Movie Minx

Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins
Directed by: David Lean

Plot: After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men’s construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.

But is it any good?

I just couldn’t get into this one. I was always aware I was watching a movie, I’d zone out, I’d get distracted. This always induces a feeling of guilt in me when I watch a “classic”, but there you go.

Based on a true story (although by the sounds of it great liberties are taken in the re-telling of it), this is a tale of British POWs forced to build a bridge in Siam/Thailand. There’s power play between the British officers and their Japanese commander, and meanwhile a Yank POW manages to escape and be rescued, only to be sent back to help blow up the newly-completed bridge. Admittedly the end of the film is edge-of-the-seat stuff as you see where the characters’ loyalties lie, but ultimately I found this to be rather slow, with stilted acting for the most part (excluding Guinness, whose stiff-upper lip performance is essential).

A great ending, but I found the rest to be simply… okay. To my mind, not one of the most powerful films on this list. More of a boys’ film, perhaps.

IMDb’s rating: 8.5/10
My rating: 6/10

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