The Bridge on the River Kwai
by David Lean
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DVD details
Actor: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, James Donald, Sessue Hayakawa, William HoldenDirector: David Lean
Brand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 161 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-11-21
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Bridge on the River Kwai
DVD Review: My Personal pick for the most overrated war movie all time
Summary: 3 Stars
I know that this review is going to offend A LOT of people, but The Bridge On the River Kwai under whelms on just about every account at being a war movie. Moralizing and other such things are common in war movies, and it sometimes takes artistic license to make a point, which can work it a certain context. But TBOTRK just does way too much with it's suspension of disbelief, and you're all left with a dated action picture that fails to engage itself with ham handed morals and messages that end up being (especially given the setting) rather valueless. The Bridge On the River Kwai is my personal pick for the most overrated war movie ever made.
I'll be fair. It's an honest effort to entertain people and took a lot of time, and it's certainly not one of the worst war movies I've seen (you've never sat through Gung Ho or The Green Berets so count your blessings). There's no denying that this is a film made with skill, and David Lean does deserve acclaim as a Director throughout his career. And there's no question, that, given the boring characters, the actors do try their best to give out performances, and they aren't wretched. I do also think that the visuals, always a Lean trademark, are great as well given the context, are great as well, capturing some of the steamy jungle and being VERY beautiful too look at. I think it does achieve as a visual work even though there's nothing much else of interest, so it's mostly the shots that aren't used to progress the story.
And yet, while I can frustratingly see why people would really like this, I really think it fails in just about every camp to be a good war movie, and the acclaim this movie has got has absolutely eluded me, both in the war genre and among movie polls. It can't hold it's own as a depiction of a POW camp, it's action is dated and tinny, and it's messages and examinations of war are pretentious and ultimately don't matter, especially given it's POW setting.
As a depiction of a POW camp, it's deplorable. How come so many war film fans grossly ignore that many people who survived the POW camps were absolutely insulted by the totally untrue depiction, and how they say that this film is as far moved from reality as possible? The Japanese were known for the heinous war crimes that even disgusted members of the SS, and the Burma railroad was one of them. This portrayal is an utter lie. The conditions were horrible, the causality count was insane, and all they did was build a railroad because they were forced to and that's it. The chance that they were able to get a chance to blow it up and turn the building of the bridge into some cowboys Vs Indians plot is an utter joke and a disgrace to the horrors of war. All survivors say that this film is an utter disgrace to watch. I won't say that much else, but it's obvious that what you see here is a disgrace to what happened, judging from what the people who were actually there have to say about it. There's just no excuse for this, and in this depiction the film is an utter failure in depicting a POW camp.
However, I actually think that this movie also fails in its messages and so called character study, and given the setting, the messages come off as phony, substituting a much more scary, horrible, and realistic way to show the horrors of war, for intellectual self indulgence. David Lean goes for a psychological battle of the wills, and the movie spends way too much time outside of the camp where it becomes hard to believe, including some very corny romance scenes (really?). Some of the scenes here make the film feel akin to a Cowboys and Indians tale for adults, and that's definitely not good. The characters aren't lifeless, but considering that there's absolutely nothing at stake, they end up being trivial and uninteresting, being as unbelievable as the disgraceful depiction of the camp thanks to the movie's utterly unbelievably plot. If the plot itself can't come across as believable, how are we supposed to believe that the people involved in the plot are believable?
Ultimately, the "anti-war" messages ends up being entertainment and ultimately useless, certainly not convincing me of the horrifying effects that war and POW camps had on the people who were there (once again, because it's all incredibly whitewashed and fantasized!). This is a lame excuse for more "intellectual" entertainment, and given the topic at hand, it's really not much different if the film was low brow entertainment that had spacecrafts and laser beams. Frankly, I'm tired of this lame excuse of films always having to be entertainment. How about simply using the emotional and physical trauma of being in these damn places to show what war can do (given that many ordinary people, not much different from you and me, died in these fiascos) to the human spirit? This would be much harder to swallow and would require the audience to squirm. Of course this isn't going to win mass appeal, but the truth of these places isn't for mass appeal. Instead, Bridge on the River Kwai is, to sort of paraphrase Shakespeare, a pseudo intellectual take on war that takes artistic license to extreme, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
You want a much more harrowing and that will cause the viewer to squirm more and make them aware of the horrors of war? How about a depiction of the camps where there is NO chance for wills, for morals, or for observations about the insanity of war beside pure luck pulling against you in the face of sheer torture and ruthless killing? How about showing war that doesn't give a damn for thought? How a POW camp is a prime example that life doesn't care about your viewpoints and you are just a hapless cog in the killing machine? Of course that would not ever happen, because it would require the viewers and the studios to actually risk intellectual escapism for truth. It would not give the people the self-gratification of figuring out the bogus psychological, anti-war study, but instead horrify people with the brutal and immoral truth that the Japanese camps were full of, and the fact that it would take most human rights away to the point that reality would not even give you the chance to even get pass much of what starts the "anti war" study in the film.
So it may contain useless "messages" and a near-fantasy (at times) depiction of a Japanese POW Camp, but hey, there may be some disbelief to suspend because it's one of the best action pictures ever, right? Sorry, but no. As an action picture, it doesn't work either, being a victim of time. Being made in 1957 doesn't help the film because, for all of it's hoopla, it hurts itself for being around fifty years too old. The explosions sound laughable and funny, there is little buildup, and the bridge explosions is so silly and extremely weak because it lacks substantial effects, and most of all, doesn't sound like a ferocious explosion (instead sounding VERY weak and tinny). This film is dated, and despite what other people say, the action itself is very little compared to the build up, and the build up is basically the implausible and downright stupid scenarios that the POW were, along with the pretentious and ultimately useless messages regarding war. This, along with the lame and dated production values, is a cheap and overall scam of an action movie; so don't be suckered by other people's deluding praise.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, this movie just doesn't deserve the hype it gets, and certainly is overrated when its stacked up against other war films that top various lists. David Lean also touched up on WW1 in Lawrence of Arabia and that film, while also has some artistic license, doesn't totally ignore the reality of it's surroundings and has a good character study and is much more fresh all these years. Don't think that the melodramatic hype this movie has got convince you that this is among the pinnacle of the genre, because as far as I'm certain, it isn't as foolproof as people want it to be. Need proof? These people are claiming this film as one of the best war films but don't even mention Grave of the Fireflies, a film much worthy of being on a top list than this blockbuster entertainment film any day of the week. Despite it's acclaim, this war movie is just not worth the hype.
Description of The Bridge on the River Kwai
ALLIED COMMANDOS ARE DISPATCHED DEEP INSIDE THE BURMESE JUNGLETO BLOW UP A STATEGIC BRIDGE BUILT BY BRITISH POWS. SPECIAL FEATURES: SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, PORTUGUESE,CHINESE, KOREAN, AND THAI: LANGUAGES IN ENGLISH, FRENCH,SPANISH AND PORTUGUES: THEATRICAL TRAILERS AND MUCH MORE.Bestsellers in DVD
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