The Bridge on the River Kwai [DVD] [2000]

This is a notable, enthralling and critically-acclaimed movie (it won 7 Oscars' and 3 BAFTAs, including the 'main' Film/Director categories) with extensive production-values, a big cast (with many famous actors in lead roles, it was only Alec Guinness that won the awards...) and very good effects to portray the final scenes involving 'that' bridge.. I got this on Blu-ray despite already owning it's 'Special' 2-disc DVD Edition, as whilst the DVD version had clearly been given some good treatment (it is to my eyes free of those annoying little white specks/scratches) with an excellent set of extras, this HD offering released some 10 years later features a '4K restoration'. So, whilst this Blu-ray didn't offer much more in the extras department (and actually also removes some !) it had the credentials of looking and perhaps sounding, courtesy of an accompanying DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, even better than the DVD which was already quite good. Well, after watching it for the umpteenth time, this time on Blu-ray I can categorically confirm that it DOES offer noticeable improvements in the viewing experience. The restoration has dealt with what could viably be 'fixed' from what was apparently quite a 'problematic' production and resulting 'flawed' film footage.... Directed by the legendary David Lean, this is my favourite film of his and, along with 'The Cruel Sea' features my favourite performances by the actor I feel is most prominent/significant in the film - Jack Hawkins. He, along with Alec Guinness and William Holden get joint top-billing but I feel that Hawkins pips both of them in the performance stakes. Guinness won the awards and Holden is similarly proficient, with his part/presence leaving me of the opinion it was 'necessary' to gain production/finance from US studios - his character and actions always remind me of the similarly 'misplaced' aspects to the 'Hilts' character, an almost solitary US personality in another great WWII film 'The Great Escape'.... I will leave the finer arguments often held amongst others about the faithfulness/'dilution' of the story and depiction to the real-life situations suffered by many of our countrymen in WWII under Japanese 'rule', but what is inescapable about the film are the superb production-values, the attention to detail in certain acts and the unusual level of humour that exists through the majority of the running time. The major plot aspect is the determination to maintain military discipline in adversity, but a lot of the finer details might be missed as they are again of a military 'nature' but not by me (I served in HM Forces for 18 years), with a snippet of a scene at the commando training camp covering all those 'finer' aspects with firstly a comedic big arrow sign directing 'guests' to the abode of Shears, the attention paid to a departing 'guest', the hilarious way a PT instructor has to be selective with his admonishment of those duly distracted from the task in hand and then the delightful touch of the Jack Hawkins character having to perform a 'change step' action, to regain synchronisation with his Colonel after resuming their walk. Finally, this was until recently the ONLY film I've seen where the act of looking though binoculars was correctly depicted (ie a single circular view, NOT 2 adjoining circles....) until I recently saw 'Iron Man 3' - kudos Shane Black ! Contrary to some other reviews I've subsequently read, I never detected any print damage on the SE DVD so this Blu-ray already had one less thing to improve compared to similarly aged films. For me, where this Blu-ray improves things is with solely the picture, it is often much lighter and consistently much sharper. The only 'flaw' with the DVD picture I ever noticed were regular frame 'wobbles', with the appearance of a ripple passing across the picture. I compared and all those I knew that existed on the DVD are absent on the Blu-ray. I never felt that the musical soundtrack to this film was THAT dominant, there are only a few periods of forceful music and little else of great 'activity' note occurring. So, it is perhaps unsurprising that I couldn't really detect any great difference between the DD5.1 DVD soundtrack and the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 version on the Blu-ray. Both sound as good as each other, with neither particularly excelling when compared to films like 'The Battle of Britain' for example - in fact, both are crisp/clear but really quite 'flat' and certainly lacking any obvious spatial qualities, with all the audio being essentially 'front and centre'.... With this film being quite long and with Blu-ray being high-capacity, the rather ugly layer-change that occurs on the DVD is gone. New extras are a "Crossing the Bridge" picture-in-picture track, "The Steve Allen Show with William Holden and Alec Guinness" featurette and "The Bridge on the River Kwai Premiere" narrated by William Holden. However, some extras from the SE DVD are absent: the Isolated Music Score option and the Cast and Crew Biographies.... The Blu-ray also has no equivalent of the quite substantial booklet which came with the SE DVD, a poor replacement is the unusual inclusion of some interior box artwork - I've attached a photo of it. So, for me this film has a print quality which improves on the SE DVD by being a lot sharper and providing better contrast, plus previous image 'wobbles' have been removed. The sound quality was not noticeably better, so it's still a bit 'flat'. However, for an excellent film like this which had notable visual aspects the more important matters are the ones which have been improved to great effect. A few of the SE DVD extras are 'missing' but some new ones are added.

