Good Show, Lad!

Movie Review
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Directed by David Lean

Whoa. 1957. Old movie, but in full color of course. Ran across the DVD in one of Manila's many markets. Knowing that this movie's got a lot of praise, I thought that I owed it to myself to see it and find out by myself why it's one of IMDB's top 250 movies of all time (and why it won Academy Awards best picture long, long time ago).

The story tells of a Japanese POW (prisoners of war) camp somewhere in Burma, South East Asia. It opens up with the arrival of a battalion of British army under colonel Nicholson who previously surrendered to the Japanese. The camp's commander, one colonel Saito, orders these prisoners to build a bridge on the river Kwai (hence the movie's title). The bridge's development starts slowly, hindered by a dispute between Saito and Nicholson over the British officers' nature of involvement in building of the bridge. The dispute is settled, and the bridge's development continues. And of course, the story's not that simple, but I won't spoil that in this review.

There are many things to like about the movie. First off, Alec Guinness' acting is top of the line in this movie. Those of you who scratch your head when hearing his name, please recall Obi-Wan Kenobi and you'll know who I'm talking about. Still no clue? Then better stop reading right now. Kidding. Anyways, Guinness' acting is center stage in this movie. You will sympathize with his character straight off from start to finish. He fully deserves the Oscar for best actor that he won for his role in this movie. Sessue Hayakawa's believable and sympathetic performance as col. Saito also deserves a high praise. William Holden, as commander Shears, and Jack Hawkins as Major Warden also deserve honorable mention.

The screenplay and cinematography are just downright amazing. Each scenes are handled meticulously, and those who were involved obviously put a lot of care into making them perfect. Amazing that a movie made in 1957 could put so many amazing little details into each and every one of the scenes. Can't really stress enough how excellent the cinematography is, the shooting done in style so that you can even notice things happening both in the foreground and in the background. This truly shows off the excellent coordination between each scene's elements, be those in the foreground or the background. Truly an incredible feat considering that this movie was made in 1957 and that they didn't have a lot of high-tech tricks to play around with during that time (computer graphic, for example). There's a lot of incredible, unforgettable moments in this movie.

And then there's the story, of course. I'm willing to bet that a lot of people who watch this movie will be able to draw an analogy between this movie and the whole idea of war and military might. I have my own opinion on it as well, a really balanced one, but let's just say that this movie will touch on your morale senses. But don't take it too seriously. There's a lot of humorous scenes in the movie. And, if you pay attention to its many little details, you will find a lot of comedic touches sprinkled here and there in the movie's scenes, even among the seemingly serious ones. War analogies aside, you will get more entertainment out of the story if you try to enjoy it as it comes and not draw analogies (though it's rather difficult for me to do that).

Additionally, the music and sound effects are so...due to a lack of better word...classic. Vintage, even, in my humble opinion. Don't expect sweeping orchestra scores in this one, but the music fits the mood perfectly.

This movie screams classic all over the place. It's got everything: excellent performances, great cinematography, great and compelling story, good sense of humor, long running time (if you're used to movies with short running time, this one has the danger of putting you to sleep along the 161 minutes run time if you're really tired). They just don't make this kind of movie anymore these days. *Sigh*. Great movie, highly recommended. Enough said. Good show, lad! Good show!