Day 40: The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai: 1957: Winner of the 39th Academy Award

Starring:


William Holden as US Navy Commander/Seaman Shears

Alec Guinness as Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson

Jack Hawkins as Major Warden

Sessue Hayakawa as Colonel Saito

James Donald as Major Clipton

Geoffrey Horne as Lieutenant Joyce

André Morell as Colonel Hornsby

Peter Williams as Captain Reeves

John Boxer as Major Hughes

Percy Herbert as Private Grogan

Harold Goodwin as Private Baker


Well here's one movie where none of the main characters survive. It took me nearly an entire day to finish this movie. But I did it. And here's what I got to say about it. It had a very awesome soundtrack but it was by far unnecessarily long. I think it had something to do with thte way the movie began with a showmanship of British upstanding and pride and then he was in the oven for so long and .. well you can see how long the intro was. The end was quite good and I actually liked the ending, although I have to say, that stupid captain Nicholson was a real dud and possibly going through hostage loves kidnapper syndrome. He was trying to out the people that we're trying to help him escape, in what right mind does someone do that? He is crazy but I blame the Japanese commandeer. This movie was decent, but it doesn't really call my attention and I don't think I’d watch if it wasn't on the list. I swear War movies just suck and they are all pretty much the same. Thank the higher power that nowadays, most films aren't about war, because if they were they'd be sure to win. Look for example at the past 20 yrs. Of those movies 6 have been war related, three were actual war movies. It's like war movies were made for awards, truthfully I propose an incentive in the other direction, please for the sake of viewers, look at the brilliance of comedy, let go of the war worshiping past filmmakers!!.. On to the next war movie yawns.

It also won awards for:

Best Director :David Lean

Best Actor :Alec Guinness

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium :Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman, Pierre Boulle

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Film : Malcolm Arnold

Best Film Editing :Peter Taylor

Best Cinematography :Jack Hildyard