders are to build the bridge. If the bridge is not completed by the given date, Saito’s honor dictates that he must commit suicide. Even once the British officers begin supervising construction of the bridge, it still moves at a snail’s pace. Nicholson’s men, a company of engineers, can easily see problems such as the chosen location. They know they could build a better bridge. Nicholson convinces Saito to start over, allowing the British engineers to design and supervise the construction of the bridge from start to finish. Again, it seems he has prevailed…but has he? In his pride that his men can show British superiority by constructing a bridge that will last for many years, he is seemingly oblivious to the fact that doing so is aiding the enemy’s war effort. And as it becomes apparent the bridge will not be finished on time, he even gives in on the point of having officers do manual labor. A second story line is that of the plot to blow up the bridge. Shears (William Holden) is an American POW who escapes from the work camp and recovers at a British military hospital. There he is recruited by British commando Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) to help with the plot. Shears, who generally does anything possible to get out of work, initially resists. However, when confronted with the news that Hawkins knows the truth about who he really is, Shears agrees. With two other officers, they set out, but absolutely nothing goes according to plan. Eventually, the story lines come together. The bridge is finished, and the train loaded with Japanese officers and dignitaries is on its way. The commandos arrive and adjust their plan to the changed circumstances. What follows in the climactic scenes…well, let’s just say, it’s worth the wait. Bridge on the River Kwai garnered seven Oscars in 1958, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Guinness), Best Director (David Lean), Best Cinematography (Jack Hildyard), Best Editing (Peter Taylor), Best Score (Malcolm Arnold), and Best Adapted Screenplay. This last one is rather interesting; the film’s actual writers, Michael Wilson (It’s a Wonderful Life, A Place in the Sun) and Carl Foreman (Home of the Brave, High Noon) were not credited at the time because they were on the infamous Hollywood blacklist of suspected communist sympathizers. Instead, Pierre Boulle, the French writer of the novel upon which Kwai was based, received the credit and the Oscar, even though he did not speak English and had no part in the screenwriting. Wilson and Foreman were retrospectively awarded the Oscar in 1984. Sadly, Wilson did not live to see this happen, and Foreman died the next day. Foreman’s and Wilson’s names were added to the film’s credits when it was restored in the 1990s. Guinness is brilliant as Nicholson, the obsessively proper British military officer. Not only does Nicholson’s pride and professionalism come through clearly, so does his madness. Guinness, as Nicholson, does not even flinch when it is suggested that building such a fine bridge could be construed as collaborating with the enemy. His line of reasoning is so clear in his own mind that his explanation almost makes sense. When Nicholson hangs a placard on the completed bridge listing his own name as having overseen its construction, it is clear his pride in British ingenuity has been overcome by his pride in himself. Few actors could portray this kind of calm, cool madness and arrogance so convincingly. Hayakawa (who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor) and Hawkins, as Major Warden, are also quite good. Hayakawa’s Saito is as mad as Nicholson in his own way, and we see his prideful resistance break down when he fears that the bridge will not be completed on time. Warden, like Nicholson, is intent on order and discipline. His madness is of a different brand, and a more conventional one, exactly the kind of suicidal single-mindedness we would expect of a commando. Though crazy in his own way, Warden clearly sees Nicholson’s madness for what it is. Hayakawa and Hawkins pull off their respective roles admirably. William Holden delivers a solid performance as Shears. However, this character is not as well developed as the others, perhaps because it was added for the film and was not in the novel. Shears’ change from slacker to hero seems a bit improbable, and Holden’s performance does not quite overcome this. It seems he was added more for star power and box office appeal. James Donald, as medical officer Major Clipton, should not be overlooked. In fact, it is Clipton who acts as the outside observer, the voice of reason, the conscience of the film. It is Clipton who prevents Saito from shooting the officers, and who suggests to Nicholson that building the bridge is abetting the enemy. It seems Clipton is alone in recognizing the madness all around him. And it is Clipton who cries, “Madness, madness!” as things fall apart. It is a relatively small, but incredibly important role, and Donald does it justice. Though Malcolm Arnold won the Oscar for Best Score, it is not his music that is most memorable. Rather, the Colonel Bogey march by Kenneth J. Alford, written decades earlier, is what is most prominent in Kwai. It is heard whistled by the soldiers at various points in the movie when morale is high. The film score itself is minimal, with other sounds—soldier’s marching feet, a single set of footsteps on the bridge, or the distant sounds of the train—often providing non-musical sonic interest. Bridge on the River Kwai is a long film at 2 hours 41 minutes, but well worth the time. The cinematography is striking, showing the beauty and perils of the jungle as well as the building of the glorious bridge. The bridge story line provides psychological drama, while the plot story line provides action and adventure. The culmination of the colliding stories is exciting and surprising. And the characters are intriguing. Their quirks and their choices lead us to ask important questions about right and wrong, honor, and pride. It is no wonder this film was well received by critics and the public alike.

