Wow, wow, wow. I’ve watched three David Lean movies: Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and now The Bridge on the River Kwai. Each film has been utterly stunning, both visually and narratively. Doctor Zhivago was a bit slower but a crack at the more romantic side of things. Lawrence of Arabia swept me away for three hours and fifty-eight minutes with its mesmerizing performance by Peter O’ Toole and David Lean’s incredible directing which brought the beauty of the desert in ways I didn’t conceive imaginable on the big screen. And once again David Lean does not stray from highlighting the beauty of his movie’s regional settings with The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Set in the sweltering jungles of Burma and filmed in Sri Lanka, the movie immerses you in its seemingly unlivable conditions. The white soldiers with their tanned brown skins and bare-chested bodies gleaming in a thin slick of sweat and their hair matted against their heads make you feel their incredible discomfort. The giant bats swarming overhead is something that I actually hope I can see with my own eyes one day but in the context of the film is utterly terrifying.