The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - Full Reaction
Added 2023-09-11 08:30:01 +0000 UTCOk this was different than I expected and definitely a thinker. A look into the mind of a soldier and prisoner. Pride and principle in war? Is it always good? Really amazing performances. Hope you guys enjoy!
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Comments
Populations of China the Phillipines etc. Look up the Rape of Nanking and Unit 731 just for starters.
Ron White
2024-07-06 02:27:41 +0000 UTCThe idea that both sides were equally mad may apply to isolated commanders but the Japanese Army in WW2 committed unimaginable atrocities on every civilian
Ron White
2024-07-06 02:24:36 +0000 UTCYou never did recognize Colonel Nicholson, Sir Alec Guinness, huh? (Obi-Wan Kenobi)....
JRCortez
2023-11-15 06:26:05 +0000 UTCMaybe I'm stupid and am doing something wrong, but I am not getting the movie on screen, very fuzzy. Help.
Jay E Bjorklund
2023-10-05 02:35:09 +0000 UTCThis is one of my all time favorites. I get more from it every time I watch it. The guy who played Saito was actually a famous leading man in the silent era. There are definitely very different experiences in different "camps" of WWII. Military Prison camps (at least generally the ones Americans wound up in) followed the rules of the Geneva Convention. Japanese camps were known for breaking these rules, but we're still usually preferable to the military prison camps on the Eastern front of Europe where the Geneva convention was largely abandoned. Civilians rounded up by the Nazis and placed in concentration camps never had the Geneva Convention to protect them and are the source of most of the worst stories you may have heard from this period.
Neill Shaughness
2023-09-19 23:50:45 +0000 UTCThe great British actor Charles Laughton was offered the role of Colonel Nicholson, but refused. He was quoted as saying (very handsomely) afterwards: "I didn't understand the role until I saw Alec Guinness play it." As a side note, Laughton was my father's favourite actor. Mine, I think, is Alec Guinness.
Henry Fitzgerald
2023-09-16 07:36:21 +0000 UTCI think Saito was planning to kill himself, but decided against it... for reasons he himself did not fully understand. I'm not sure I understand them either. But my guess would be that listening to Nicholson muse about life, it wasn't so much what he said, but the fact that it wasn't particularly related to the war: the fact that Nicholson was musing without reference to it at all. Saito gained at least a vague sense that the world was larger than his code of honour, and present-day concerns, had led him to believed.
Henry Fitzgerald
2023-09-16 07:32:16 +0000 UTCI believe he was planning on killing himself either way. He did fail and he knew it. It was the British who built the bridge.
Christopher Gray
2023-09-16 01:03:33 +0000 UTCI was a little sad she didn’t figure that out on camera, but I suppose it would have spoiled the movie for her a little.
Christopher Gray
2023-09-16 01:01:06 +0000 UTCWhat a great suggestion, one of my favourite films, and can be considered a bit of a courtroom drama too! One of Cassies preferred genres.
Paul Browne
2023-09-15 13:14:21 +0000 UTCWhat a classic. Only seen it once before but very memorable. Fun reaction. BTW, Cassie it seems like you had some trouble seeing the dark scenes. It's understandable since you watch in a pretty bright room for filming, but if you don't already have one, I would recommend upgrading to an OLED TV (preferably LG) for the best picture quality, especially with dark images.
SeanATX
2023-09-15 02:38:33 +0000 UTCA Matter of Life and Death 1946 with David Niven should be seen one of these days. It's a fantasy/romance set during WW2.
Hiraoka Toru
2023-09-14 06:56:31 +0000 UTC1942 was a good year for Greer Garson. Two of my favorites. Mrs. Miniver (1942) & Random Harvest (1942).
Larry Darrell
2023-09-13 19:14:09 +0000 UTCThe Inn of the Sixth Happiness stars Ingrid Bergman, Curt Jergens (with whom she has an interracial romance) and in his last movie, Robert Donat (who won an Oscar for Goodbye Mr. Chips in 1939). Goodbye Mr. Chips should make it on to one of Cassie’s lists soon, and would introduce Cassie to Greer Garson among others. So many great films out there people consider “old”. 🤔
Michael Weiner
2023-09-13 14:15:26 +0000 UTCIt must be mentioned that one of the seven Oscars this movie won was for Best Original Score, for composer Sir Malcolm Arnold. The score is very similar to the score Arnold composed for the movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, which was a highly fictionalized account of Gladys Aylward, an English missionary in Japanese occupied China.
