For the scene when Colonel Nicholson emerges from the oven after several days confined there, Alec Guinness based his faltering walk on that of his son Matthew Guinness when he was recovering from polio. 5. Brigadier Varley would survive the hellish building work along the Burma-Siam Railway but not the war. It is famously known as the setting for the a 1957 World War Two epic Bridge over the River Kwai. Or maybe you have a story for us or would like to work together. So Spiegel hired another writer, Calder Willingham, to give it a crack. 20. The year: 1943. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In 1957 the movie, The Bridge on the River Kwai, premiered in London and became the biggest grossing film of 1958, winning seven academy awards in the process, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Musical Score, Best Cinematography and Best Editing.Not bad for a movie that is largely a work of almost entirely fictional characters and a story which . But Laughton, a fine actor with such credits as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) on his resume, was in poor physical shapegreat for playing the corpulent Henry VIII in Young Bess (1953), not so great for playing a British military officer in a prison camp. Pay on the train. The surviving sections stand as monuments to the men who suffered so much to build them. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. Harry Cohn, the vulgar (but successful) man who ran Columbia Pictures at the time, was furious when he read the script and saw no love interest. The Suez Canal crisis of 1956 badly affected production. David Lean was completely at home in the hot and humid Ceylon jungle. Assistant director John Kerrison was killed in a car crash on the way to one of the locations. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial, Malaysia. The Bridge on the River Kwai, British-American war film, released in 1957 and directed by David Lean, that was both a critical and popular success and became an enduring classic. By the end, prisoners working on the rail route werent calling it the Burma-Siam Railway. Thanbyuzayat is in Myanmar. There are tourist trains to Nam Tok stopping at stations in between daily from the River Kwai Bridge station at 06.05, 11.00 and 14.30. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a British 1957 movie from Columbia Pictures, based on Pierre Boulle's 1952 book The Bridge over the River Kwai (French: Le Pont de la Rivire Kwai). [23], British composer Malcolm Arnold recalled that he had "ten days to write around forty-five minutes worth of music" much less time than he was used to. 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". Instead of the five year predicted completion, the bridge on river Kwai, was completed in 16 months. Log in. Budget. 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. In the film, Lt. Col Nicholson is seen collaborating with his captors, even under duress. The bridges were quickly repaired with the use of POW labour from the camp at Tha . The young soldier from Suffolk was dispatched to work on the bridge over the River Kwai, one of the railway's most daunting engineering projects. Around 3,100 Commonwealth Burma war graves can be found at Thanbyuzayat, alongside roughly 620 Dutch burials. Has only got one ball! At the end of the day, the officers are imprisoned, and Nicholson is thrown into the ovena small box made of corrugated metal. ", Warden fires a mortar, killing Shears and Joyce and fatally wounding Nicholson. Sessue Hayakawa considered his performance as Saito as the highlight of his career. 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. [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. [22], Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by the river current during a break from filming.[23]. [30], A 1969 BBC television documentary, Return to the River Kwai, made by former POW John Coast,[33] sought to highlight the real history behind the film (partly through getting ex-POWs to question its factual basis, for example Dr Hugh de Wardener and Lt-Col Alfred Knights), which angered many former POWs. 15. Begun in October 1942, using prisoner of war (POW) labour, it was completed and operational by early February 1943. The Japanese did indeed force British, Dutch, Australian, and American prisoners to build the Burma Railway, resulting in some 13,000 POW deaths and at least 80,000 civilian deaths. Join us in an act of virtual remembrance and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Young: "Donald, did anyone whistle Colonel Bogey as they did in the film?" The movie is based on the novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai by Pierre Boulle. The railway route, which ran through Burma and Thailand, had been planned by the British. The movie is based on the novel "Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai" by Pierre Boulle. British English: The Top 50 Most Beautiful British Insults, British Slang: Your Guide to British Police Slang for the Telly Watcher, British Slang: Tea Time British Words for Tea and Tea Related Culture, ltimate List of Funny British Place Names, 101 Budget Britain Travel Tips 2nd Edition, Great Britons Book: Top 50 Greatest Brits Who Ever Lived, Anglotopias Grand Adventure Lands End to John OGroats. The railway ran for 250 miles from Ban Pong, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma and is now known as the Death Railway. The curved-shaped truss spans are the originals on the bridge (constructed by the Japanese military during WWII) while the two trapezoidal-shaped bridge spans were provided by Japan as war reparations after the war ended in 1945 (to replace two curved-shaped truss spans that fell into the river after the bridge was attacked and bombed by Allied aircraft. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. Reviews There are no reviews yet. Put on your marching boots and whistle a jaunty tune as we investigate some behind-the-scenes facts about this enduring war film. A temporary wooden bridge was completed at the beginning of 1943 and a few months later the steel bridge (which can be seen today) was finished. This story is retold in: Anecdotal Tit Bits: Making "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "links for research, Allied POWs under the Japanese", "The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey and the Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey and the, "Once-Stupendous-Now-Modest $2,700,000 Budget Kept Secret; 'River Kwai's' Sockfull Gross", "Screen: 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' Opens", "Film Reviews: The Bridge on the River Kwai", "Balu Mahendra, who made his visuals speak, dies at 74", "Warren Buffett carries an American Express card and about $400 in cash", "How Cartrivision's 1972 VCR ForesawAnd ForfeitedThe Time-Shifted Future", "Movies | Disc & Digital | Sony Pictures", "Wayne and Shuster Show, The Episode Guide (19541990) (series)", Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Drama, National Board of Review Award for Best Film, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bridge_on_the_River_Kwai&oldid=1138405911, Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award-winning performance, Films featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance, Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award, Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award, Films whose director won the Best Directing Academy Award, Films whose director won the Best Director Golden Globe, Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award, Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award, Films with screenplays by Michael Wilson (writer), United States National Film Registry films, World War II films based on actual events, Short description is different from Wikidata, Album articles lacking alt text for covers, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Best DVD Original Retrospective Documentary/Featurette, Online Film & Television Association Awards, This page was last edited on 9 February 2023, at 14:21. 14. Only in 1984 did the Academy rectify the situation by retroactively awarding the Oscar to Foreman and Wilson, posthumously in both cases. The bridge in the movie was near Kitulgala. Rather than draw on their own corps of manpower, which was busy fighting an eventual losing battle against encroaching Allied forces, it would put its legions of POWs and local forced labourers to work. [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. His first epic was his twelfth film: The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden as P.O.W. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. 3. In 1997, the movie was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. 14- "Be happy in your work.". The Bridge on the River Kwai was selected in 1997 for preservation in the National Film Registry. Kanburi wasnt a work camp as such. In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . [46], On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 96% based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of 9.4/10. The real swamps in Ceylon were deemed to be too dangerous. Read the response of the CWGC to the findings of the Special Committee. As shown in the movie, Guinness played the scene without flinching. The destruction of the bridge as depicted in the film is also entirely fictional. The two did not collaborate on the script; Wilson took over after Lean was dissatisfied with Foreman's work. Train crossing the wooden bridge which spanned the Mae Klong River (renamed Kwai Yai River in 1960). The actual name of "Bridge on the River Kwai", on the 258 mile long Burma Railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built from 1940-1944, was called Bridge 277. The Kanchanaburi Memorial sits with the cemetery grounds. The US was beginning to control the sea lanes, making it increasingly difficult for Japanese shipborne cargo to reach the army dotted across the Pacific. Thanks to the film, the Bridge, situated in the Thai town of Kanchanaburi a couple of hours drive from Bangkok, is one of Thailand . In 1984 the Academy Board of Governors voted posthumous Oscars to Foreman and Wilson, and their names were included on prints of the film beginning in the 1990s. Sessue Hayakawa edited his copy of the script to contain only his lines of dialog. POWs and indentured labourers were worked to death while busy constructing the railway simultaneously. 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. A picture of the actual bridge over the River Kwai in June 2004. Mortally wounded, he falls onto the plunger, the bridge is blown up, and the train with the dignitaries falls into the river. As the train approaches, they hurry down to the riverbank to investigate. At all. As a result, Boulle, who did not speak English, was credited and received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; many years later, Foreman and Wilson posthumously received the Academy Award.[4]. Thank God that I'm starting work tomorrow with an American actor (William Holden). The Bridge on the River Kwai is a classic 1957 British-American war film based upon the 1952 novel Le Pont de la Rivire Kwai by Pierre Boulle. The real Bridge over the River Kwai is bridge 277 of the Burma-Siam Railway. Its telling that the railway workers had to see to their own medical care. Wise: "I never heard it in Thailand. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The action of the movie takes place in a Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Burma during World War II. 