Let's watch the classic The Bridge on the River Kwai at the Siskel after dinner

Reminder - $1 will be collected from each person at the event to cover Meetup Website costs.

The Siskel is showing a rare screening of a David Lean classic that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The Bridge on the River Kwai stars William Holden, Alec Guiness and Jack Hawkins in a 1957 wide-screen adaptation of Pierre Boulle's famed anti-war novel.

The story begins in February 1943, when a contingent of British prisoners of war, led by Colonel Nicholson, arrives at a Japanese prison camp in Thailand. U.S. Navy Commander Shears describes the horrific conditions to Nicholson, who forbids any escape attempts because they had been ordered to surrender by their own headquarters.

The movie is now widely recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. The film won seven Academy Awards including Best Director for Lean and Best Actor for Guiness. In 1997, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress.

It has been included on the American Film Institute's list of best pictures ever made.

The film boasts a 96 on Rotten Tomatoes.

Please note: The running time for this movie is 161 minutes.

In November 2010, Columbia Pictures released a newly restored The Bridge on the River Kwai for the first time on Blu-ray. According to Columbia Pictures, they followed an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio. The original negative for the feature was scanned at 4K (four times the resolution in High Definition), and the color correction and digital restoration were also completed at 4K.

Showtime is 7:15 pm. Let's meet at Elephant and Castle, 185 N. Wabash Ave., at 6 pm for dinner before the show.

Hope to see you there.