A travesty
This film is outrageous in its minimizing of the terrible cruelty of the Japanese toward their prisoners. Sadistic behind belief, which is why the survivors despise this picture. They also despise it because they did not willingly build the bridge as depicted in the picture.
Also, the finale, when Col Nicholson suddenly realizes his madness and falls on the detonator, is extremely contrived. Lean, originally an editor, liked to build his finales like this, but here he went too far.