While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

If you watch The Bridge on the River Kwai and find yourself simultaneously admiring the spirit, the cheer, and the competence of the English, and finding it strangely insufferable, you are meant to do just that -- because this is a movie ultimately about the strange contradictions in the human heart. Alec Guinness is beyond superb, and I choose the word "beyond" advisedly: You cheer for him as he outlasts the hapless Japanese commandant, and yet it is all for what to the Japanese must seem a frivolous rule, a distinction between officers and men that should not have any purchase upon ragged soldiers in such a sweltering malarial hole as the valley of the Kwai. And the bridge, which is meant to transport Japanese supplies in occupied southeast Asia, the bridge, quite an impressive little feat of engineering, is built. Why? What is it for?All the principals in the film are at their peak: Guinness, the overmatched but deeply human commandant (Sessue Hayakawa, who won an Oscar for his role and deserved every gilded ounce of it), William Holden as the cynical American who detests Guinness more than he does Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins as an English don with a taste for explosives, and the young Gregory Horne as the all-in English schoolboy; and that's not to mention the beautiful and haunting-eyed Burmese women who lead Hawkins, Holden, and Horne through the jungle back to the Kwai.I'm an admirer of David Lean's films. This one has all the broad grandeur of Lawrence of Arabia, without the latter's occasional lunge into the baroque. "My God, what have I done?" Mr. Lean, what you have done is create a nearly flawless movie about some of the most important existential questions in human life.

This movie which is about the command of troops for working to build a bridge. Prison camp from where the escape of chance is one in hundred of survival. So making escape plane will cause in increase of number of casualties. Therefore the officer decide to cooperate in building the bridge. But the story doesn't ends here. There is other part of story going on.Writing much about it is like to the spoil the movie. So I end here. And thank you for showing the good show.

Director David Lean's earlier war movie, this one taking place in the jungles of Burma. A group of British soldiers have been captured by the Japanese, but their commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), instantly clashes with the camp commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), who he sees trying to undermine the rules of war by forcing the officers into manual labour alongside their men. Whereas Saito sees Nicholson as a traitor to the rules of war for having surrendered alive. Also, soon after the British have arrived, an American soldier named Shears (William Holden) manages to escape.Lean takes us on a long journey in this film. The duality of war's conventions and rules being put against the sheer savagery of it is examined through the characters of Nicholson and Saito - and to a lesser degree Shears and the company he keeps. War is horrendous and oftentimes meaningless, but quite often men try to deal with this by forcing artificial rules onto it. Rules, which become so precious to them, that they cannot adapt them or operate outside of them. And in a way this is just as horrendous and meaningless.This film lives by its grand scope and the talent of its actors. And luckily both of those work very well. Guinness is hands down the most memorable performance and the one that embodies the themes of the movie the best, but the rest of the cast is also very good. The film is also shot beautifully, with some great scenes and sets included.The Bridge on the River Kwai doesn't quite live up to the grandeur of Lawrence of Arabia, but it is still a fine piece of war cinema and well worth a watch for all interested.

I write this review as a response to another review here at IMDb.com (the first review listed, as of 6/9/2017, titled "Good film, but a travesty of history," written by someone with the screen name "gcaplan").The review by gcaplan states as follows: "I am normally an admirer of David Lean. But it is difficult to understand why he chose to base this film on a real event at the River Kwai, as it grossly misrepresents the real 'Colonel Nicholson' and caused considerable distress to both him and the River Kwai veterans. The Colonel Nicholson character is based on the allied camp commander, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey, who was a remarkable officer by any standards."I have the greatest respect for the sacrifices of the warriors of World War II and for historical facts. I would urge upon reviewer "gcaplan" the following thought: making a great Hollywood film that will sell tickets to millions of people is not necessarily connected to historical accuracy. David Lean did NOT consider himself bound by historical fact as he made this film. He considered himself bound by the need to deliver a great and inspiring movie-going experience to movie-goers of the world. In my opinion, this is the ONLY criteria a filmmaker should adhere to, unless he/she is making a documentary film.History, generally speaking, is too squishy, too-spread-out, too ambiguous, too complex, too lacking in the elements of drama to produce a good two- or three-hour film or script or play UNLESS you play around with the facts, compress stuff, tweak people's characters so as to make them more understandable and/or more dramatic. Shakespeare knew this. Robert Bolt ("A Man For All Seasons") knew this. David Lean knew this. If you're spending a fortune making a two- or three-hour production that intends to appeal to lots of people, and you're dealing with history, you've got to simplify in spots, enhance in spots, move things around. Above all you've got to create drama and conflict that's readily graspable. Otherwise you're just doing a vanity project. If you've got millions of dollars to spend on a vanity project, fine, do what you want, but if you want a return on your investment, as most filmmakers do, you'd better create a great story with vivid and dramatic conflict.Lean's creation of the Col. Nicholson of "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (with a lot of help from Alec Guinness, needless to say) was a key step toward generating dramatic conflict in the script and thus creating a great film. Minus this depiction of Nicholson we have a lesser film - in fact, we probably have a nothing film that few people pay money to see.I am skeptical of the assertion by reviewer "gcaplan" that the film has caused "considerable distress" to the brave and strong survivors of this prison hell. I'm inclined to think they're tougher than that. I would like to see substantive evidence for this assertion in the form of a specific citation, since this assertion is the crux of gcaplan's review. I suggest the possibility that the film has caused SOME distress to SOME of the survivors of this hell, and has been loved by others, who recognize that, minus Lean's monumental effort to create dramatic tension, virtually no one would have ever heard of the movie, nor of the bridge, nor of them - surely no one in the younger generation. As it is, everyone who loves great movies has heard of these men and regards them as great. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is a true depiction of what might happen to men at war. It is not true in terms of actual facts and makes no pretensions in that regard. Down here in the real world, millions of people seek entertainment. They got it from this film. It's possibly the best World War II film; it has nothing to do with the actual facts; and I say to David Lean, WTG. Well done, to have the guts and talent to take a less-than-cinematic story, tweak it, massage it, re-write it and make a great cinematic story.By the way, the facts of the great bridge can be found by anyone who cares to do a bit of looking. I urge them to do so.