The Bridge On the River Kwai Blu-ray Collector’s Edition

So here we are with another war film set (and shot) in the jungle. And like the previous one I wrote about, The African Queen, Bridge On the River Kwai was produced by Sam Spiegel. Aside from that, the only things these films have in common are that they were made in the 1950s and are widely regarded as masterpieces.

The longer it’s been since you’ve seen Kwai–David Lean’s second color film and the first of the epics for which he’s most remembered today– the better it gets in your memory. That’s because the brilliant story of an over-proud British POW (Alec Guinness) overpowers the weaker elements of the film. Guinness’ Col. Nicholson represents everything that’s admirable and awful about the military mind. His courage when facing down a cruel and desperate Japanese commander (Sessue Hayakawa) inspires his troops and the audience. But his pride and his belief in military discipline betray his good judgment to the point where his actions become arguably treasonable.

But to see the actual movie again is to be reminded that the Col. Nicholson story is actually a subplot (Guinness received third billing). The bulk of Kwai is a very well made but conventional action movie, starring William Holden as an American GI who escapes from the camp, makes it to safety, then goes back into the jungle on a daring mission. This part of the movie is exceptionally well done for this sort of thing, but it suffers from some uncomfortably Hollywoodish elements. For instance, the Burmese porters who help our heroes travel to their destination all happen to be beautiful young women. And there are a couple of cringe-inducing speeches about the stupidity and madness of war.

I give the movie a B+. When it’s good, it’s excellent, and when it’s bad, it’s still pretty good.

The Blu-ray transfer looks very good to great—most of the time. It will disappoint you right at the beginning, however. The opening scenes look grainy and contrasty, problems that appear to have more to do with film problems than digital ones. Perhaps Sony’s source for scanning these scenes was a poor one, several generations away from the original camera negative. By the time the credits are over, however, everything looks fine.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix has produced some controversy. Historians aren’t sure if the film had any kind of stereo release in 1957, but if it had, it did not have split surrounds with jungle noises in the background. While the track isn’t true to the historical mix (whatever that was), it is dramatically effective.

There’s no commentary track, but thanks to Blu-ray’s Bonus View capabilities, you can watch the movie with pop-up trivia about the film and its historical settings. Other extras on the disc include a very good 53-minute “Making of” documentary and a few odds-and-ends. The oddest of these is an excerpt from The Steve Allen Show where Allen allegedly interviews William Holden and Alec Guinness live while they’re on location in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). It’s painfully obvious that he’s reciting scripted questions to pre-recorded answers.

The box also contains a DVD of the movie (a common practice for family-oriented Blu-rays, but not for mature fair) and 12 lobby cards. The case itself is a book with a few slick pages of photos and articles. This appears to be, for the most part, a reproduction of the 1957 souvenir book sold in theater lobbies. A few bits and pieces were clearly added long afterwards.