It also won the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay. The railway route, which ran through Burma and Thailand, had been planned by the British. Nicholson undertakes the construction of a well-made bridge, at first thinking it a good way to improve the morale and discipline of his regiment but gradually coming to regard the structure not as a part of the enemy war effort but as a monument to British ingenuity. It was more of a transit hub where prisoners were moved to other work areas along the railway route. 26. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. It is a landmark of Kanchanaburi Province. Concurrently, Shears, after a harrowing journey in which he nearly loses his life more than once, is rescued by the British and then required to lead a group of commandoes headed by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) back to the POW camp that he escaped from in order to blow up the bridge. The movie is based on the novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai by Pierre Boulle. Within 16 months the bridge was completed but it took another two years to complete the entire rail line. Kanchanaburi town is located around 130 kilometres northwest of Bangkok. In the setting of World War II, a defeated unit British Soldiers is marched into a Japanese prison camp in western Thailand, with the purpose of constructing a bridge over the River Kwai to carry a new railway line to invade Burma. Lean wanted Holden, a big star and recent Oscar winner (for Stalag 17), to play American prisoner Major Shears, over the objections of producer Spiegel, who wanted Cary Grant. While the story is fiction, the broader setting--including the construction of the Burmese railway--is based on historical events. Budget. First Joyce and then Shears are killed in the ensuing gunfire. This article is part of our Classic Film Throwback series - By Sam Hendrian - "Madness. During the cutting of Hellfire Pass, for example, 69 men were beaten to death across a twelve-week period. Instead, the Lt. Col would stand up for his men when necessary to try to alleviate some of their hardships. Lean and his production designer, Donald Ashton, were in Ceylon months ahead of time to construct the film's title character (the bridge, not the river). In particular, they objected to the implication presented in the film that Japanese military engineers were generally unskilled at their profession and lacked proficiency. [19], Guinness later said that he subconsciously based his walk while emerging from "the Oven" on that of his eleven-year-old son Matthew,[20] who was recovering from polio at the time, a disease that left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. It was set up at the beginning of the Burma-Siams construction. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-43 for its historical setting. He served as an adviser during the making of the movie. Tonight, enjoy dinner at a hotel restaurant Overnight: Kanchanaburi Disease was a huge killer among railway workers, but so was brutality. The movie was filmed in Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. The movie is based on the novel "Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai" by Pierre Boulle. English / Japanese / Thai. [9], The film was relatively faithful to the novel, with two major exceptions. A picture of the actual bridge over the River Kwai in June 2004. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is an epic World War II adventure/action, anti-war drama. Victory over the Japanese navy at Midway in June 1942 had created a turning point in the Far East and Pacific. In January 1943, a base hospital was organised to care for sick and injured prisoners and labourers. Though he'd already earned five Oscar nominations (three for directing, two for adapting the Dickens novels) and would soon be widely celebrated for Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Doctor Zhivago (1965), at this stage, Lean was in trouble. The process of adapting Pierre Boulle's French-language novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai was difficult (more on that later), but the two writers ultimately responsible for it were Carl Foreman (High Noon) and Michael Wilson (A Place in the Sun). In early 1943, a contingent of British prisoners of war, led by Lt. Spiegel finally sent Michael Wilson to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where Lean was in pre-production, and the two worked together to hammer out the final version. The movie has been included on the American Film Institutes list of best American films ever made. Some Thailand River cruises begin in Bangkok and lead along the Mekong River to destinations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. A photo of Kitulgala, Sri Lanka in 2004, where the bridge was made for the film. Sessue Hayakawa edited his copy of the script to contain only his lines of dialog. Guinness, however, had his own reservations. 7. Cast the Expert: Percy Herbert, who played the role of a prisoner of war in the film, actually spent four . David Lean's 1957 epic Bridge on the River Kwai is regarded as one of the all-time great war films. Pierre Boulle, a Frenchman, who had experienced great hardship after being captured by the Vichy French on the Mekong River, wrote a novel called 'Le Pont de la rivire Kwa' - The Bridge of the . The Bridge on the River Kwai is a British 1957 World War II film by David Lean based on the novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. Ian Watts, longtime professor of English at Stanford and author of the landmark The Rise of the Novel, had actually been a prisoner in the camp and helped with the construction of the bridge. A real train rode over the bridge as it blew up. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 World War II POW film directed by David Lean, about the construction of the bridges over the River Kwai, although it's heavily fictionalised.It's based on the French novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle, of Planet of the Apes fame; Boulle, who could neither read nor write English, was also credited for the screenplay adaptation due to . 25 March 1995. He joined up in 1940 and served in the Middle East with the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion before transferring back to the Dutch East Indies in early 1942. The cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service to hold casualties made along the railways southern Bangkok to Nieke section. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Workers died at a rate of 20 men per day. "[17], The film was made in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). 1957 World War II film directed by David Lean, This article is about the film. At their head was Lieutenant-Colonel Phillip Toosey. Warden responds that he already knew and that the US Navy had agreed to transfer him to the British SOE with the simulated rank of Major to avoid embarrassment. Under cover of darkness, Shears and Joyce plant explosives on the bridge towers. It is famously known as the setting for the a 1957 World War Two epic Bridge over the River Kwai. Only minor damage was inflicted. Jun 7, 2011 - New on Blu 6-7-11: Studios unload nearly 70 titles. Only he survives, though he is wounded. Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to the UK in order to continue working. Check here to see our open positions and volunteer roles. Clipton objects, believing this to be collaboration with the enemy. It was filmed in Kitulgala which is 60 . The film was directed by David Lean and starred William Holding, Jack Hawkins and academy award winner Sir Alex Guinness. Along with 1,250 other POWs, he died while in transit from Singapore to Japan aboard the Rakuyo Maro transport ship after it was torpedoed by a US submarine. The trials of Australian Army Lieutenant George Hamilton Lamb reflected the mens awful experience building the Burma-Siam Death Railway. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and scooped up seven Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor. They were calling it the Death Railway. Although the obvious link was by sea, Allied submarines controlling the region made it too treacherous. Around 90,000 forced labourers are thought to have died building Death Railway. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Guinness), not to mention a handful of Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and even a Grammy nomination for its soundtrack. The Bridge on the River Kwai was a smash hit on release. A small tourist train offers rides across the bridges span, while pedestrians can also travel over it on foot. Allied soldiers had built a church and a hospital on the site where the cemetery now sits. Harry Cohn, the vulgar (but successful) man who ran Columbia Pictures at the time, was furious when he read the script and saw no . We want to hear from you! Image: British troops surrender at Singapore. In a prison camp, British POWs are forced into labor. Just as in Love is a Many Splendored Thing, normally hairy chested William Holden had to have a full body wax for his many shirtless scenes in the movie. It was released in the US on December 14, 1957, taking in a reported $17M+, which made it the highest-grossing film of 1957. She retired Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The Hitchhiker's Guide has this to say about John Rabon: When not pretending to travel in time and space, eating bananas, and claiming that things are "fantastic", John lives in North Carolina. In the movie the bridge is destroyed by commandos. Mortally wounded, he falls onto the plunger, the bridge is blown up, and the train with the dignitaries falls into the river. Lean wanted to use the tune in Kwai, figured those lyrics wouldn't pass the censors (or the approval of the composer's widow), and opted to have the troops whistle it instead. Nevertheless, the leeches in the recreated swamps were real. 3. In 1941 the Japanese Army invaded Thailand. (He didn't attend the Oscars, either.) David Lean's classic 1957 World War II movie Bridge on the River Kwai depicted the horrors endured by the Allied prisoners of war (POWs) forced to build the Thailand-Burma railway by the Japanese Imperial Army. David Lean, a British director then in his late forties, had made 11 films, including well-received adaptations of Charles Dickens (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist) and Noel Coward (Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter). [63], The film was restored in 1985 by Columbia Pictures. Boulle based his novel, published in 1952, on his own experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and on an infamous construction project that he wasn't involved with. All but a small section of the route was built in dense, malarial jungles, in sweltering heat and monsoon rains. The bridge cost $250,000 to build. Take a look below for 28 more fun and interesting facts about The Bridge on the . While the British prisoners celebrate their accomplishment that night, the commandoes wire the bridge with explosives to be detonated by a plunger operated by a hidden soldier, timed to collapse the bridge just as an inaugural train carrying Japanese dignitaries is crossing it. But in 1966, the film aired on American . The majority of its smaller components are originals, while a few are post-war replacements. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British-American epic war movie directed by David Lean and starring William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Alec Guinness, featuring Sessue Hayakawa. Let's talk about British Food! It stars Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins and William Holden. 