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

"The Bridge on the River Kwai" is one of my absolute favorite films, one I yearn for just about every winter. Once the nights get long and the world turns cold and boring, I’d rather spend some time with my nose pressed against the windowpane of another one, taking the illusion of warmth and light over cold dark reality. Only this version of reality doesn't entirely make sense—and I’ve come to realize that’s the point. The central premise is a stretch—it’s tough to imagine a diligent and dedicated British officer in a P.O.W. camp (Alec Guinness’s Colonel Nicholson) inspiring his troops to exert their maximum effort to build a bridge for their Japanese captors. And it’s hard to picture a cynical American shirker (William Holden’s Harry Shears), one who’s made every effort to avoid difficulty and hardship, playing the lead role in a daring commando raid. Indeed, most of the movie’s characters seem miscast, not in the movie, but in their lives; you see other commandos failing to kill, or killing the wrong people; you see a Japanese camp commandant admitting that he’s a failed artist who’d be happier painting flowers. The brilliant thing about a movie like this is how it’s world haunts you; you’re compelled to return to it in spite of its falsehood, and even because of it. You might easily catch the surface message (here, the madness of war) on first viewing, but there may be fuller and deeper meanings that elude your grasp until later. Documentaries of the war often feel truly absurd, compelling, sure, but distant and difficult to relate to. But once you filter 1943 through the lens of 1957, and rewatch it throughout the 1990s and 2000s and 2010s, it all starts to make sense: these men are all prisoners. They’re prisoners of circumstance, of the vast historical forces that threw men from England and Japan thousands of miles around the globe and set them against each other to match wits in the fetid Burmese jungle. They're prisoners of their own lives. That’s not to say they’ve lost all free will—but the forces against them are so vast that their only recourse is to play the roles in which they’ve been miscast. They can play the roles poorly or well, but the script’s been written by men far above their pay grade, and they’ve been forced onto the set, with armed guards preventing their exit. So they find justification and satisfaction in the roles: Colonel Nicholson seizes on the bridge project as a chance to bring civilization to the men he imagines to be savages, to work hard in the twilight of his career and find pleasure in a job well done; Harry Shears embarks on the commando raid to destroy that bridge because the alternative’s yet another prison; he persists almost out of spite. To read lines that go against their nature, and try to do well in their role: this is their only freedom. And somehow it all remains compelling and real and tense, even after dozens of viewings. I still thrill to it every time, and revel in the delightfully deliberate ambiguities throughout. I cannot entirely break free, for I’m a captive, too: something in me draws me back again and again to the beauty and spectacle of this particular celluloid window.

BOTTOM LINE: Ignore the handful of 1 STAR haters and give this flick its due. It is a first-rate story of the triumph of the human spirit in hardship & misery, and it's just a magnificent war film. I like this movie very much and acknowledge its classic status with a solid 4 STAR rating. THE STORY: British POWs imprisoned in southeast Asia during WWII are forced to build a bridge that will allow the Japanese army to move soldiers & supplies thru the dense Burmese jungle via railway. Main narrative focuses on a war of wills between the determined Japanese prison camp commander (Sessue Hayakawa) and the leader of the Brit regiment (Sir Alec Guiness). Meanwhile, a lone American soldier (William Holden) who manages to escape the camp is subsequently strong-armed into leading a squad of British commandos back to the bridge in order to blow it up, in the hopes it will cripple the Japanese military's stranglehold in the region. THOUGHTS: Well regarded as one of the best war movies ever made, BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI at its heart is a fascinating character study on the nature of war, man, and the ways & reasons one uses to maintain one's sense of identity & loyalty in the worst of situations. All the actors here are on their best game, right down to the smallest bit parts. Direction by David Lean is first rate. The memorable musical march is one of cinema's lasting audio icons. The action, while perhaps minimal by today's standards, is nonetheless perfectly suited to the film. All-in-all, an outstanding movie. (No, it doesn't rigidly recreate the real wartime events that it was based on, and that's fine. It isn't trying to. More importantly, it never states or claims to be. So what's the problem? Sheesh.) BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is not simply a great "war" movie, but a great movie - period. THE BLU-RAY: There are many formats and versions for this splendid motion picture. My review's technical specifics concerns the 2011 release single disc Blu-ray release from Columbia. It has some crush (video noise) early on but eventually gives way to a very nice-looking picture overall. Sound is level and solid but a little on the soft side. (I had the sound cranked up pretty high throughout the film.) Extras on this particular release version include an excellent "Making of" featurette, some archival footage & interviews, an info track and more.