Michael Weiner
2023-09-13 06:03:15 +0000 UTCJolly good show old boy, chap; Let's crack on.
Brian's Dog
2023-09-13 00:09:14 +0000 UTCI also enjoy the video essays from the YT channel Empire of the Mind.
Rose
2023-09-12 20:55:00 +0000 UTCCinemaTyler is an excellent youtube channel.
Steve Colletti
2023-09-12 20:19:57 +0000 UTCAgreed, but a lot of younger people find it too slow.
Steve Colletti
2023-09-12 20:12:12 +0000 UTCGreat reaction Cassie, hard to believe that main commander turned out to be Obi won Kenobi.
Zachary K. (Verified Swiftie)
2023-09-12 16:36:25 +0000 UTCRiver Kwai has very dark undertone even when it’s made under heavy censorship and media control by British authorities to repair their prestige. Try Empire of the Sun staring child actor Christian Bale & directed by Steven Spielberg. This movie was shot in the old quarters in what could be mistaken as Liverpool of the East in Shanghai International Settlement before everything was torn down.
Russell Teo
2023-09-12 15:38:02 +0000 UTCIt's more that the Japanese themselves refused to surrender. Up until a certain point late in the war, every time we (the Americans) fought the Japanese, they were on island garrisons and had nowhere to retreat, and they either committed ritual suicide or fought to the death. The handful of prisoners we took after early battles like Guadalcanal or Tarawa were Japanese too badly wounded to keep fighting (or to kill themselves). In some battles they charged in banzai waves numbering in the thousands, straight into the line of machine guns or artillery, knowing they were going to get killed. It was a mix of culture (religious veneration of the Emperor), military doctrine (surrender was not seen as an option), and fear (Japan was a police state, and soldiers whose names were reported as POWs by the International Red Cross risked shame or oppression for their families back home by the Kempeitai, the Japanese military police). It was only very late in the war, battles like Okinawa or in the Phillippines, where we started to see significantly larger numbers of Japanese soldiers surrendering.
Patrick Flanagan
2023-09-12 07:03:12 +0000 UTCI think the point of what Nicholson was saying to Saito on the bridge was that, having been in the service for 28 years but only at home, in Britain, for maybe 10 months in all that time, it was like he was almost more loyal to the concept of being an officer than he was to being British. I think he became so focused on what he had perceived as his mission (the bridge) he literally forgot WHO he was supposed to be fighting for. And maybe it was some Stockholm Syndrome too. But I actually really liked this movie, that last 15 or so minutes was so tense. I didn't love the ending because I was rooting for Shears and Joyce but I think I get it, it's like Clipton kept saying, "Madness," because it's war, and you build a bridge just for it to be destroyed, reminds me of a certain scene, or a few actually, in Apocalypse Now, but Cassie hasn't seen that one yet.
Joe D. MacGuffinstuff
2023-09-12 05:28:00 +0000 UTC“Hot Potato” Something Cassie said in the Outro, about having the same thought after The Great Escape. I still don’t think she understands the difference between POW Camps vs. German Concentration/Internment Camps. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner-of-war_camp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment
Larry Darrell
2023-09-12 05:12:30 +0000 UTCThe Searchers, too.
Larry Darrell
2023-09-12 04:52:56 +0000 UTCThis is one of my favorites, not only because it is a great movie, but it is one of a few I watched with my father and we talked about the end, ego, obsession, duty, and more, some things a teenager needed to think about. No clue if we watched it to have that talk, or if it just was a movie he liked but the memory lingers.
Keith Jones
2023-09-12 03:40:58 +0000 UTCCassie I thought you might recognize Nicholson. The actor went on to play Obi-wan Kenobi. One of the epic movies I grew up watching. Nicholson lost his way. Building the bridge became his obsession. He forgot he was a pow and should have let his men continue to disrupt the building of the bridge. He ended up getting some good men killed. Yes. It makes you think. Great Reaction Cassie. I hope you feel better.
Rick Williams
2023-09-12 01:17:46 +0000 UTCAccording to someone who was in that camp, if the officer had behaved like Nicholson, he would have been "quietly eliminated" by the men. The author, Pierre Boulle, based the character on several French officers he had known in Asia during the war.
