Bridge on the River Kwai, The

Rating: ****/*****, or 9/10

Phenomenally gripping epic and classic war movie like only old-school master director David Lean could deliver. In a Japanese concentration camp, a group of British POWs under the command of stiff upperlip colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) is ordered to construct a bridge over a jungle river. Meanwhile, Allied Command has also learned of the bridge and has dispatched a team of men, led by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) and Shears (William Holden), an escapee from the prison camp everyone considered dead, to destroy it. After a gruesome trek through the dense Indochinese jungle, the saboteurs arrive, but will Nicholson allow them to blow up the result of all his hard work? Solid plot and superb acting, particularly Guinness in his role as a colonel completely devoid of emotion, who sees the bridge as a symbol for English spirit during adversity, a triumph of British leadership over Japanese barbarity, but at his heart is simply suffering from obsessive compulsion over his command and racist attitude towards his Asian captors. The movie boasts impressive production design and most of it is real: if you ever want to see a train crashing down an exploding bridge for real, go and see this magnificent film, which was good for seven Academy Awards. Lean would later outdo himself with the brilliant Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

Starring: Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins

Directed by David Lean

USA: Columbia Pictures, 1957

Ben-Hur

Rating: ****/*****, or 8/10

One of the greatest Hollywood epics of all time, the first film ever to win the record amount of 11 Academy Awards, most of them well deserved. Charlton Heston stars as the Jewish nobleman Juda Ben-Hur, who finds out his once close friendship with the young Roman aristocrat Messala (Stephen Boyd) has succumbed to his strict duties as a Roman officer. This new distrust between them soon turns to hatred when, after an accident that leaves the new Roman governor of Judea wounded, Messala condemns Juda to the galleys as a slave and sends his family to the dungeons. However, Juda survives his ordeal, fueled by his hate, and in a grandiose naval battle between the Roman fleet and pirates, rescues the life of Roman Consul Arrius (Jack Hawkins), after which he is redeemed by the Emperor, adopted by Arrius and embarks on a star career as a charioteer before returning to Judea to seek vengeance on Messala in the sands of the most famous chariot race in film history. However, winning the race and fatally crippling his adversary in the process does not return his family or his happiness, things only Christ can give him on the Cross. For the majority of modern day viewers, the overt Christian overtones in the final third of the movie – the film is subtitled 'a Tale of the Christ after all – are hard to bear in their cheesiness, but this movie remains a solid undying classic in every other respect (with extra credit going to the great CinemaScope cinematography, the wonderful, catchy music and the excellent production design): the fabulous naval battle and the highly exciting chariot race remain unsurpassed.

Starring: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins

Directed by William Wyler

USA: MGM, 1959