THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) (****)

What can you say about this movie besides — classic. If you haven't seen it, you should be ashamed of yourself. It's action-packed, dramatic and funny all at the same time. It uncovers the British, Japanese and American point of view during WWII all in the same film. And David Lean's (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, DR. ZHIVAGO) Oscar-winning direction is near perfect.

The story follows the building and then attempted destruction of a bridge in India, which the Japanese want to use as a main means of transport. Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa, SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON) is in charge of a prisoner camp, whose prisoners will construct the bridge. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness, STAR WARS, LADYKILLERS), a British officer, and his men are captured and brought to Saito's camp. Already at the camp is American soldier Shears (William Holden SUNSET BLVD., WILD BUNCH), who has a lot of secrets.

Right from the start, Saito and Nicholson butt heads over whether British officers should do manual labor on the bridge. Saito is under strict orders to have the bridge finished by May and Nicholson is unbending about following the Geneva Convention word for word. This is the best battle of wills that has ever been captured on film. The camp has no walls, because those attempting escape are either shot or die in the harsh jungle. But Shears does the impossible and escapes from the prison, only to be blackmailed into going back to blow up the bridge.

Many other events are ironic like that and add to the overall theme of the film, which is that war is insane and futile. No matter how hard you try death is always lurking around the corner and no matter how honorable you are the dirtiness of war will sully all involved. From the British viewpoint death is noble as long as you follow the rules. American Shears doesn't see anything noble in dying for unbending formalities. The Japanese point of view is much different. They require shame in defeat and find the British behavior not honorable at all. Saito must commit suicide if he fails his mission. Hayakawa's Oscar-nominated performance is amazing. Or course, he is countered by Guinness's Oscar-winning performance — one of the best performances of all time.

Jack Hildyard's Oscar-winning cinematography is gorgeous. Working with Lean, whose films are always visual poetry, he films the efforts of the men with a wide gaze, adding to the grandeur of their accomplishment. He makes the jungle look beautiful, which is in stark contrast to its deadliness. This same irony carries over into Malcolm Arnold's Oscar-winning music and scoring. The rousing theme song takes on bittersweet tones after the final line is uttered.

On screen, Pierre Boulle is the only listed screenwriter, having adapted his own novel. But blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were just as responsible for the film's perfectly paced story. They allow actions to reveal the personalities of their characters. Their words are brought together by Lean and Oscar-winning editor Peter Taylor in an effort that shows patience for character development and tension building. The final assault on the bridge is one of the best action sequences in film history.

I could go on for days about each amazing scene, but I'd end up describing the entire film. Key things to watch for though are Saito talking about his past, which brings to light a lot about his character; the calendar the Japanese use is quite funny; and the overall subtle nature of Nicholson and Saito's hypocrisy. One thing that bothered me the first time I watched the film was Nicholson's pigheaded desire for his officers not to do any manual labor. It made me feel he thought he was too good for it and thought he was superior to his men. But after you watch the entire film, you can see it was more about principle then anything else and it also adds greatly to the overall theme of the film.

This Oscar-winning Best Picture is an epic in the truest sense and one of those films that you find new things and new ways of reading the film each time you watch it. RIVER KWAI is possibly the best war film of all time.