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. [21] Guinness later reflected on the scene, calling it the "finest piece of work" he had ever done. Some 5,000 Commonwealth World War Two casualties are buried or commemorated in Kanchanaburi. This Oscar-winning epic is part of movie folklore and widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever so I really wanted to see the area where director David Lean shot it way back in 1957. The bridge depicted in the film is most definitely real. Lean only got $150,000 himself, but he always said Holden was worth it. Also, in the novel, the bridge is not destroyed: the train plummets into the river from a secondary charge placed by Warden, but Nicholson (never realising "what have I done?") 2. ABC, sponsored by Ford, paid a record $1.8 million for the television rights for two screenings in the United States. Have a question about us or our work? Nicholson forbids any escape attempts because they were ordered by headquarters to surrender, and escapes could be seen as defiance of orders. Starring Alec Guinness, it depicts the struggles and defiance of Japanese prisoners of war building the fictional Burma railway between 1943-44. He described the music for The Bridge on the River Kwai as the "worst job I ever had in my life" from the point of view of time. [citation needed], Julie Summers, in her book The Colonel of Tamarkan, writes that Boulle, who had been a prisoner of war in Thailand, created the fictional Nicholson character as an amalgam of his memories of collaborating French officers. At their head was Lieutenant-Colonel Phillip Toosey. The film originally made thirty million dollars over its three million dollar budget and was rereleased in theaters just after Lean and Spiegel's Lawrence of Arabia came out. A Smith article describes bridge on River Kwai, near Kanchanaburi, Thailand, built by Allied POWs during Japanese occupation of Thailand in World War II and subject of famous film The Bridge on . That evening, the officers are placed in a punishment hut, while Nicholson is beaten and locked in an iron box. The River Kwai, also known as Khwae Noi or Khwae Sai Yok is a river located in the western region of Thailand. The Burma-Siam Railway was 250 miles of railway constructed by Allied prisoners of war alongside forced Asian labourers. British people of Anglotopia, what do you make of the whole anglophile thing ? "[53], Among retrospective reviews, Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, noting that it is one of the few war movies that "focuses not on larger rights and wrongs but on individuals", but commented that the viewer is not certain what is intended by the final dialogue due to the film's shifting points of view. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle.Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-1943, the plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay are almost entirely fictional. Guinness regarded this one tiny scene as some of the finest work he did throughout his entire career. British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it. The real River Kwai, and its bridge, is in what was then Siam, now Thailand.The name 'River Kwai' refers to the Khwae Noi and Khwae Yai rivers in western Thailand, which converge to become the Mae Klong river at Kanchanaburi, about 70 miles northwest of Bangkok, and it was across the Mae Klong that the infamous bridge was built. The filming of the bridge explosion was to be done on 10 March 1957, in the presence of S.W.R.D. Nicholson is shocked by the poor job being done by his men and orders the building of a proper bridge, intending it to stand as a tribute to the British Army's ingenuity for centuries to come. 10. Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 10 business days. Persuaded that the film would be about the horror and folly of war, the Japanese government sent a military adviser to help with the camp scenes. Return trains are 12.55 and 15.15. Thousands of Asian workers and POWs (prisoners of war) died while working on the project. Its construction came about because Japan needed another supply route to link Singapore and Malaysia to its possessions in Burma following Singapores fall in February 1942. In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th Century. Some Thailand River cruises begin in Bangkok and lead along the Mekong River to destinations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. 2023 Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-43 for its historical setting. 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. David Lean himself also claimed that producer Sam Spiegel cheated him out of his rightful part in the credits since he had had a major hand in the script. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. In the meantime, Shears manages to escape. [31], On a BBC Timewatch programme, a former prisoner at the camp states that it is unlikely that a man like the fictional Nicholson could have risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and, if he had, due to his collaboration he would have been "quietly eliminated" by the other prisoners. He shows a rare sense of humor and a feeling for the poetry of situation; and he shows the even rarer ability to express these things, not in lines but in lives. The correct name for the River Kwai is Khwae Noi, meaning small tributary, which merges with Khwae Yai River to create the Mae Kong River. Cafes and tourist spots dot the banks of the Khwae Noi. Saito leaves the officers standing all day in the intense heat. Bought 4 and 6 mm dowel wood for bridge piers. 