Ben Livingstone
2023-09-12 01:02:44 +0000 UTCWell Alec Guiness was trying to prove to the japanese the resilience of the british prisoners of war held there and their willingness to never yield, which is why they build the bridge, out of defiance to show their spirit is not broken. Its only at the end that he realises he wasnt thinking of the bigger picture and forgot that the enemy was well the enemy, which is why in his dying moments he falls on the detonator making up for his misdeeds
Night King01
2023-09-12 00:42:58 +0000 UTCJust finished watching the reaction - so worth the wait! There’s a video review from CinemaTyler called: “3 Things ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ Teaches Us About Filmmaking.” It’s a very interesting and well researched review of Lean’s classic. Regarding POW treatment under the Japanese - I’ve recommended it a few times before but the short documentary “Ghosts of Bataan” gives you some insight and perspective from both the American & Filipino soldiers and Japanese soldiers. The Battling Bastards of Bataan were some of the bravest men who ever lived. My mom’s uncle was a Philippine Scout and was a Bataan Death March survivor, who (before the March even began) was already at death’s door sicken with malaria and starvation but during the March he managed to escape into the jungle at night and was saved by locals. Hoping for a PiB reaction for this one (it’s a long shot, I know) but I also sent Ken Burns’ WW2 documentary “The War.” It’s a 7-part documentary miniseries and the stories of Glenn Frazier and Sascha Weinzheimer really resonated with me because of what my parents and their families underwent during the war under the Japanese. “The War” is a very worthwhile watch - highly recommend!
Rose
2023-09-12 00:32:19 +0000 UTCSweet memories. Watched this with my late father & my late mum. It’s my 1st war movie more than 42 years ago. Singapore was the crown jewel of the British Empire b4 WW2. The pride of the British since Victorian era where the sun never set covering 84 countries in 5 continents. Before WW2, many large caliber long-range guns facing the south seas were erected to ensure Singapore, which is vital to Crown Colony's coffers thru free-trade between their Indian colony's with China, are protected from Japanese Navy. Singapore were further defended by 400,000 men from India, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada & Malaya. All the men were stationed in a small mountain in the middle of Singapore. 2 war ships were sent from the Atlantic pond. Not only were the men holed up too far inland in a small island of Singapore, there's not enough cover from British Navy or Air Force. Worst the anti-ship guns were all facing the wrong directions. Japanese troops landed in the North, some 900km away from Singapore & cycled to Singapore in 55 days, without much resistance. They cross the narrow straits separating Malaya & Singapore and took the fuel dumps & more crucially water reservoirs in days. Only 1 platoon of Malay soldiers hold them up for few hrs near an opium den & 300,000 British surrendered to 60,000 Japanese Imperial Army once the platoon ran out of ammo, in what was the largest capitulation in just days of fighting in world history. The British prestige took a beating they never recover from. This also may explain why Col Nicholson & his men behaved they way they did in the movie. In reality the Japanese took 300,000 prisoners & marched them to a camp in Singapore just hours after their capitulation, during a hot noon without food/water, to reduce the PoW they need to feed - as they don't have enough supplies for emselves due to trade embargo imposed by US. 1/3rd of those who were marched never make it during the 10km march to the PoW Camp due to heat stroke. Of the 2/3 which survived the 1st week, 1/3 died in the Singapore PoW camp in under 1 year due to the same conditions faced by Shears & Nicholson in this movie. The surviving 1/3rd were sent to build the Death Railway protrayed in this movie which was the most challenging engineering feat at that time, as there's not much explosives or tools avail for this men to build the 1,000km track over 1,000 mountains in 40C temp & 100% humidity, without much nutrition & clean water. Very few men made it back
Russell Teo
2023-09-12 00:32:08 +0000 UTCWhy didn’t Nicholson just wave his right hand from his left to the right while telling Saito “These are not the prisoners you are looking for, move along.”?
