10 facts about the bridge on the river kwai

Major Warden of SOE invites Shears to join a commando mission to destroy the bridge just as it is completed. At the end of the day, the officers are imprisoned, and Nicholson is thrown into the ovena small box made of corrugated metal. But the unusual move paid off for ABCthe telecast drew huge ratings with a record audience of 72 million[60] and a Nielsen rating of 38.3 and an audience share of 61%. David Lean was completely at home in the hot and humid Ceylon jungle. Nicholson advises Saito that the officers cannot be required to do manual labour according to the Geneva Convention. After the enlisted men are marched to the bridge site, Saito threatens to have the officers shot, until Major Clipton, the British medical officer, warns Saito there are too many witnesses for him to get away with murder. 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. Full scale plan drawing for the main cantilever bridge design. It was 425 feet long, 90 feet high, and cost $52,085 out of the film's $2 million budget. 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. Did he really want the enemy to come in across it? 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. Joyce, manning the detonator, breaks cover and stabs Saito to death. The film won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) at the 30th Academy Awards. The Bridge On The River Kwai Film Facts. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. [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. (This can be compared to a scene in the 1927 movie, The General, which starred Buster Keaton.). [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. Camps were set up at 100-metre intervals. 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. While Nicholson disapproves of acts of sabotage and other deliberate attempts to delay progress, Toosey encouraged this: termites were collected in large numbers to eat the wooden structures, and the concrete was badly mixed. In early 1943, a contingent of British prisoners of war, led by Lt. We worked at bayonet point and under bamboo lash, taking any risk to sabotage the operation whenever the opportunity arose. Writers: Pierre Boulle (novel), Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (screenplay), Academy Award nominations (* denotes win), https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Bridge-on-the-River-Kwai-film-by-Lean, Filmsite - The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), BFI Screenonline - The Bridge on the River Kwai, Turner Classic Movies - The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Sign-up for free daily emails with the latest news about British culture, heritage, and history! In 1941 the Japanese Army invaded Thailand. Only he survives, though he is wounded. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. 9. Leadership Analysis: The Bridge On The River Kwai. Alec Guiness overseeing men working on the tracks in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. The Bridge on the River Kwai was widely praised, winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the 30th Academy Awards. True Grit, Sanctum, Green Lantern and Superman. Boulle was given sole credit on the film and was awarded the Oscar for best screenplay. The bridges were quickly repaired with the use of POW labour from the camp at Tha . Use our search tools to explore our records and find out about those we commemorate. In the meantime, Shears manages to escape. Brigadier Varley would survive the hellish building work along the Burma-Siam Railway but not the war. The movie garnered seven Academy Awards, including that for best picture, as well as three Golden Globe Awards and four BAFTA awards. 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. This, plus the fact that he loved to travel, plus the fact that shooting a film in Southeast Asia would be good for him tax-wise, motivated him to accept a project that was bound to be grueling. Vital equipment that would normally have been shipped through the canal had to be flown out to the location instead. Spiegel sent the screenplay to the Japanese government ahead of time, hoping to get their cooperation with the production. Although the Death Railway has never again reached the Myanmar border, a shorter stretch was reopened by Thailand's railway authorities between 1949 and 1958, and trains on this modern-day line cross the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai. 24. Guinness had appeared in Lean's Dickens films but had since made a name for himself doing goofy comedies like The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). To keep costs down, producer Sam Spiegel decided not to hire any extras, using crew members and Ceylon locals instead. Prior to casting Alec Guinness, Sam Spiegel tried to persuade Spencer Tracy to play the part of Colonel Nicholson. Himmler When Joyce is wounded by Japanese fire, Shears swims across, but is himself shot. [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. See details. 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. (There were other verses, too, which treated in more depth the number, location, and status of Hitler's anatomy, but you get the idea.) Have a question about us or our work? English / Japanese / Thai. Instead of the five year predicted completion, the bridge on river Kwai, was completed in 16 months. 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. [5][6] It has been included on the American Film Institute's list of best American films ever made. 