The Bridge On The River Kwai

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Disc One: Gallery - Maps And Military Strategy Game - Trivia Sabotage - Building The Bridge Isolated Music Score Menu Audio and Animation Trailer - Dolby Digital City Disc Two: Biographies - Cast and Crew Documentary - Making Of The Bridge On The River Kwai (53:03) DVD-ROM content - Screensavers Featurette - The Rise And Fall Of A Jungle Giant (6:13) Featurette - USC Short Film introduced by William Holden (15:52) Featurette - An Appreciation by John Milius (8:07) Featurette - Photo Montage (7:26) Menu Animation and Audio Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Released	1957
Running Time	155:28 minutes
RSDL/Flipper	Disc One: RSDL (77:24) Disc Two: No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	2,4	Director	David Lean
Studio Distributor	Columbia TriStar Home Video	Starring	William Holden Alec Guinness Jack Hawkins Sessue Hayakawa James Donald Ann Sears Geoffrey Horne
Case	Soft Brackley	Starring
RPI	$39.95	Music	Malcolm Arnold

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448 Kb/s) German (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448 Kb/s) German (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192 Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448 Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192 Kb/s) Isolated Music Score (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192 Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.47:1 (measured)
16x9 Enhancement
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.55:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English French German Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles		Action In or After Credits	No

Plot Synopsis

Is there any one out there who does not know the theme tune to this magnificent film? If you are talking about memorable themes, then The Bridge On The River Kwai is blessed with one of the most instantly recognizable efforts ever - The Colonel Bogey March as whistled by the cast of the film! But memorable films require more than just memorable theme tunes in order to become a classic - the whole package needs to be virtually spot on, and in that regard The Bridge On The River Kwai succeeds admirably. Nominated for eight Oscars in 1957, it walked away with a sizeable horde of them, even in today's terms of over-hyped pieces of marginal film making. And in one of those seemingly rare instances, they Academy got it pretty much right. They were not just the esoteric awards either, as this walked away with Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor amongst the seven it garnered. So all in all we are talking about something quite special in the way of a film, despite the slight artistic licences taken with the story. The amazing thing here is that this epic was made for the relatively paltry sum (by today's standards) of under $3,000,000. For that money you don't get fancy effects, you actually get the real thing including the bridge and its destruction.

One of the truly great war films ever made, this really needs no introduction at all, for I am quite sure that even if you have not seen the film (and there cannot be too many in that camp surely?) you would be well aware of the story. But just in case, this is the story of British and Allied soldiers, prisoners of war after the fall of Singapore, who were put to work building a bridge over the River Kwai for the Japanese in 1943. The bridge was an important part of the Singapore to Rangoon railway, and most especially the Bangkok to Rangoon section, that the Japanese were building to facilitate the movement of men and materials to Burma for the proposed westward push into India. The railway, and more especially the bridge, was built under trying circumstances almost completely by hand and many prisoners of war lost their lives in the project.

Whilst liberties have been taken with the story, this really is a magnificent film in just about every respect. Filmed entirely on location in Sri Lanka, as opposed to Thailand, the cast and crew got a fairly good indication of the sort of conditions that the prisoners of war endured tenfold on the actual railway. The fact that this was filmed almost entirely on location only added to the quality of the final film in my view. David Lean is not a man particularly well-known nowadays but he made some superb films in his time - he twice won the Best Director Oscar (his other success being Lawrence Of Arabia - a film that demands a release on DVD) and was nominated on five other occasions. He was something a perfectionist as a filmmaker and it showed in the broad quality of his work. This is one of the very high points in a most distinguished filmography and when you consider that filmography, no higher praise can be given for this effort. However, the quality of the man behind the camera was equally matched by those in front of it. Whilst William Holden was brought in as the big American name for the film (with a reportedly big pay cheque too), the star here was a reticent one in many ways. A highly respected actor prior to this film, Alec Guinness was almost propelled into another league by his superb performance here as the ranking British officer Colonel Nicholson. The performance garnered him his only Oscar as an actor (he also received an honorary Oscar in 1980 for advancing the art of screen acting, or something like that) and he is a definite standout in this epic. Indeed, so much of a stand out that William Holden was completely out of his league in this effort. Jack Hawkins was one of the finest British actors in war films - he seemed to have done a bunch of them - and this was another great performance from him. Sessue Hayakawa was a great actor from silent films and this was something of a different experience for him, but he remains convincing as the camp commandant. However, beyond the great story, beyond the great direction and beyond the great performances, there is the great cinematography and this effort definitely used the Cinemascope process to great effect. Indeed, if you have only ever seen this film in Pan & Scan format, this is going to be something of a revelation as there is simply so much more picture here that many shots actually convey their power for the first time on video.

