The Bridge on the River Kwai
1957
****
Director: David Lean
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, James Donald, Geoffrey Horne, André Morell, Peter Williams
David Lean's first historical epic is a long but captivating drama about a group of British prisoners of war who are forced to build a bridge for their Japanese captors. The British soldiers are led by the proud and principled Colonel Nicholson, intensely played by Alec Guinness. Lean and Guinness won two of the film's seven Academy Awards. The whistled Colonel Bogey march has become an iconic element of the film. Adapted from Pierre Boulle's 1952 novel.
