Classic British war film based on the novel by Pierre Boulle in which a group of POWs are forced to build a bridge in Burma for the Japanese. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) is the appointed leader of the men interned in the camp. When the Japanese commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), orders his captives to build a bridge across the river Kwai, Nicholson agrees on the basis that the project will keep his men occupied and give them an opportunity to prove, through the quality of their work, the superiority of British engineering. However, as the bridge progresses and the POWs strive to show their craftsmanship, Nicholson appears to lose sight of the fact that the ultimate object of the bridge is to help the Japanese win the war. The impending arrival of a British commando team, sent to destroy the bridge, looks set to provide a stern test of where the true loyalties of the increasingly obsessive Nicholson lie.