1001 Movies Club - Bridge On The River Kwai, The (1957)

#324. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

Why It's In The Book: "Lean loads his film with tons of details, filling the widescreen image with elaborate action and immaculately constructed sets. But holding this epic World War II film together are the performances of its three iconic leads, the stiff and traditional Guinness, the loose and cynical Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa as the Japanese colonel unknowingly stuck in the middle of a battle of cross-Atlantic wills... lauded for their stun work, choreography, and editing, one of the most memorable elements of Kwai remains Malcolm Arnold's whimsical, whistled "The Colonel Bogey March." " -1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Member Ratings

Movie Guy Steve - 10/10
"It’s just as worth watching now as when it was created."
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Alyson - 9/10
"Believe me, you'll recognize it once you hear it and will probably find yourself whistling along within the first fifteen minutes."
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Squish - 9/10
"...rather than being about 'the big mission', The Bridge on the River Kwai is about men facing difficult trials, ones more about themselves than bridges..."
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Adolytsi - 8/10
"Bridge on the River Kwai is an excellent achievement of the wartime struggle to survive at any cost."
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Doug Tilley - 8/10
"The bridge's destruction is as much a mental release as a physical one, the eradication of a massive wooden crutch for an admirable but essentially broken man."
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Klaus Ming - 8/10
"The Bridge on the River Kwai is a rousing British World War II epic."
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Michaël Parent - 7/10
"The whole story makes you hold your breath and there are moments of pure cinema, but the film isn’t as great as Lean's other films, say Brief Encounter or Lawrence of Arabia."
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Overall Rating: 8.4/10