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. Clipton objects, believing this to be collaboration with the enemy. Following the raids, Thanbyuzayat was evacuated. His compassion and insistence on equality amongst the ranks ensured he protected his men as best he could. It is also known as the "River Kwai March". [13], Many directors were considered for the project, among them John Ford, William Wyler, Howard Hawks, Fred Zinnemann, and Orson Welles (who was also offered a starring role). [61][62], In 1972, the movie was among the first selection of films released on the early Cartrivision video format, alongside classics such as The Jazz Singer and Sands of Iwo Jima. 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. Geoffrey Horne saved his life. 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. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Thank God that I'm starting work tomorrow with an American actor (William Holden). 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). Madness!" So go the tragic final words of David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), a spectacular and deeply-moving WWII adventure film that still entertains and challenges over sixty years later. Realising he has no choice, Shears volunteers. The march was written in 1914 by Kenneth J. Alford, a pseudonym of British Bandmaster Frederick J. Ricketts. When the sun rises, the commandoes realize that the water level in the river has fallen, exposing the explosives and wiring. They were calling it the Death Railway. Only in 1984 did the Academy rectify the situation by retroactively awarding the Oscar to Foreman and Wilson, posthumously in both cases. 22. As Australian Brigadier Arthur Varley put it: The Japanese will carry out their schedule and do not mind if the line is dotted with crosses.. 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. 17. Two bridges were built, the first made of wood. Kanchanaburi town is located around 130 kilometres northwest of Bangkok. 19. A real train rode over the bridge as it blew up. It stretched from Japan, Korea, and China in the north all the way down to Indonesia. - Colonel Saito, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai '. Has something sim'lar 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. The Bridge On The River Kwai was the first of David Lean's five epic films and the third of six movies that he made with Alec Guinness. 1957 World War II film directed by David Lean, This article is about the film. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was set in 1942, shortly after the fall of Singapore. Interested in advertising on the world's largest website dedicated to all things Britain? The cemetery itself is located just outside the town of Kanchanaburi at the point where the Kwai splits into the Mae Khlong and Kwai Noi rivers. The region was seized by the Japanese in 1942, and they then set about making preparations . Has no balls [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. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel/concrete bridge a few months later. But poor old Goebbels 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. All but a small section of the route was built in dense, malarial jungles, in sweltering heat and monsoon rains. Bangkok-Kanchanaburi, by train or private transport, for the Bridge on River Kwai; Kanchanaburi-Nam Tok, by train or private transport, for Death Railway and Hellfire Pass; You can book your bus tickets online and in advance here. 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 . During the cutting of Hellfire Pass, for example, 69 men were beaten to death across a twelve-week period. The events depicted in the film, of a chaotic Commando raid and Lt. Col Nicholsons wounded body falling dramatically on the detonator and blowing the bridge up, are completely false. The building of Bridge 277, the eponymous bridge that gave Leans film its name, was overseen by 2,000 British and Dutch prisoners of war. At one point during filming, David Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by a river current. The casualties of the Burma-Siam railway were often buried in camp burial grounds located close to where they originally fell. 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. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. 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. His first epic was his twelfth film: The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden as P.O.W. David Lean, director of such landmark epics as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, didn't always make giant movies. Use our postcode search tool to discover more about the war dead from your local area. THE HEAD OF COLUMBIA PICTURES FORCED LEAN TO ADD A LOVE SCENE. California Doubling: The film is set in Thailand, but was filmed in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), a distinction the publicity of the time didn't see fit to make clear.Instead, it raved about the movie being shot in Ceylon in a way which implied the real-life River Kwai was located there. Save up to 50% on Thailand River Cruises August 2024. Their roles and characters, however, are fictionalised. Answer (1 of 7): David Lean made some excellent films His Dickens films of the 1940's are classic black and white versions of OLIVER TWIST and GREAT EXPECTATIONS He discovered color and the wide screen in the 1950's and 1960's Besides BRIDGE, Lean also did LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and DR ZHIVAGO Peo. [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. 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. It is famously known as the setting for the a 1957 World War Two epic Bridge over the River Kwai. Boulle drew on the experiences of Far East POWs building the now infamous Burma-Siam Railway, linking modern-day Myanmar and Thailand to create his work. Around the time that he was offered the movie, David Lean had little money, as he was in the middle of a financially ruinous divorce, and was very much in need of a new project. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. [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. 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. As Ashton explained, it was so cheap because "we used local labor and elephants; and the timber was cut nearby.". Real Bridge on the River Kwai. Put on your marching boots and whistle a jaunty tune as we investigate some behind-the-scenes facts about this enduring war film. 15. In the film, Lt. Col Nicholson is seen collaborating with his captors, even under duress. You can also take a boat down the Kwai River . 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. Tickets are 100 baht. TakeMeTour's Review. Nicholson suddenly realizes that his pride in the bridges construction has blinded him to his military duty. Some of the characters in the film use the names of real people who were involved in the Burma Railway. Both the wooden and the adjacent steel bridge were subjected to numerous air raids between January and June 1945. A photo of Kitulgala, Sri Lanka in 2004, where the bridge was made for the film. Some sections, such as the infamous Hellfire Pass, required carving through tough sheer rock. "[52] Harrison's Reports described the film as an "excellent World War II adventure melodrama" in which the "production values are first-rate and so is the photography. At their head was Lieutenant-Colonel Phillip Toosey. Although the obvious link was by sea, Allied submarines controlling the region made it too treacherous. Get information about our funding, our Customer Charter and our Strategic Plan. Nicholson desperately tries to keep Joyce from depressing the plunger, while Shears and Warden try to kill Nicholson. By Barry Fox. (Lean denied ever wanting Laughton for the role, despite abundant documented evidence to the contrary.). For the scenes where William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Geoffrey Horne and the native girls had to wade through swamps, they were wading through specially created ones. Boulle nonetheless enjoyed the film version though he disagreed with its climax. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Addeddate 2021-08-19 15:12:20 Identifier the-bridge-on-the-river-kwai_202108 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4. plus-circle Add Review. They were supported by an unknown number of Malaysian labourers. Begun in October 1942, using prisoner of war (POW) labour, it was completed and operational by early February 1943. 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. Pitted against the warden, Colonel . Recognising Shears, Nicholson exclaims, "What have I done? They were soon sent to Thailand to begin labouring on the Death Railway. 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. Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. Moreover, Kanchanaburi has an annual "Bridge Over the River Kwai" week, which has a sound show to relive the moments of World War II. This was an incorrect assumption. Lean had a lengthy row with Guinness over how to play the role of Nicholson; the actor wanted to play the part with a sense of humour and sympathy, while Lean thought Nicholson should be "a bore." During World War II, British soldiers added lyrics to the tune that went approximately along these lines: Hitler On 16 October 1943, the two ends of the Burma-Thailand railway were joined at Konkoita in Thailand. Madness! Construction of the Burma-Siam railway began in October 1942 and would end in October 1943. Express 08:30, 10:30. The British soldiers were slaves; they did not help the Japanese. [43] By October 1960, the film had earned worldwide box office revenues of $30 million. 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. The camp commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), informs the prisoners that they will all begin working on the building of a railway bridge the following day. 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. It was initially scripted by screenwriter Carl Foreman, who was later replaced by Michael Wilson. 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. In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th Century. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. The rail link, however, would . He didn't like the screenplay because it reduced Nicholson to secondary status. The film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" dramatized the WWII story of the Thailand-Burma Railway, yet it was largely fictional. Bridge Over The River Kwai Address: Tha Makham, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. 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. Forced labourers were labourers taken from the populations of Japan-conquered territories. In early 1943, World War II British prisoners arrive by train at a Japanese prison camp in Burma. 7. Toosey later defended him in his war crimes trial after the war, and the two became friends. [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. Cast the Expert: Percy Herbert, who played the role of a prisoner of war in the film, actually spent four . [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. Nicholson will not cooperate and finally insists that the bridge can be built only under his command. (He didn't attend the Oscars, either.) The Bridge on the River Kwai: Directed by David Lean. Like Chungkai and Kanchanaburi, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery was originally part of the camp set up serving the Burma-Siams construction.

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