The Bridge On The River Kwai is one of the great films of the twentieth century, currently ranked at number 51 in the Internet Movie Database Top 250, finally brought to life in all its (very) widescreen glory pretty much for the first time on video. This is the sort of film that demanded DVD be created and it uses the format so well. We are being blessed with some superb film releases on Region 4 DVDs nowadays but this is a very special release indeed. Well worth grabbing this one as it will be a film that you really can get to see for the first time in many a long year in the DVD format - and enjoy for many years to come.

Transfer Quality

Video

We are being blessed with some superbly restored films on DVD, and whilst this is not quite up with the very best of them it is certainly a very good one. In broad terms the restoration has brought the film back to a standard that passes muster under the harsh digital eye of DVD pretty well indeed, but there remain a few niggling little issues that deny it a place with such luminary restorations as My Fair Lady or Vertigo.

Filmed in Cinemascope, the theatrical aspect ratio was a very widescreen 2.55:1, which is closely approximated by the measured 2.47:1 ratio of this DVD transfer. The transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

Whilst there are just a few off lapses, in general this is a beautifully sharp transfer that is entirely too good for a film of this age. There is no lack of detail in the transfer either and even such difficult shots as a sky full of flying foxes does not descend into anything approaching murky detail: there are several hundred of the animals flying around in one scene and all are as clear as if you were watching the scene in real life. Apart from a couple of noticeable sections of grain - the opening sequence to the film and at 43:05 - the transfer was remarkably free from the problem, with the result that this is generally a clear transfer. Shadow detail is typical for a film of this age and could have been better, but never falls below good. There does not appear to be any significant low level noise problems with the transfer.

After getting over how sharp the transfer looked, the next surprise is how good the colours come up in the transfer. Whilst the ravages of time in a few cases obviously overcame even the sterling efforts of the restoration team, there are very few instances where the colours here do not come up very naturally rendered with a nice vibrancy to them where required. When there was a drop off in the quality of the colour, it generally was still quite watchable, just slightly undersaturated. You can forget anything approaching oversaturation here, and colour bleed was not an issue either. I have seen films half the age of this one with more problems as far as colours go and this is in general a very well done piece of restoration and mastering.

Apart from some minor pixelization during the opening sequence to the film, there did not seem to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Unfortunately, there were some problems with jitter in the transfer at times - 16:35, 17:25 and between 67:00 and 67:12 amongst them - but these really were not that extreme and could be easily overlooked. Other than that, the transfer is quite remarkably free from any significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, with only a trivial instance of aliasing being noted at 48:31. You could be hardly blamed for thinking that this was going to be a film artefact festival during the opening sequence, but thereafter there was an amazing lack of the obligatory dirt marks, scratches and so on that I would have expected here. The restoration has certainly cleaned this film up enormously (just compare the feature to the theatrical trailer!). There was also something of a flaw in the transfer at 28:03 on the second layer of the DVD, but I am at a loss to explain what it is: I am guessing that it is some degradation in the transfer that could not be overcome by restoration, and it is just a tad off-putting. Overall though, this is significantly better than I was expecting from the transfer, especially after watching the extras first.

Disc One of this two DVD set is an RSDL formatted DVD, with the layer change coming at 77:24. There is no doubt of the layer change as this DVD is unusually mastered with the two layers having separate timings. The second layer simply begins again at 0:00, something I do not recall having seen before on DVD. The layer change itself is one of the most excruciatingly slow efforts I have seen recently and it seems to take forever for the layer change to be navigated. Accordingly, Jack Hawkins is left standing at the door a long time before the scene changes. Very noticeable indeed and I really would have thought that Columbia TriStar would have been able to come up with something better than this. Disc Two is a plain old single sided, single layer DVD and contains most of the extras.