2-Can
2023-09-12 00:22:40 +0000 UTCI have never heard of the kinds of atrocities committed by the Japanese in their POW camps being mirrored by American camps. I know there was a reluctance, particularly early on, to accept the surrender of the Japanese, as American soldiers believed that the Japanese would not surrender and that they were most likely only pretending to surrender. I’m also aware that 125,000 Japanese Americans were held in internment camps. But I also think it’s important to acknowledge that their treatment was far better than that of Americans held prisoner. Also, German-Americans and Italian-Americans were also held in internment camps, and Canada consigned 90% of its Japanese population to internment camps of its own. None of this is to suggest that it’s ok to imprison innocent Americans in a time of war. It’s not and it never should have happened. But I also think it’s important to keep perspective. https://web.archive.org/web/20160226041449/http://www.traces.org/germaninternees.html
Just Plain Bob
2023-09-12 00:06:34 +0000 UTCoh wow!!
Cassie
2023-09-11 23:53:34 +0000 UTCthis comment made me so happy! wings jn couch!!
Cassie
2023-09-11 23:53:17 +0000 UTCAt the battle of Iwo Jima the Japanese garrison consisted of about 20,000 troops. Around 200 were taken prisoner, and the rest were killed. The Marines only took prisoners when they were ordered to do so for interrogation purposes. A handful of Marines were captured during the battle, but they really didn't become POW's. They would be found dead later by their fellow Marines.
Bill Hayden
2023-09-11 23:52:52 +0000 UTCNo Cassie. Sheers is dead... but the Japanese lost and the allies...well they percivered... in all the madness.
Terry Yelmene
2023-09-11 23:28:54 +0000 UTCWe should watch 13 Hours for the 9/11 anniversary :)
JimJames
2023-09-11 23:28:15 +0000 UTCThe remarkable thing about British filmmaker David Lean is that he was able to make these immense historical epics with huge production value and incredible visuals, but yet they always had a very intimate focus, they did not sacrifice character for spectacle. Many of them are intense probing portraits of their complex protagonists. Films like this, DR ZHIVAGO and his Dickens adaptations (GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OLIVER TWIST) are all BIG movies and yet they are ultimately more character studies than anything else. He made some amazing films, but LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is his masterpiece and now that he has been introduced to the channel, I look forward to the day when you eventually react to that great work of Cinema. In the meantime, very glad you finally got around to this. Looking forward to watching this reaction. Keep up the good work. :-)
Stick Figure Studios
2023-09-11 23:01:06 +0000 UTCI'm with you Cassie...I am positive that the doctor found Shears and saved him. You can't get rid of an American officer that easy ( even though he wasn't really an officer).
Anthony Perez
2023-09-11 22:50:44 +0000 UTCGabor Arki, as usual, your ideas are better than mine! That one was excellent!
Mike LL
2023-09-11 22:29:02 +0000 UTCWhen a soldier asked "what do we do if taken prisoner by the Japanese?" The answer was "Make sure you are not taken prisoner"..
Celeste McAllister
2023-09-11 22:15:00 +0000 UTCHaving been shot at, I can honestly say the two recent movies that come closest to making the battlefield real, including the idiocy/lack of connection by "decision makers" who weren't on the ground and never had been, are "The Outpost" (2019) with Scott Eastwood and Orlando Bloom (and some of the Army vets who were in the battle(!)) and "13 Hours" (2016) with John Krasinski and James Badge Dale. Both are true stories and absolutely accurate depictions of the chaos, brutality and uncertainty of real time battle. Michael Bay directed the latter and really showed how he is much more of an empathetic auteur than his than big budget Action/Fantasy record would have people believe. FWIW
Above Average Dave
2023-09-11 22:03:57 +0000 UTCAn all time classic. What’s really sad, is the Japanese treated their prisoners even worse than what was depicted here. Most were never even brought to answer for their crimes unfortunately.
Josh Phillips
2023-09-11 21:58:20 +0000 UTCMy Grandma's Brother (my Uncle) was First Marines and he was wounded on Pelieu. When I was a kid I would always ask, "What was it like!? What was it like!?" thinking it was like the movies. He would never talk about it. But one night we were watching a John Wayne movie about the Marines and he hit a guy with a shovel. I looked back at my uncle in the darkened room and asked, "Was that what it was like!?" He looked back at me, a whiskey in his hands and his cigarette glowing in the dark and he growled "The Japanese didn't surrender and the Marines didn't take prisoners. THAT'S what it was like!" I was young but it scared the hell out of me. That told me all I needed to know about the Pacific War. Everything I've read and seen since has only confirmed its brutality. It was truer to "war" as humans have fought it for most of the last 8,000-10,000 years: Absolutely base and primal, with very little sense of mercy.