Wonderful classic movie. I purchased it online from Amazon and it is stored in their cloud and cam be viewed from anywhere. I highly recommend the movie.

Trees, 1500 of them, were cut down. Then they were hoisted by elephants to a river’s edge. They were floated downstream. They were built into a cantilever bridge by 400 men over a 10-month period in the steamy Ceylonese jungle. No machines, just hand labor, were used. When finished, the tall wooden structure stood 90’ above the river. Next, the same men laid down a rail, a couple miles long, to adjoin the bridge, and a 25-ton steam engine was purchased to go on the tracks. Three short test runs later, Sam Spiegel the movie producer gave the signal. The train chugged onto the bridge, cameras filming the action. When it crossed halfway, 1000 pounds of dynamite strapped to the bridge were detonated. The train and the brand new bridge blew up in a geyser of smoke. Scraps flew in the air; then rubble fell into the water. In seconds bridge and train were gone. All this, for entertainment. A swath of jungle was mutilated. A river was contaminated. Wildlife was displaced. Was the movie worth that? The question plagues me as I watch this movie. The answer is no and yes. The environmental cost was enormous, and today such waste and destruction would be banned. Yet, how magnificent the final movie was, undeniably a work of genius. Expert director David Lean, expert script writers Foreman and Wilson, and expert actors William Holden and Alex Guinness turned a fictitious story into a compelling drama that explored the interplay of honor and treachery, and duty and pragmatism. Its message is timely to this day. War is madness. The movie brought an eccentric British colonel, an inflexible Japanese adversary, and a handsome scheming GI together for an unforgettable climax. The Blu-Ray version has wonderful extras: Holden being interviewed by TV host Steve Allen. A lengthy commentary from a film critic. The London premiere of the movie, narrated by Holden. A documentary about how the bridge was built. A poster gallery. A USC literature course explaining the book-to-film adaptation. A full-length version of the movie, annotated with historical data. My favorite is a director’s commentary about Holden, Warden, Guinness, and Hayakawa and their personalities. This is truly a collector’s item.

I really liked this movie and recommend it for those that like war movies. Very well done.

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

小学生のころ、テレビで何回か見たことはかすかに記憶しているが、人生経験を積んで、５０年以上たってみてじっくり見てみるとこんなにすばらしい映画だったんだと感動した。英国・日本の大将も、置かれている立場、お国柄で違いはあるがとても人間的だと思った。音楽もすばらしい（有名）。

Un pur chef-d’œuvre. Un monument d’anthologie.

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.

This extraordinary WW2 action film won well deserved Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (David Lean), Best Actor (Alec Guinness), Best Adapted Screenplay (Carl Foreman & Michael Wilson), Best Color Cinematography (Jack Hildyard), Best Editing (Peter Taylor) and Best Musical Score ( Malcolm Arnold). It is a triumph in every respect, a blockbuster which focuses on the human element even more than the action, giving the unforgettable climax even more impact. Alec Guinness is unforgettable as Colonel Nicholson, the commanding officer of a British unit in a Japanese POW camp in WW2 Burma, who supervises the construction of the titular railway bridge. Sessue Hayakawa is also memorable as the Japanese colonel Saito, whose ideas for the bridge's construction clash with those of Nicholson. Jack Hawkins plays the British Major Warden, who recruits American Major Shears, played by William Holden, to blow up this same bridge. James Donald is also noteworthy as the camp doctor Major Clipton, who acts as the film's conscience and observer. The CinemaScope and Technicolor images are stunningly beautiful, and the sound of the soldiers whistling "The Colonel Bogey March" is iconic. I can't see anyone not thoroughly enjoying this picture.