The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

★ 7.8 2h 42m 2,347 votes IMDb

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

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Cast

William Holden
William Holden as Cmdr. Shears Died 1981 · O'Fallon, Illinois, USA William Holden (April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1953 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974. One of the biggest box office draw...
Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness as Col. Nicholson Died 2000 · Marylebone, London, England, UK Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in wh...
Jack Hawkins
Jack Hawkins as Maj. Warden Died 1973 · Wood Green, London, England, UK John Edward Hawkins, CBE was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. One of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s, he was best known for his portray...
Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa as Col. Saito Died 1973 · Nanaura, Chiba, Japan Sessue Hayakawa (June 10, 1889 – November 23, 1973) was a Japanese and American Issei (Japanese immigrant) actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the...
James Donald
James Donald as Maj. Clipton Died 1993 · Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK ​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Donald (18 May 1917 - 3 August 1993) was a Scottish actor. Tall and gaunt, he specialised in playing authority figures; military officers, doctors or scie...
Geoffrey Horne
Geoffrey Horne as Lt. Joyce Age 92 · Buenos Aires, Argentina Geoffrey Horne is an American actor and acting teacher known for his work in both film and theatre. Born on August 22, 1933, in New York City, Horne grew up in a family of artists, with his mother bei...

Audience Reviews

John Chard 10/10 Jul 31, 2016
Colonel Bogey's Barmy Army.

OK! Lets get it out there right away, for historical facts of the real Bridge on the River Kwai story, one should research elsewhere, this film is a fictionalised account of the said events. Sadly there are those out there who simply refuse to judge this purely as a piece of cinematic art - and cinematic art it is.

A squad of British soldiers are held in a Japanese POW camp in the Burmese jungle. The respective Japanese and British leaders clash but an understanding is finally reached to build a bridge across the River Kwai. The importance of which could prove crucial in more ways than one...

It won 7 Academy Awards and 4 BAFTAS, and it was the film that saw the great David Lean enter his epic period. And what a start it is. Kwai is a masterful piece of cinema, it has a magnificently intelligent and complex screenplay - with tough edged dialogue in the script, is bursting at the seams with high quality performances, and beautifully photographed (filmed in Ceylon). Thematically it's about the folly and psychological madness of war, which in turn is ensconced in sub - plots of genuine worth. It all builds to a tremendous finale, where everything we have witnessed is realised with a deftness of talent from across the board. 10/10

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