8. 14. Basically, the bridge was built during World War II when the Japanese occupied Siam (now Thailand) and neighboring Burma (now Myanmar . It was 425 feet long, 90 feet high, and cost $52,085 out of the film's $2 million budget. Log in. [Ronald Searle, To the Kwai and Back: War drawings 1939-45, London, Collins, 1986, 104] 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' is now the best-known site on the Burma-Thailand railway but its fame is due more to a fictional film than its significance in World War II. Everywhere in the jungle, the graveyards made their appearance; starting in a small way they gradually grew bigger, until when the railway was completed at the end of the year, thousands of bodies lay in the jungle from one end to the other.. [38] Some Japanese viewers also disliked the film for portraying the Allied prisoners of war as more capable of constructing the bridge than the Japanese engineers themselves were, accusing the filmmakers of being unfairly biased and unfamiliar with the realities of the bridge construction, a sentiment echoed by surviving prisoners of war who saw the film in cinemas. Walk over the steel bridge at the River Kwai, one of the most famous rivers in the world, which gained international fame in the book and film, "Bridge on the River Kwai". Today, he rests alongside his fellow POWs in Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Burma (Myanmar). The plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay were almost entirely fictional. When, the next morning, Saito orders all the British prisoners to begin building the bridge under the command of a Japanese engineer, Nicholson and the other officers refuse, even when Saito threatens to kill them. At the end of the day, the officers are imprisoned, and Nicholson is thrown into the ovena small box made of corrugated metal. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 in the United States and Canada and was also the most popular film at the British box office that year. Bangkok - Kanchanaburi More info / Tickets. The story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942-1943, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle's own life experience working in Malaysia rubber . POWs and indentured labourers were worked to death while busy constructing the railway simultaneously. Alec Guiness, William Holden, and Jack Hawkins in front of bridge they built in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. He was listed as missing in action in June 1943. [11] Guinness admitted that Lean "didn't particularly want me" for the role, and thought about immediately returning to England when he arrived in Ceylon and Lean reminded him that he wasn't the first choice. This film is produced by Sam Spiegel, and the music is composed by Malcolm Arnold for . Japanese guards were known for their cruelty and would frequently torture and assault their prisoners. He was contracted for $150,000 to be paid in installments. Laughton was in his habitually overweight state, and was either denied insurance coverage, or was simply not keen on filming in a tropical location. The Bridge over the River Kwai (French: Le Pont de la rivire Kwa) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. . [66] The original negative for the feature was scanned at 4k (four times the resolution in High Definition), and the colour correction and digital restoration were also completed at 4k. Approximately 5 kilometres north of Kanchanaburi there were two bridges that were built by POWs during the war. Casualties commemorated at Chungkai are mostly men who died in the field hospital set up by prisoners. She spent most of the next 42 years working as a copy editor and editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. American casualties were repatriated back to the United States. A make-up man was also badly injured in the same accident. It is also known as the "River Kwai March". 13. The river is the Mae Klong River which passes through a valley of the Khwae Noi River (little tributary). All Rights Reserved. Some of the Second World War's fiercest battles involved bridges and inspired some riveting accounts - capture of key bridges (Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day"; Stephen. The screenplay was based on French author Pierre Boulle"s 1954 novel of the same name. Have a question about us or our work? His first epic was his twelfth film: The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden as P.O.W. The real swamps in Ceylon were deemed to be too dangerous. Explore the CWGC Archive through our online portal. Updates? [26], A memorable feature of the film is the tune that is whistled by the POWsthe first strain of the "Colonel Bogey March"when they enter the camp. For all the death and misery caused by its building, the Burma-Siam Railway only ever carried two Japanese divisions and 500,000 tons of supplies before VJ Day brought the war in Asia to a close. Wise: "I never heard it in Thailand. In the meantime, Shears manages to escape. Sign-up for free daily emails with the latest news about British culture, heritage, and history! The Burma-Siam Railway was 250 miles of railway constructed by Allied prisoners of war alongside forced Asian labourers. (Lean denied ever wanting Laughton for the role, despite abundant documented evidence to the contrary.). [31][32] Some consider the film to be an insulting parody of Toosey. [7][8] In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th century. This meant that some of the British prisoners were actually natives of the region wearing make-up to appear Caucasian. Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 19421943, the plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay are almost entirely fictional. Japanese engineers had been surveying and planning the route of the railway since 1937, and they had demonstrated considerable skill during their construction efforts across South-East Asia. Omissions? Tooseys men stated this never happened. "[55], Balu Mahendra, the Tamil film director, observed the shooting of this film at Kitulgala, Sri Lanka during his school trip and was inspired to become a film director. Explore the story of the CWGC, from our formation during the First World War to our work today. But poor old Goebbels [35], Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey of the British Army was the real senior Allied officer at the bridge in question. 20. Want to work for the CWGC? The Bridge on the River Kwai is now widely recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. You can also take a boat down the Kwai River . In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . Toosey would provide the inspiration for Lt. Col Nicholson portrayed by Alec Guinness in the 1957 film. The documentary itself was described by one newspaper reviewer when it was shown on Boxing Day 1974 (The Bridge on the River Kwai had been shown on BBC1 on Christmas Day 1974) as "Following the movie, this is a rerun of the antidote."[37]. Thanbyuzayat continued to be used as a POW reception centre to reinforce work parties along the Burma-Siam Railway. The line passing through the scenic Three Pagodas Pass runs for 250 miles. Shears tries to get out of the mission by confessing that he impersonated an officer, hoping for better treatment from the Japanese. There's a stench of death about you. Return trains are 12.55 and 15.15. train on the bridge over the river kwai in kanchanaburi, thailan - bridge over the river kwai stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images FLOATING HOUSES ON THE RIVER KWAI, KANCHANABURI, THAILAND. The actual bridge on the River Kwai is located in Thailand, and stretches over a part of the Mae Klong river, which was renamed Khwae Yai (Thai for big tributary). However, in 1943 a railway bridge was built by Allied POWs over the Mae Klong river renamed Khwae Yai in the 1960s as a result of the film at Tha Ma Kham, five kilometres from Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. The Colonel Bogey strain was accompanied by a counter-melody using the same chord progressions, then continued with film composer Malcolm Arnold's own composition, "The River Kwai March", played by the off-screen orchestra taking over from the whistlers, though Arnold's march was not heard in completion on the soundtrack. [3] Since it was not a documentary, there are many historical inaccuracies in the film, as noted by eyewitnesses to the building of the real Burma Railway by historians.[30][31][32][33]. This Week's Toybox is . The movie is best known for the "Colonel Bogey March", the song that is whistled by the POWs. The bridge they build will become a symbol of service and survival to one prisoner, Colonel Nicholson, a proud perfectionist. The cast includes William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and . Interested in advertising on the world's largest website dedicated to all things Britain? - Colonel Saito, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai '. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. During WW II, Japan constructed the meter-gauge railway line from Ban Pong, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. The British soldiers were slaves; they did not help the Japanese. According to Columbia Pictures, they followed an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio. Sam Spiegel bought the railroad train from the Ceylonese government. These problems resulted in a number of anomalies that were very difficult to correct, like a ghosting effect in many scenes that resembles colour mis-registration, and a tick-like effect with the image jumping or jerking side-to-side. Thanbyuzayat was originally a POW administration headquarters and base camp. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. US Navy Commander Shears tells of the horrific conditions. The Mount Lavinia Hotel was used as a location for the hospital. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The site's critical consensus reads, "This complex war epic asks hard questions, resists easy answers, and boasts career-defining work from star Alec Guinness and director David Lean. Its this structure, Bridge 277, that still stands and is a famous local tourist attraction. The march was written in 1914 by Kenneth J. Alford, a pseudonym of British Bandmaster Frederick J. Ricketts. The action of the movie takes place in a Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in . Has only got one ball! The deaths of the Asian workers and the prisoners were real events, but most of the book and the movie are not true. It was initially scripted by screenwriter Carl Foreman, who was later replaced by Michael Wilson. [34] According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma. Brigadier Varley would survive the hellish building work along the Burma-Siam Railway but not the war. [18] The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala. The finished screenplay had significant contributions from both Wilson and Foreman, though each went to his grave insisting he was the more important contributor. In a 1988 interview with Barry Norman, Lean confirmed that Columbia almost stopped filming after three weeks because there was no white woman in the film, forcing him to add what he called "a very terrible scene" between Holden and a nurse on the beach. Nicholson advises Saito that the officers cannot be required to do manual labour according to the Geneva Convention. Two bridges were built; one was made of wood, one was made of concrete and steel. The United States Army Air Force (USAAF) was the first to conduct air raids on the bridges over the River Kwai between November 1944 and January 1945.