The Bridge on the River Kwai ***** (1957, Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa) – Classic Movie Review 1396

Director David Lean’s 1957 dramatisation of Pierre Boulle’s 1952 French novel about the building of a Burma railway bridge under Japanese coercion by British prisoners-of-war is an enduring, magnificent achievement. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, was its year’s biggest money-maker and has a reputation as one of the greatest films of all time.

The book and film are fictional but use the true story of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. The movie was filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where the bridge was located near Kitulgala.

The British are commanded by the stiff-upper-lipped officer Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson, who uses the task building the bridge to try to restore morale and prove British superiority. Perfectly cast, Alec Guinness is superb in this role, as are Sessue Hayakawa as Colonel Saito, the Japanese colonel in charge of the prisoners, and William Holden as Shears, the escaped American soldier who tries to blow up the bridge.

One of Lean’s greatest films, it brought him his first Best Director Oscar, one of the film’s seven Academy Awards. The other Oscars were for Best Picture (producer Sam Spiegel), Best Actor (Guinness), Best Cinematography (Jack Hildyard), Best Film Editing (Peter Taylor), Best Score (Malcolm Arnold) and Best Screenplay (for Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson). It won three BAFTA and Golden Globe awards, both including Best Film, and was the number one money-maker of 1958, with a US take of $18million, and the year’s top British earner.

At the time, the film was originally credited to source novelist Pierre Boulle, as both the two screenplay writers were victims of the UAAC Committee blacklist. Justice finally done, if too late, Wilson (who died in 1978) won a posthumous Oscar for The Bridge on the River Kwai and was also awarded the screenwriter credit for Lawrence of Arabia in 1995.

Lean clashed with his cast, particularly Alec Guinness and James Donald (as Major Clipton), who thought the novel was anti-British. Lean also rowed with Guinness over how to play the role of Nicholson. Guinness wanted to play him with a sense of humour and sympathy, but Lean thought Nicholson should be a bore.

Jack Hawkins (as Major Warden), Geoffrey Horne, André Morell, Percy Herbert, Harold Goodwin, Ann Sears, Peter Williams, John Boxer and Henry Okawa are also in the cast.

The film was restored in 1985 by Columbia Pictures. The separate dialogue, music and effects were located and remixed with newly recorded atmospheric sound effects. In 2010 an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio was released on Blu-ray.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1396

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