With the great David Lean behind the camera, a stellar cast, and a rollicking good story, this film really covers all bases. Evidence of this is that it won 7 Oscars at the 30th Academy Awards in 1958. No mean achievement. I think the reason this film is so good is due to the tragic irony that runs throughout the film and reaches one of the most dramatic finales in war movie history. Alec Guinness, who plays the stubborn Colonel Nicholson, is willing to collaborate with the Japanese by overseeing the building of a bridge that would link Bangkok to Rangoon. Of course the British High Command get wind of this and realise that the bridge must be blown. Herein lies the irony: Build a bridge and give the Japanese a taste of British engineering skill or destroy it to hinder Japanese expansionist ideals. Jack Hawkins, who plays Major Warden, leads a team of commandoes, including William Holden (Commander Shears) and Geoffrey Horne (Lieutenant Joyce), on a suicide mission to destroy the bridge. The film's runtime is 2 hours 21 mins and is a bit of a slow burn, but the story builds and you'll be eager to watch right until the end to see if the commandoes execute their mission successfully. In my opinion, one of the greatest war films ever made. Don't miss this one.

An exellent War Movie. Well worth watching.

I bought this having seen the movie on the cinema many years ago. Like all movies from years gone by they do not seem as good as when first seen and this is one of them. The quality is excellent could not fault any part of the production and a very good price

One of my favourite films!

Excellent film.

This is a an exceptional film, which both entertains and moves you. There is little action -- everything is based on character on careful plotting -- although the action filled finale is blisteringly intense. The characters here are instantly likable. Even the awful Japanese general becomes less tyrannical, once you get to know what drives him and see that he is willing to work alongside the allies. It isn't historically accurate, but as a human story it works perfectly. I found after watching this, that I questioned todays standards. Everything today is about epic special effects and artistic achievement. What happened to simple, humble, honest characters, the like of which are here in abundance? It sounds cheesy, but when they march into camp whistling the famous tune, you can't fail but to feel moved by the human spirit. The same when the troop start singing 'For he's a jolly good fellow' when their leader (superb Alec Guinness) is put into the box, for refusing to make his officers do manual labor. All in all, I cannot recommend this enough. It isn't flashy or full of action, but is at least as good as anything today and the acting is of the highest standard. One disappointment, the extras mention an isolated score. I expected this to be something you could listen to, but it just means you have can only listen to the music when it happens in the film, so have to watch the film with some very large spaces of silence before any music starts again. It seems pretty pointless to me. Apart from that minor quibble, I'd recommend this to anyone who can watch a film without special effects. As good a story, drama and war film as I've ever seen.

Have seen this movie manu times, from vcd to dvd. Nostalgic.

Ok

Soy fan de los grandes clásicos del cine y cuando supe que Sony Pictures había restaurado en formato 4K Ultra HD el clásico "The Bridge On The River Kwai" o "El Puente Sobre El Rio Kwai" la compré de inmediato. Se ve espectacular, mejor que nunca, con una calidad de imagen fuera de serie. Llegó rápido y en perfectas condiciones, el único inconveniente es que ya no trae Slipcover de colección.

An excellent transfer. Vibrant colours. The Malcolm Arnold score has been re-channelled for stereo effect. Sumptuous presentation with the vibrant steel box. A great film.

