Bridge on the River Kwai

Pros: Ambiguity, performances, script, direction.

Cons: Nothing.

The Bottom Line: will Kwai.

Review: David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai triumphs through the force of moral ambiguity. We have an impressive array of "protagonists" and "antagonists" displayed here, but none of them are solidly "good" nor solidly "evil." Each contains a brand ...

Pros: Guinnes, Hayakawa, Holden, Hawkins. Boulle's novel. Wilson/Foreman screenplay. Lean's direction. Cardiff's photography. Arnold's score.

Cons: Film's anti-war message, black humor, went over the heads of the audience. Still does.

The Bottom Line: BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is one of the great anti-war films of all time, conveying its truth with more subtle humor than DR. STRANGELOVE. An early Postwar "International Film."

Review: To begin with, though nothing is wrong with viewers and critics seeing BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI as a grand adventure story or an heroic war film, I think they miss the point. Adventure story and war film it may be, but David Lean's 161 minute epic is ...

Pros: Great locales, cinematography, direction, performances, themes, story, and DVD presentation

Cons: Has some potential to taint the bravery of the real men of the prison camp

The Bottom Line: One of the greatest war films ever made, with virtues well in excess of my poor capacity to praise them.

Review: Here's a film that can withstand whatever accolades you care to throw at it – masterpiece, epic, classic, or what-have-you. Although the film, as an artistic creation, falls to the credit of director David Lean, it was first the brainchild of ...

Pros: Acting, cast, cinematography, direction, music score, writing.

Cons: A bit 'Hollywooodized'. Best seen on a restored, widescreen print.

The Bottom Line: To quote the film trailer: "The film that must be seen. And seen again".

Review: In 1957, a movie was premiered that was the most awe-inspiring of its time. It was a massive project, involving a collaboration of several countries and the building of a bridge, then the largest single prop used for a film. It was the movie that put...

Pros: Superb acting. Brilliant cinematography. Great script and direction.

Cons: At times overly stereotypical and historically inaccurate.

The Bottom Line: The Bridge on the River Kwai is explosive entertainment. A fantastic film containing some of the best performances and shots ever put on celluloid.

Review: Madness…madness are the immortal words of Maj. Clipton upon reflecting the effect of war upon men in David Lean’s 1957 epic The Bridge on the River Kwai : a film which explores the madness of war itself and its effects upon ...

Pros: Everything

Cons: You do need patience

The Bottom Line: Take your time, and enjoy a masterpiece

Review: In World War Two, in Southeast Asia, Sessue Hayakawa portrays the commandant of a Japanese prison camp. Alec Guinness is the British Colonel of a group of soldiers who were captured and placed in that prison camp. Jack Hawkins is another British ...

Pros: Every performance, the score, the direction ... I could go on for days

Cons: None. None. None

Review: As you may know, one of the great actors of our time, perhaps of all time, has died. This review results.

It is hard even to write the words: Alec Guinness is dead.

With him died a befuddled vacuum-cleaner salesman, a...

Pros: Gripping, Frank, with no punches pulled, a masterpiece.

Cons: Those looking for an awful lot of action scenes might be disappointed.

Review: Am I the only one who finds that the best war movies were all made quite a long time ago? The Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven and now this film, far surpass 99% of what is served up today.

One of the greatest war...

Pros: Shows how the noblest aspirations can be perverted

Cons: (Sound of wind blowing)

Review: Until "Saving Private Ryan" came out two years ago, "Bridge over the River Kwai" was certainly the best English-language film originally in color about World War II. It doesn't show the civilian suffering as well as "Schindler's...

Pros: One of the best war films ever

Cons: None

Review: "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is one of those war films that is excellent from the very start. This film will be ranked with "The Guns of Navarone", "All's Quiet on the Western Front", "Run Silent, Run Deep",...