Above Average Dave
2023-09-11 21:53:48 +0000 UTCyes, the next war movie should be Kelly's Heroes
zynjams
2023-09-11 21:51:42 +0000 UTCCassie you mentioned something about POWs being captured was better than just shooting surrendering enemies. You're right, of course. POWs have been a part of war for (literally) ever. And, although, many were mistreated, tortured, enslaved, etc... they were still alive, which is better than the alternative, IMHO. I grew up in Southwest Missouri, only a short distance from a few WWII POW camps that held German Prisoners. We (The USA) have a mixed bag of treatment of POWs, but generally speaking, we treated them fairly well there, mostly because they were white Europeans. Asians were not treated nearly as well, even Japanese US Citizens were put into camps in the US west during the war...
Jon Johns
2023-09-11 21:42:31 +0000 UTCJapanese, at that time, could not understand theconceptg of "surrender" or meaning of "prisoners". A lot of stories of Japanese soldiers fighting to the last man on islands of Tarawa, Saipan and Iwo Jima (amongst others). So they treated their POWs horribly. "Unbroken" is a great, great movie to watch as well. Germans were, in some cases a little better, though not by much. They knew the US/UK and Allies had German POWs (there was a encampment here in Phoenix) and wanted their prisoners treated humanely. "The Great Escape" was based on a true story and yes, the Germans did murder dozens of after they were captured.
Bill Maurer
2023-09-11 21:17:31 +0000 UTCThey’re not as popular as the later epics like LAWRENCE OF ARABIA or DR. ZHIVAGO, which would easily win polls, but I think Cassie would love David Lean’s earlier movies like BRIEF ENCOUNTER, HOBSON’S CHOICE, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OLIVER TWIST and SUMMERTIME.
Alex Villarreal
2023-09-11 19:26:49 +0000 UTC"Shears is alright, right?" Yep, he just got tired and decided to take a quick nap. No, he's dead because of Nicholson. And then Nicholson suddenly realizes his pride in the bridge's construction has blinded him to his military duty. Mortally wounded, he falls onto the plunger, the bridge is blown up, and the train with the dignitaries falls into the river, and I'm sure they are all dead, too. I have a friend like Nicholson, and when he gets something in his head, there's no change in his mind whether he's right or wrong; he's as stubborn as a mule.
Eddie Perkins
2023-09-11 18:24:41 +0000 UTCThe Abyss is a great "warm up" for Das boot. 😁😉😄
Björn Karlsson
2023-09-11 18:20:04 +0000 UTCAfter The Abyss the sisters are better prepared for this classic thriller.
Richard Bourne
2023-09-11 17:00:58 +0000 UTCProof positive that novels make better scripts,no AI suggested script could even come close to production values on the same level as this,no CGI not even a matte painting the history experts will point out inaccuracies but,I can overlook that this is a great movie. Madness Madness! Sir.Alec Guinness was on par with Sir Lawrence Olivier & Daniel Day Lewis for top British actors of all time..
Celeste McAllister
2023-09-11 16:48:48 +0000 UTCSaito I think was preparing in case the bridge failed. I don't believe Nichols could see the forest for the trees so to speak, wasn't until almost too late that shears mission occured to him. Western allies captured by the germans probably had it best but POWs as a whole had it pretty bad, especially any taken by the Japanese. Older movies dont show it as well, newer movies like Unbroken, the great raid, even Midway shows what happened to captured American flyers during the battle.
Bubba Fett
2023-09-11 16:32:52 +0000 UTCPapillon (1973), with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, is a good movie and a true story. The Dirty Dozen (1967) is another excellent movie, but not a true story.
Eddie Perkins
2023-09-11 15:51:21 +0000 UTCA really good summary! And I absolutely second "The Longest Day" and *especially* "A Bridge Too Far" which for me is much overlooked as one of the best Second World War Movies in terms of sheer scope.