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-to-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

The very good video restoration has extended as far as a rather decent remastering of the audio, and quite an usual remastering it is. There are six soundtracks on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack, a French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack and an Isolated Music Score in Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. I listened to the default English soundtrack only, apart from some very brief sampling of the German and French 5.1 soundtracks that I really found quite unlistenable - the film loses so much with these dubbed soundtracks: how can you possibly dub a Japanese character with a German accent and expect it to be taken seriously? All nuances from the fractured English from the Japanese commandant are lost and this detracts enormously from the film in my view.

Apart from that fractured English from Sessue Hayakawa, the dialogue comes up clear and easily understood in the transfer. There was no problem with audio sync in the transfer.

The original music score comes from Malcolm Arnold, and a wonderful effort it is too. A sadly overlooked classical composer of the twentieth century, he produced some wonderful stuff for the film - as evidenced by the extremely effective counterpointing of The Colonel Bogey March during the opening scenes of the film. It is not often that we get isolated music scores, so it usually indicates a fine score when we are given one. Make the most of it - this is fine stuff indeed.

The reason why this is an unusual remastering is due to the fact that the remastering has not been done to introduce a plethora of bass effects that were not in the original film, but rather has been done to bring out more detail in the sound than was hitherto heard. About the only time that the bass channel kicks in here is during the climatic destruction of the bridge. Similarly, they have not gone overboard with surround channel use, so what has been done with the surround channels is usually quite restrained and quite effective. It would seem the credo here was to enhance the quality of the original soundtrack without destroying the feel of the original soundtrack. Nicely effective stuff, but hardly an audio demonstration. Completely free from any blemishes of any kind, this is an eminently listenable soundtrack that enhances the visual experience of the film.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Well, when you sit down to watch this collection you best have a nice supply of popcorn or whatever, as this is a nicely impressive collection. About the only thing we do not get here is an audio commentary, and considering how few of the cast and crew are probably still around, that is quite understandable. A Collector's Edition it says and this two DVD set probably deserves the appellation with honours - especially considering that the film is forty-three years old.

Wonderfully themed throughout, some obvious thought went into these little efforts. Whilst not as mind-blowing as say those on The Abyss, they are extremely effective. All are 16x9 enhanced and come with audio and animation enhancement. The main menu on Disc One is especially well done, as the bridge is built as you watch!

Disc One:

Trailer - Dolby Digital City

Okay, okay, enough already of the City trailer. Can you please licence another one for some variety!

Gallery - Maps And Military Strategy

This gives you a brief history lesson by allowing you to explore maps of the Thailand area and obtain details of the location and the purposes of the railway. Not mind blowing stuff, but a nice educational aspect to the proceedings that is worthwhile investigating.

Game - Trivia Sabotage - Building The Bridge

Test your knowledge about the film. Three levels (well, actually military ranks) are offered with ten questions for each. The lower rank questions are dead easy, the highest rank ones a little difficult. Get a question wrong and you are suitably rewarded with a gun shot. Answer all ten and you get the reward - the famous scene of the bridge blowing up. At least this has a bit more logic to it than some other games on film DVDs, and is generally well done. However, the scope could have been expanded a tad more I feel.

Isolated Music Score

Disc Two:

Biographies - Cast and Crew

Brief and to the point efforts for the main cast members and the director only. I really wish that these were a lot more extensive than we tend to get from this source.

Documentary - Making Of The Bridge On The River Kwai (53:03)

Now this is more like it. An interesting and entertaining look into the making of the film, including interviews with some of the (few) surviving crew members. This was made earlier this year and is well worth the effort of watching. However, you will have to put up with some quite noticeable shimmer in the image, most notably during the extracts from the film. It also suffers somewhat from what would seem to be overcompression as at times the transfer gets quite blocky looking. The documentary is presented in a Full Frame format (apart from the film extracts, which are in the correct ratio), it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. If only the technical quality was better, this would have gained an unequivocal thumbs up as an essential view.

