"The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957)

Rank on the AFI List: #36

WHAT I ALREADY KNEW ABOUT THIS MOVIE:
Only that it's some sort of war movie.

LET ME EXPLAIN...
Let me just start out by saying that I really like the plot for this movie: British POWs in a WWII Japanese prison camp are forced to build a bridge for the Japanese, and the captured British colonel is dedicated to building it to perfection.  Meanwhile, an American POW who escapes the prison camp must return on a mission to sabotage the very same bridge.

That's a unique and very interesting plot, if you ask me.

As for the movie itself, I can break it down into two parts: the first hour and 40 minutes, and the last hour.

The first hour and 40 minutes just seemed OK.  It really felt like they were taking the time to set up the last hour of the movie (which they did), but by itself, I didn't think the first half was all that impressive.

The last hour of the film, on the other hand, was great.  The plot really seemed to start moving along to the inevitably climactic ending, and I thought it began to take itself more seriously, which is what I was expecting from a war movie.  By the end, I was a fan.

What makes this a "Top 100" Movie?
I didn't come up with an answer to this question until after the movie ended.  My wife asked me why I thought this was a Top 100 movie, and my first response was "I don't know why."  Then we started talking about the ending and particular characters, and I realized how thought-provoking the film is.  We sat there discussing the movie for quite awhile before I said, "maybe this is why it's considered such a great movie.  There's so much to analyze."  This film also won 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, and Best Actor for Alec "Obi-Wan" Guinness, who was particularly good in his role.

Complaint:
The soundtrack!  Oh my gosh it was bugging me!  I was prepared to get into a war-movie mood (serious, somber, etc.), and the somewhat cheesy army marching music and whistling seemed very counter-intuitive.  And yet, this film won an Academy Award for "Best Music, Scoring," so I don't know how I feel about that.  In fact, the only time I liked the music was at the very end because the lighthearted happiness of it seemed SO contradictory to what was happening that it was "inappropriately appropriate", if that makes sense.

LET ME SUM UP...
This film has a great plot.  And while I felt underwhelmed with the first 100 minutes - and irritated by the soundtrack - the final hour was great.  The ending was particularly good and begs to be analyzed because so much happens, and depending on which character you focus on, the happenings are different.  The intricacies of the ending make this a movie that should probably be watched more than once.

MY RATING: 6.5/10

TOTAL # OF FILMS WATCHED: 67