Brilliant movie, with a story that kept me engrossed right from the start till the climax at the end, having characters who couldn't be better. The story is neither about the bridge, nor about the river but deep subtle descriptions of the characters placed under extraordinary situations. A group of British soldiers being brought as PoWs in a camp managed by a stern Japanse Colonel Saito who doesn't believe in going by books but has his own set of rules as exemplified by when he says "Do not speak to me of rules. This is war! This is not a game of cricket!"The british soldiers are led by their officer Col. Nicholson, another superb character who is committed to his principles and military code of integrity. After a dramatic war between Nicholson's principles and Saito's ego , they make a deal. The soldiers build a magnificent bridge that was assigned to Saito to be build over river Kwai (deep inside the forests of Burma). In the process Nicholson was able to feed his men proper food, kept them off from Prisoner Camp's depression, maintained their discipline. The third and in my opinion the most intriguing character of the movie is Col. Shears who made a miraculous escape from Saito's capture and made it to Ceylon where his nice days come to an end sooner than he expected, when he was asked to accompany a team which would go to the bridge site to destroy the bridge. The way Shears' character unfolds and explains itself to the viewer is so amazing. The gunfight leading to the climax and the climax itself had some fantabulous dialogues and expressions, especially when Nicholson sees Shears while he crossed the river to save the mission, Nicholson gets into a moral remorse saying "What have I done ?" Dr. Clipton witnessing the entire carnage says "Madness! Madness!"
This is the first movie of David Lean that I saw. A must watch movie and a well deserved 7 Oscars and 8.4/10 at IMDB.
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