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. Part of this project was building bridges over Thailand's Kwai Yai, at a place named Tamarkan, which is near a town named Kanchanaburi. He wanders into a Burmese village, is nursed back to health, and eventually reaches the British colony of Ceylon. They included Chinese, Malayan, Burmese, Thai, Indonesian and Singaporean people. According to one biographer, he was "broke and needed work; he had even pawned his gold cigarette case." The British Film Institute placed The Bridge on the River Kwai as the 11th greatest British film. 11. One of the biggest causes of ire was the treatment of Toosey. Goering A small tourist train offers rides across the bridges span, while pedestrians can also travel over it on foot. His career was hurt by the advent of sound, and then by increasing anti-Japanese sentiment in America. Save up to 50% on Thailand River Cruises August 2024. US Navy Commander Shears tells of the horrific conditions. Read our Cookie Policy, Terms & Conditions and Data Protection & Privacy Policy. [3] The cast includes William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa. Lean shouted at them, 'For God's sake, whistle a march to keep time to.' Before the US began rolling up Japanese possessions throughout the Pacific, and the British really started gaining momentum in Burma, Japan had carved out a large empire. The screenplay was instead credited to the novelist, Boullewhich was quite a feat, since he didnt speak or read English. The Bridge On The River Kwai Film Facts. But whats the real story? Highly competent work is also done by William Holden, Jack Hawkins and Sessue Hayakawa". 23. [40], The Bridge on the River Kwai was a massive commercial success. Neither of them got credit, though, as The Bridge on the River Kwai was released during the three-year period when people who'd ever been Communists (or who refused to answer questions about it before Congress) were ineligible for Academy Awards. 9. They are joined by approximately 1,850 Dutch casualties and one non-war grave. A Cholera epidemic swept through Nieke Camp between May-June 1943. 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). The Bridge on the River Kwai is now widely recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. "[50] Kaplan further praised the actors, especially Alec Guinness, later writing "the film is unquestionably" his. Kanchanaburi town is located around 130 kilometres northwest of Bangkok. The real Bridge on the River Kwai. 16. 24. The film won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) at the 30th Academy Awards. They were calling it the Death Railway. This is now known as the Death Railway. 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. For example, a Sergeant-Major Risaburo Saito was in real life second in command at the camp. Saito is expected to commit ritual suicide if he fails to meet the rapidly approaching deadline. In 1985, the Academy officially recognized Foreman and Wilson as the screenwriters and posthumously awarded the Oscar to them. In 1941 the Japanese Army invaded Thailand. [60] The 167-minute film was first telecast, uncut, in colour, on the evening of 25 September 1966, as a three hours-plus ABC Movie Special. Also, the dense surrounding jungle renders escape virtually impossible. Some Japanese viewers resented the movie's depiction of their engineers' capabilities as inferior and less advanced than they were in reality. Weill you be in London for the Coronation in 2023? The Bridge on the River Kwai, commonly referred to as the Railroad of Death or Death Railway, which stands in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, was one of only eight steel bridges of the estimated 688 that were built. 6. In particular, they objected to the implication presented in the film that Japanese military engineers were generally unskilled at their profession and lacked proficiency. Written 20 October 2021. Bus Bangkok - Kanchanaburi $ 7.19 3h 30m. Lean wanted Charles Laughton (who'd starred in his 1954 film Hobson's Choice) to play Colonel Nicholson, the role that ultimately went to Alec Guinness. Colonel Saito, the camp commandant, informs the new prisoners they will all work, even officers, on the construction of a railway bridge over the River Kwai that will connect Bangkok and Rangoon. But in Bangkok I was told that David Lean, the film's director, became mad at the extras who played the prisonersusbecause they couldn't march in time. US $4.49 Standard Shipping from outside US. The ending of that was sort of the story of life. 25 March 1995. It was more of a transit hub where prisoners were moved to other work areas along the railway route. 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. Over a muddy jungle river called Kwai, a Japanese colonel, Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), must complete a railroad bridge vital to Japan's war effort. At its behest, Sam Spiegel asked David Lean to incorporate a love scene. It was initially scripted by screenwriter Carl Foreman, who was later replaced by Michael Wilson. His compassion and insistence on equality amongst the ranks ensured he protected his men as best he could. Omissions? Harry Cohn, the vulgar (but successful) man who ran Columbia Pictures at the time, was furious when he read the script and saw no . 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. He served as an adviser during the making of the movie. Pitted against the warden, Colonel . Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. Thanbyuzayat was originally a POW administration headquarters and base camp. Bridge On The River Kwai is an Epic war-based film. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. This way, he remained oblivious to the real nature of his characters fate. 12. 4. Their taskmasters were relentless. 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. In fact, there were two: one a wooden railway bridge and the other a ferroconcrete structure built using imported bridge sections from Japanese-controlled Java. Find out how you can apply to become a CWGC Volunteer. 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.
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