The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
	William Holden	...	Shears
	Alec Guinness	...	Colonel Nicholson
	Jack Hawkins	...	Major Warden
	Sessue Hayakawa	...	Colonel Saito
	James Donald	...	Major Clipton
	Geoffrey Horne	...	Lieutenant Joyce
	André Morell	...	Colonel Green (as Andre Morell)
	Peter Williams	...	Captain Reeves
	John Boxer	...	Major Hughes
	Percy Herbert	...	Grogan
	Harold Goodwin	...	Baker
	Ann Sears	...	Nurse
	Heihachirô Ôkawa	...	Captain Kanematsu (as Henry Okawa)
	Keiichirô Katsumoto	...	Lieutenant Miura (also as K. Katsumoto) (as Keiichiro Katsumoto)
	M.R.B. Chakrabandhu	...	Yai (in opening credits) (as M.R.B. Chakrabandhu {Col. Broome})

Storyline

The film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson, they are persuaded that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse circumstances. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito. He is an honorable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded obsessive. He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of collaboration with the enemy. Unknown to him, the Allies have sent a mission into the jungle, led by Warden and an American, Shears, to blow up the bridge. Written by alfiehitchie  

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