Dryfesands
2023-09-11 15:44:49 +0000 UTCThe film tells a fictional story, but it is based on real historical events. During WW2, the Japanese army captured many soldiers from the British Empire, which had many colonies in Asia. The POWs and the local people were forced to work as slave labor in brutal projects like the railway across Burma that killed tens of thousands of workers. The European and Asian theaters of war had significant differences in how the POWs were treated. The Germans generally followed the Geneva Convention and respected the rights of the captured soldiers, especially those from Western countries. On the other hand, the Japanese culture and mindset did not value surrender or capture as honorable options, but rather as shameful acts. Therefore, they often abused and mistreated the POWs and showed them no mercy or dignity. The way I interpret it, Nicholson's actions can be seen as a way of challenging this and asserting his authority and dignity over Saito. He wanted to show his men that he was still their leader, give them some purpose because escape was nearly impossible, and also wanted to prove to the Japanese that they were superior in engineering and management skills. Saito felt deeply ashamed by his failure to build the bridge and by Nicholson's defiance. I believe he wanted to commit suicide at the end to escape his shame. Nicholson, however, became so proud of his work that forgot he was helping the enemy and betrayed his own country. Movies of this age are the product of their time. Filmmakers had to deal with censorship and public sensitivity, so they often avoided graphic violence and moral ambiguity. They focused more on heroism and patriotism, and left many things unsaid only implying them at best. The genre evolved a lot after the Vietnam war. Movies like APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), PLATOON (1986), and others started showing the true brutality of war in a more realistic and critical way. This does not mean that the classic war movies are inferior, just that they have a different perspective. There are still some great entries worth reacting to, like: THE LONGEST DAY (1962) about the D-Day invasion with many actual participants as technical advisors and multiple directors filming the American/German/French and British perspectives. TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970) showing the Pearl Harbor attack from both American and Japanese perspectives filmed by such cast and crew respectively. A BRIDGE TOO FAR (1977) which is one of the most historically accurate war movies ever produced. KELLY'S HEROES (1970) which is a satirical take on the genre. And many more.
Gábor Árki
2023-09-11 15:09:10 +0000 UTCI'm not sure an Epics week would be feasible given most of these are 3-4 hours long. Cassie may have a hard time watching so much content in a single week, not to mention the burden on the editors. So, I think instead of a week, an Epics Theme month may work better, watching one epic every week of the month.
Gábor Árki
2023-09-11 14:09:46 +0000 UTCA CLASSIC for sure.
Matthew Dunham
2023-09-11 13:46:26 +0000 UTCMakes you almost think she should have an Epics Theme week after an ahem, epic Epic Movie Poll. There would be lots of candidates for that poll, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor, Zhivago, Spartacus, etc. Heck, even How The West Was Won. Boy wouldn't Carly LOVE that, a week of extra long movies! 🤣🤣🤣
Mike LL
2023-09-11 13:18:57 +0000 UTCGreat, great movie
Bill Maurer
2023-09-11 12:33:56 +0000 UTCLawrence Of Arabia is simply one of the best movies ever made. It's that simple. Anyone who says they don't like it, doesn't really like cinema. Pretentious to say that perhaps, but true.
Dryfesands
2023-09-11 12:23:00 +0000 UTC"The Caine Mutiny" is sooooo overlooked. A fantastic movie which really makes you think.
Dryfesands
2023-09-11 12:20:42 +0000 UTCSessue Hayakawa (Colonel Saito) was a popular Hollywood star from 1915 to around 1922. At the height of his popularity he was making as much as $3,500 a week (or about $61,000 a week in today's money).
Dean J
2023-09-11 12:19:01 +0000 UTCCan't wait to see your thoughts on this one. I'll be sticking it on when I finish work. It's a fantastic character study with some mighty central performances. Definitely of it's time, and beautifully crafted in the old style. Guinness, Holden, Hawkins and Hayakawa are all incredible in it, and Lean's use of landscape is perhaps the best in all of cinema. It takes its time, but it's that well made and so assured it can afford to. Everything builds on everything else. Sometimes it's nice to know you're going to spend nearly 3 hours on a beautifully shot and wonderfully crafted journey. That's what old school epics do so well. The *great* David Lean movie however is "Lawrence Of Arabia" which everyone should see at least once. It's magnificent. And a shout out for James Donald too. One of "those actors" who crops up in good films and always does a huge amount with often marginal characters. If he's got a part it's usually going to be worth watching. Oh and lastly, because I always say it. "The Elephant Man". You *need* to react to it. :-).
