Die Brücke am Kwai

Possibly Lean's most complicated movie, Kwai is a towering work.

Hayakawa and Guinness make a good match as they create two disciplined officers who never bend, but nevertheless quietly share the vision of completing the bridge.

...subtly develops its themes about the irrationality of honor and the hypocrisy of Britain's class system without ever compromising its thrilling war narrative.

Guinness is brilliant in the part, presenting Nicholson as fierce and indomitable, and showing that madness doesn't always result in a loss of control.

Screenwriters Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson retained Pierre Boulle's terse, tough dialogue, which finds its greatest expression in Holden's cowardly wise-guy character.