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The Bridge on the River Kwai

Turkish title: Kwai Köprüsü

“It spans a whole new world of entertainment!”

1957 · 2 h 41 min
Directed by David Lean · UK · British Cinema
AdventureDramaWar

Cast

Alec Guinness William Holden Sessue Hayakawa Jack Hawkins

Credits

Written by: Pierre Boulle

Plot

In a Japanese prison camp in Burma during the Second World War, the British Colonel Nicholson, a man of rigid principle, refuses to let his officers do manual labour and then, to prove British skill, takes charge of building a railway bridge for the enemy. Meanwhile an American prisoner who escaped is sent back with a commando team to destroy it. David Lean's 1957 film, with Alec Guinness and William Holden, is a study of pride and duty, and it won seven Academy Awards.

Sinekatalog’s take

British POWs build a Japanese railway bridge, and their colonel's pride becomes a kind of madness. David Lean's war drama is a sharp study of duty, with Alec Guinness superb.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 8.1 / 10 (251,983 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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