The Bridge on the River Kwai

Director: David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India)
Cast: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins
UK/USA, 1957

Seen: April 23th, 2006 thanks to Rogers Direct

Reason to see: It's on my 101 list of films I can't believe I haven't seen, and its just one of those movies that is always on 'best of' lists, and Alec Guiness is in it!

Usually I avoid war movies like the plague, but as this is critically acclaimed and not recently made I thought it would be safe. It was. Well, it didn't disturb me the way most war movies do, although I'm still not sure exactly what it was trying to say. It does focus a lot in belief, and sticking to the rules & your guns and when does this get to the point of ridiculous or does that never happen. Is the principle of something more important than the actually experience of the result. What happens when you can't stand back and see something for what it is? Who gets to make decisions, and why? What are the reprecussions of our actions? Why are we willing to do things.

It was also interesting to me that I couldn't figure out where the film was made, as I don't know if there was a certain country they were trying to make look good or bad or both.

Favorite Quotes:
"Good show, jolly good show!"
"On the theory that there is always one more thing to do..."
"There is always the unexpected, isn't there?"

Shannon's Overall View:
I think its a great film
I would watch it again
I would recommend it

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© Shannon Ridler, 2006