DVD-ROM Content - Screensavers

After going to the trouble of dragging this up to the office to check it out on the DVD-ROM equipped PC there, a bit of a disappointment. The rather inaptly named PCFriendly program is the interface and after getting setup, clicking the install sign results in a seamless loading of the screensaver on your PC. The screensaver itself comprises nine images of promotional posters taken from the Photo montage on the DVD itself. Nothing too exciting and one of them seems to be suffering from bad mastering with what appears to missing scanlines in the image and a decided lack of appropriate colour.

Featurette - The Rise And Fall Of A Jungle Giant (6:13)

A reasonably informative look behind the scenes at the creation of the film and especially the bridge. Presented in a Full Frame format, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound - plus a very unhealthy chunk of film artefacts. A nice addition from a historical point of view, but some restoration would not have gone too far astray in my view.

Featurette - USC Short Film introduced by William Holden (15:52)

A rather unusual offering here, as its connection to the film is a tad tenuous. It would appear to be one of a series of films done by the University Of Southern California Film School regarding the making of films, hosted by William Holden. Its relevance to the film, apart from the host, is the fact that it uses behind the scenes footage from the film to illustrate the points about making a film. Presented in a Full Frame format, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. It is a little overexposed at times, washing out details like William Holden's face, as well as suffering from the obligatory film artefacts. An interesting enough inclusion, even if the connection is a little tenuous.

Featurette - An Appreciation by John Milius (8:07)

Another recent production, John Milius talks about the reasons why he thinks this is a great film. Interesting enough, as he obviously has some enthusiasm for the film. Presented in a Full Frame format, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, this one comes with some MPEG artefacting just to be a little different - mainly a blocky look to certain aspects of the featurette.

Featurette - Photo Montage (7:26)

Ever sat there pushing the skip forward button whilst watching several hundred photos on a DVD and thought "there has to be a better way"? Here it is - 65 photos, mainly posters and promotional stuff, on a self running basis and with some audio enhancement. No more pushing that skip forward button here! I cannot say that the photos do a whole lot for me, but a definite five thumbs up for the self-running presentation of them! Add in some annotations and this would have been absolutely perfect. A memo to all DVD authors - this is how photo montages should be presented.

Theatrical Trailer (3:08)

Presented in an aspect ratio that appears to be close to 2.55:1, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. It also comes with a shocking collection of film artefacts! I don't know where this was stored, but I am guessing that it was stuck way down the back of a very dirty cupboard. Interesting enough once you get used to the film artefacts.

R4 vs R1

The film is due for release in Region 1 as I write this review, but from what I can discover so far the presentation is almost identical to the Region 4 release. The main differences seem to be in the soundtrack and subtitle options, as is the usual situation. That being the case, we have another Region 4 winner due to PAL formatting - and a cheaper price given the state of the Australian peso.

Summary

The Bridge On The River Kwai is a classic film given a very good, but not superb, restoration. The relatively minor video transfer problems are more than overcome by the fact that this is as good as the film has looked in years, and the fact that it would probably be its first widescreen release on a mainstream video format. It has been given an extras package that is more than could be reasonably expected for a film of this age. All I can say is hopefully more David Lean films are forthcoming on Region 4 DVD as soon as possible if they get this sort of treatment - and please make Lawrence of Arabia the first of them. However, the one big downer here is the decidedly second grade packaging this has been given. I have complained before about the extremely flimsy faux Amaray cases that Columbia TriStar are using now. Well this is packaged in a two DVD case equivalent and it is a shocker. Half the time the flimsiness makes it extremely difficult and frustrating to line up the teeth to close the DVD case properly. The little flip holder inside for the second DVD looks and feels cheap. I simply do not see why we cannot get a proper two DVD Amaray equivalent of the Alpha cases that Fox and Disney use in Region 1 - sturdy, durable items. At the very least, the elegant compromise used by Fox for Independence Day and The Abyss in Region 4 has to be preferred to this cheap piece of rubbish.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer DV-515; S-video output
Display	Sony Trinitron Wega 80cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Built in
Amplification	Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Speakers	Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL