Critics reviews

THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is the original Lean blockbuster; if not the quintessential Lean movie it certainly embodies the themes and structures that would preoccupy him for the rest of his career.

This is a film about taking orders. If we isolate Nicholson, Saito and Shears as the three major characters, we notice that not a single one of them cares about the bridge for its own sake. It has a different value for each of them: a symbolic victory for Nicholson, a means of survival for Saito, an intrusive task for Shears.

Rich in character and excitingly tense in building toward an emotionally devastating as well as physically destructive climax, Lean's film feels fresh in its meticulous composition and thematic complexity. What's most impressive is the way Bridge works on a grand scale and never for a second feels bloated, indulgent, showy, or melodramatic.

Whereas Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago feel more pictorial than cinematic, The Bridge on the River Kwai carefully builds its psychological tension until it erupts in a blinding flash of sulfur and flame.

There is no clear distinction between heroism and villainy; Lean uses the massive CinemaScope canvas to keep us at an emotional remove from the characters so they seem like checkerboard pieces moving toward a fixed, destructive point.