The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

I love a good war story, especially a good WW II story. Most of my favorite movies of all time take place during WW II. Listed below are a few great movies (order meaning nothing).

1) The Band of Brothers (In my opinion the most brilliant portrayal of WW II)
2) Schindler's List
3) The Pianist
4) The Great Escape
5) The Pacific
6) Swing Kids
7) To Be or Not To Be
8) Saving Private Ryan
9) Inglorious Basterds (Thank you Adam for reminding me of this one)

The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of my father's favorite movies. Although I had never seen it growing up, I had been raised on the notion that it is a great movie. Man was I sorely disappointed.

First let me get something off my chest: I am sick and tired of movies being way longer than they need to be. I have watched so many movies lately that are 3 hours long, but nothing happens for the first 2. If you don't have enough material to make a full movie, please stop making movies.

The Bridge on the River Kwai takes place in a Japanese POW camp. A British colonel and his men are told to help build a bridge for the railroad. In an act that can only be described as treason, the British colonel demands a perfect bridge construction for the enemy. However an American Navy commander is determined to prevent that from happening.

From the stories I've heard, Japanese POW camps were a nightmare. Just look at what happened to John McCain.



This movie made the camp seem tame. I know what you're thinking right now, "Well duh, it's an old movie. They couldn't get away with being as graphic as Saving Private Ryan." You bring up a valid point, but the movie really made the camp seem like a holiday.

Another aspect of the movie that made me mad was the British colonel. This man is "by the book" and so when the head of the Japanese camp tries to make him work, he cites that it is against the Geneva Convention for an officer to be forced to work. Good for him, right? Well when it is no longer mandatory for him to work, he joins the project whole heartily and expects perfect effort from his men. I'm sorry but as a soldier he should be causing problems anywhere he can. In the Wikipedia article about this movie it says, "On a BBC Timewatch programme, a former prisoner at the camp states that it is unlikely that a man like the fictional Nicholson could have risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel; and if he had, he would have been "quietly eliminated" by the other prisoners." I know that people are only human, and it is very possible that an officer might act like that at one point. I also know that I should not base my dislike of the movie solely on that. Well there is more to it than that, but to prevent myself from spoiling the plot I cannot go into more detail about it.

All in all this movie was decent. Let me reiterate, however, that it was longer than it needed to be, somewhat boring, and very upsetting. Lucky for me there are more WW II movies than just this one.

The Bottom Line:
Rating: 2.7
Would I own it? Only if it was in a box set with The Great Escape
Would I recommend it? To my father maybe.