Dryfesands
2023-09-11 12:14:09 +0000 UTCSo, Alec Guinness, a young Obi-wan Kenobi, as Colonel Nicholson, the ranking British officer. Always fun. The British doctor Major Clipton, actor James Donald also played the ranking British officer in the Great Escape. Other WWII movies to consider for Veterans' Day poll: PT-109 - The story of President John F. Kennedy's WWII heroic actions in the Pacific as a PT boat skipper. Cliff Robertson as JFK. From Here To Eternity - A fictional story set in real Honolulu just weeks preceding Pearl Harbor. Burt Lancaster, Ernest Borgnine, Frank Sinatra. Mister Roberts - Fictional story of some of the men and officers aboard non-front lines Navy cargo ship and the impact of its tyrannical Captain on the officers and sailors. Henry Fonda, Jack Lemon, James Cagney. The Caine Mutiny - Fictional story of the officers on the USS Caine and of getting to the point of breaking. Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Jose Ferrer.
Mike McLaughlin
2023-09-11 12:05:01 +0000 UTCYou should read about the writing of this movie. The person who wrote the book is given screen credit and won the Academy Award for the screenplay, however he had nothing to do with writing the movie. Two blacklisted writers living in Europe wrote the movie.
Bill Hayden
2023-09-11 11:57:50 +0000 UTCYeah 😃 It's an amazing movie. I prefer the longer version. She can do it like a mini serie 🥰 And after that some other European movies. Let the right one in, The Hunt, Fcuking Åmål/Show me love, Run Lola run etc etc 😇😇😇😇😇 Hehe I think you are from Finland Teemu 😁😁 A crazy swede here 🤪😬🤣
Björn Karlsson
2023-09-11 11:51:18 +0000 UTCCount me in for The Lost Battalion. It and Sergeant York (which should also be on your must-see list, Cassie) are the definitive films on the First World War from the American perspective.
John
2023-09-11 11:01:46 +0000 UTCTV series version is the best,but the director's cut is a good compromise. Theatrical cut is too short. Would love to see more reactions to Das Boot, especially to the series cut.
Teemu Laitinen
2023-09-11 10:51:40 +0000 UTCThank you for watching this one! I did nag you a bit about it. 😀 (You did say you would! And you did. Yay!) A fine and famous film. Cassie, now you have seen in reactions all the stars of the original 1954 Sabrina: Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca, The African Queen) who played the Harrison Ford part of the older brother, Audrey Hepburn (Roman Holiday), and now William Holden who played the American Shears in this movie played the Greg Kinnear part of the younger playboy brother who Sabrina had a crush on.
Mike LL
2023-09-11 10:44:12 +0000 UTCAlec Guinness. The original Obi-Wan.
Shawn Kildal
2023-09-11 10:10:59 +0000 UTCI’ve been waiting so long for this reaction. Also we’re getting closer to LoA - I can feel it! I’ve said it before. Kwai is definitely not your typical war film, which is why I enjoy it so much. I know Hitchcock poll is very popular but I would love to see a David Lean poll. I cannot wait until you see his masterpiece - Lawrence of Arabia!
Rose
2023-09-11 09:42:29 +0000 UTC+1 for The Lost Battalion. Ricky Schroder gave an amazing performance.
Rose
2023-09-11 09:31:28 +0000 UTCA more recent movie about the Bridge is "The Railway Man" (2013) (Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman) -- more intense at showing POWs emaciated and subjected to torture. The Colin Firth character a British POW building the Bridge returns to Japan decades after the war to confront the Japanese soldier who tortured him.
Clay F
2023-09-11 09:30:43 +0000 UTCThanks. I first watched The Bridge on the River Kwai like 40 years ago. I look forward to watching it with your reaction.
Clay F
2023-09-11 09:24:29 +0000 UTCSo thrilled she's finally seen a David Lean film. She would love Brief Encounter (1945), and Ryan's Daughter (1970).
Rich Campbell
2023-09-11 09:19:46 +0000 UTCNo poll needed. Just do Das boot 🙂
Björn Karlsson
2023-09-11 09:08:09 +0000 UTCI really hope in the next war movies poll , you put the lost battalion on there . It would be interesting to see what the feedback from other patrons would be because the movie itself is not very well known. This movie is awesome and amazing and based on a true story . I know that you would like it , because of how much you could learn about the key points of ww1
Wyatt Nuxoll
2023-09-11 08:36:27 +0000 UTCThis will be hot wings on couch for me later today
Omar
2023-09-11 08:33:47 +0000 UTCcant wait to watch this classic later today
zynjams
2023-09-11 08:32:12 +0000 UTC
