Bridge on the River Kwai

Winner of 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, director David Lean's acclaimed 1957 WWII epic about a group of British P.O.W.s building a "proper bridge" for their Japanese captors, even as--unbeknownst to the prisoners--Allied forces are planning to blow it up, manages to be both a stirring action film and a thoughtful meditation on the follies of war. Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle, this CinemaScope presentation (read: severely letterboxed, even on 16 x 9 ratio widescreen TVs) stars Oscar winner Sir Alec Guinness, William Holden and Sessue Hayakawa, as the respective British, American, and Japanese men in charge. The digital transfer brings back the original vivid color and the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack adds brio to the signature whistling tune, "Colonel Bogey's March." Although this single disc version is essentially featureless, a double-disc version, loaded with extras, is also available for $39.95. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)[Blu-ray Review—Nov 9, 2010—Sony, 2 discs, 162 min., PG, $35.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1957's The Bridge on the River Kwai: Collector's Edition sports a solid transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras include the “Crossing the Bridge” picture-in-picture track, a “making-of” featurette (53 min.), a USC short film introduced by star William Holden (16 min.), an appreciation by filmmaker John Milius (8 min.), Holden and costar Alec Guinness appearing on The Steve Allen Show (7 min.), “The Rise and Fall of a Jungle Giant” vintage featurette (6 min.), an archival audio segment on the premiere narrated by Holden (2 min.), a photo gallery, trailers, the BD-Live function, and a bonus DVD copy of the film, as well as a 32-page booklet. Bottom line: a classic war film makes a fine debut in Blu.]