The bridge on the river kwai

 

DIRECTED BY-:
David Lean
STARRING-:
William Holden
Alec Guinness
Jack Hawkins
YEAR OF RELEASE-:
1957
PREMISE-:
British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors, not knowing that the allied forces are planning to destroy it.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

THE PROBLEMS-:

• Shears LUCKILY survives his escape attempt from the Japanese prison camp.

• Shears LUCKILY gets spotted by the British rescue plane.

• Shears fixes the radio (a device that plays a VERY significant role in the plot) by sheer ACCIDENT.

• In the waterfall area, Shears, Warden and Joyce get the drop on some Japanese soldiers out of sheer luck (The soldiers are conveniently present on a lower terrain compared to our heroes) and coincidence (The soldiers arrive JUST BEFORE our heroes are about to leave the place). 

THE CLIMAX

• The river level conveniently goes down JUST BEFORE the bridge can be blown up.

• Colonel Nicholson is conveniently the ONLY person on the bridge who notices the charges and the wires.

• Saito and Nicholson stupidly decide to not take a couple of Japanese soldiers along with them to help in the inspection of the wires.

• Nicholson and Saito stupidly decide to not cut the suspiciously long wire first and THEN trace its origin.

• Saito and Nicholson are CONVENIENTLY looking in the opposite direction when Joyce is approaching them with his knife.

• Nicholson LUCKILY survives the explosion that occurs near him.

• Nicholson is LUCKILY alive for JUST ENOUGH time in which he can get up, walk a few steps, and then ACCIDENTALLY blow up the bridge.

THE POSITIVES-:

• The characters were consistently well written and were utilized intelligently to create conflict and drama.

• The performances were all great.

• The background score was decent.

• The cinematography, costumes, set-designs and camera-work were all excellent. 

• Despite the 3 hour long runtime, there were rarely any dull or uninteresting scenes present. 

• Barring a few instances during the first half, the dialogues were mostly good and felt natural.  

RATING -: 7/10