Richly deserving its 1957 "Best Picture" Academy Award, "The Bridge On The River Kwai" is truly one of the best motion pictures I have ever seen (and I had never seen it even once until just a few days before writing this review). Directed expertly by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel, "The Bridge On The River Kwai" never falters. From the very first well-composed "CinemaScope" frame, right through to its exciting climax, everything about this motion picture is spot-on perfect. The film tells the World War 2 story of a group of British P.O.W.s who are handed the assignment of constructing a railway bridge across the Kwai river, deep within an Asian jungle in the hot and steamy summer of 1943. Each actor in this movie shines brightly in his respective part -- beginning with Alec Guinness' absolutely wonderful award-winning portrayal of "Colonel Nicholson", who undergoes more than his fair share of torture and abuse at the hands of the Japanese "Colonel Saito" (played by Sessue Hayakawa). Guinness' Nicholson is a man guided by an immovable set of rigged principles. And he ends up winning his battle of nerves (and torture) against his Japanese enemy. A truly remarkable performance by Mr. Guinness. It's no wonder he was nominated for the "Best Actor" Oscar for his role in this film. And, rightfully so, he won the award as well. The great William Holden (age 38 here) earned a healthy 1-million-dollar salary for his part as "Shears" in the movie (plus he got a portion of the film's box-office receipts too). And he earned every cent, as far as I'm concerned. While his part is not quite as deeply-layered or extensive as Alec Guinness' in the picture, Holden's character is still a vital and integral part of the film, as he plays a soldier who sets out on a mission to destroy the River Kwai bridge. Jack Hawkins rounds out the main cast, as "Major Warden", the hard-nosed leader of the Allied Commando team assigned to blow up the just-finished Kwai railway bridge. An interesting thing hit me a day after I finished watching this movie for the first time -- I found myself re-living portions of the film over again in my head, and (of course) found myself whistling the unforgettably-sensational "River Kwai March" theme tune (aka "Colonel Bogey March"), which is something that's likely to stay with you for quite a long time. (The DVD Menus make sure you won't forget the melody either.) Plus, the day after I saw it, I also found myself already beginning to appreciate the "timelessness" and award-winning flavor and grandeur of this epic-scale motion picture. And I even felt a strong desire to watch the whole 162-minute film all over again the very next day. When a movie can have that much impact on a viewer, what better compliment can there be to emphasize its greatness? Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released the 2-Disc edition of "The Bridge On The River Kwai" on November 21, 2000, and it's a great-looking DVD in all respects, in my opinion. Sporting a beautiful and colorful Anamorphic Widescreen print of the film, Disc One of this two-disc set contains the full-length film in its original CinemaScope aspect ratio of approximately 2.55:1. The lush quality of the photography shines through brilliantly here via this nice, crisp-looking Widescreen version. I'd hate to think of having to watch this movie in a hacked-to-pieces Pan-&-Scan Full-Screen version. Luckily, such torture is not required here, because the original Widescreen format is available on this DVD. There are multiple Dolby Digital soundtracks to choose from for the movie -- a 5.1 Surround track plus a 2.0 Surround option as well. Both of these tracks sound very good to me. Lots of subtitling options are available as well, plus an "Isolated Music Score" soundtrack too. Several fulfilling bonus features take up residence on Disc #2, including a nicely-done 53-minute Making-Of documentary, as well as an original 1950s-era vintage behind-the-cameras featurette ("The Rise And Fall Of A Jungle Giant"), which has a satisfying old-time "nostalgic" feel to it. While I very much enjoyed the "Jungle Giant" mini-featurette (which lasts for a little more than 6 minutes) for its unique behind-the-scenes type of footage -- I couldn't help but scratch my head in bewilderment when the final portion of the program seemingly is cut off abruptly without explanation. The narration and video build the viewer's suspense, taking us right up to the brink of the dramatic one-take-only scene of the bridge being blown to bits, then there's a splice in the film just prior to seeing any behind-the-scenes stuff of the actual detonation, with the film then trailing off into its closing few seconds (an "epilogue" of sorts). Very odd I thought. Makes me wonder if that bridge-blowing sequence was somehow lost and not able to be recovered for some reason. Additional DVD Extras --- A "USC Short Film" (with an introduction by William Holden), which runs for just under 16 minutes. This is a kind of a "lesson" in filmmaking techniques, with "The Bridge On The River Kwai" used as an example of what goes into feature filmmaking. Lots of behind-the-scenes footage on the sets of "Kwai" is included here. Another featurette on Disc 2 is "An Appreciation By Filmmaker John Milius". This is an 8-minute "appreciation" of "The Bridge On The River Kwai" by Mr. Milius, as he provides his personal thoughts on the film and its impact on him. Needless to say, he loves the movie. And his comments here are quite interesting too. There are also four Theatrical Trailers included as DVD bonus material (including one for "River Kwai"). Plus -- A 7-minute "Photo Montage" (on a musically-scored timed track, with "Pause" capability enabled). The "montage" was a slight disappointment to this writer, simply because it only includes photos of poster art and advertising materials for the film. No "publicity stills" are included at all. Which is kind of odd because a few such items are seen within the Making-Of documentary. Still, the filmed montage is done very nicely, with appropriate underscoring to add atmosphere. Rounding out this healthy batch of DVD supplements is a "Talent Files" section, featuring brief text-only bios on five members of the "Kwai" cast and crew. Also included as part of the 2-Disc "Limited Edition" DVD package is a collectible 12-page booklet, which is a replica (reprint) of the original 1957 souvenir book. The last page of the booklet is a DVD Scene Selection guide for the film's 40 chapters. ----------------- "The Bridge On The River Kwai" took more than a full year to film and edit, finally making its debut in movie theaters on December 18, 1957. But that year spent in the Asian jungle was definitely worth it. Because what resulted from that strenuous year of sweat and gritty filmmaking was a true cinematic masterwork. So, take this DVD for a spin soon .... and then watch yourself replaying much of the movie in your head the next day. For this is a DVD to treasure; and a movie to remember. For all time.