International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges. What is it that makes the film 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' such an Did he really want the enemy to come in across it? It was released in the US on December 14, 1957, taking in a reported $17M+, which made it the highest-grossing film of 1957. 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. 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. By Barry Fox. For many, its their first exposure to the horrors prisoners of wars suffered in the Far East. Like thousands of other POWs, Lamb was kept in degrading conditions, refused medical treatment and barely fed. The Bridge Over the River Kwai. Civilian workmen suffered terribly too, with their casualties far outstripping the military personnel. 27. 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. Where Is the River Kwai Located? - The Bridge on the River Kwai 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. Updates? 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. Kwai River Bridge - History and Facts | History Hit In early 1943, World War II British prisoners arrive by train at a Japanese prison camp in Burma. [43] By October 1960, the film had earned worldwide box office revenues of $30 million. 25 The Bridge on the River Kwai Trivia Questions & Answers (This can be compared to a scene in the 1927 movie, The General, which starred Buster Keaton.). David Lean's 1957 epic Bridge on the River Kwai is regarded as one of the all-time great war films. The majority of its smaller components are originals, while a few are post-war replacements. It would be a massive undertaking. Check out where to stay in Kanchanaburi and book an accommodation of your choice. The Bridge over the River Kwai - Wikipedia WILLIAM HOLDEN JACK HAWKINS 1957 BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 8X10 PHOTO. 26. It worked. BRIDGE ON RIVER KWAI - Shore Leave - Model Ship World The rest were made of wood and local materials. They are joined by approximately 1,850 Dutch casualties and one non-war grave. 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). Brigadier Varley would survive the hellish building work along the Burma-Siam Railway but not the war. Tonight, enjoy dinner at a hotel restaurant Overnight: Kanchanaburi Kwai River Bridge history. 23. The action of the movie takes place in a Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in . Thank God that I'm starting work tomorrow with an American actor (William Holden). Bridges beyond the River Kwai | Michigan Today In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . A picture of the actual bridge over the River Kwai in June 2004. 's working to build and/or destroy a bridge for the Japanese during World War II. - Colonel Saito, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai '. Take a look below for 28 more fun and interesting facts about The Bridge on the River Kwai. 28 Fun And Interesting Facts About The Bridge On The River Kwai 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. On another occasion, they argued over the scene where Nicholson reflects on his career in the army. POWs and indentured labourers were worked to death while busy constructing the railway simultaneously. 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. Shears, who is a British commando officer like Warden in the novel, became an American sailor who escapes from the POW camp. 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. Imperial Japanese Army Command deemed this unacceptable. In the movie the bridge is destroyed by commandos. Nicholson yells for help, while attempting to stop Joyce from reaching the detonator. Wrote Guinness: "I felt like turning around and getting back on the plane and paying my own fare home!" Nicholson's obsession with the bridge eventually drives him to allow his officers to volunteer to engage in manual labor. 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. In the meantime, Shears manages to escape. Pitted against the warden, Colonel . Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Bridge On The River Kwai Trivia: Fun And Interesting . The place is regarded as "The Symbol of Peace". THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI: Honor, Duty, and Madness Some Thailand River cruises begin in Bangkok and lead along the Mekong River to destinations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Shears tries to get out of the mission by confessing that he impersonated an officer, hoping for better treatment from the Japanese. Both the wooden and the adjacent steel bridge were subjected to numerous air raids between January and June 1945. Cafes and tourist spots dot the banks of the Khwae Noi. Major Warden of SOE invites Shears to join a commando mission to destroy the bridge just as it is completed. Last survivor of the Bridge On The River Kwai Japanese railway He was a huge star, drawing a weekly salary of $5000 in 1915 (adjusted for inflation: $119,000) and appearing in more than 60 films between 1914 and 1924. 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. The Real Story Behind 'The Bridge On The River Kwai' - Coffee or Die Prior to casting Alec Guinness, Sam Spiegel tried to persuade Spencer Tracy to play the part of Colonel Nicholson. Wise: "I never heard it in Thailand. They were calling it the Death Railway. Read the response of the CWGC to the findings of the Special Committee. Once Spiegel relented, he realized Holden was a box office draw and offered him a great deal: $300,000 salary (about $2.5 million in 2016 dollars), plus 10 percent of the gross. [50] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times claimed the film's strongest points were for being "excellently produced in virtually all respects and that it also offers an especially outstanding and different performance by Alec Guinness. To keep costs down, producer Sam Spiegel decided not to hire any extras, using crew members and Ceylon locals instead. "[17], The film was made in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Victory over the Japanese navy at Midway in June 1942 had created a turning point in the Far East and Pacific. Its this structure, Bridge 277, that still stands and is a famous local tourist attraction. (Spiegel got a British military adviser to help with that side of things, too.). At its behest, Sam Spiegel asked David Lean to incorporate a love scene. 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. 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). Get information about our funding, our Customer Charter and our Strategic Plan. It was 425 feet long, 90 feet high, and cost $52,085 out of the film's $2 million budget. Workers died at a rate of 20 men per day. The Burma-Siam Railways construction necessitated construction of over 670 bridges and numerous cuttings. [55] Slant stated that "the 1957 epic subtly develops its themes about the irrationality of honor and the hypocrisy of Britain's class system without ever compromising its thrilling war narrative", and in comparing to other films of the time said that Bridge on the River Kwai "carefully builds its psychological tension until it erupts in a blinding flash of sulfur and flame. His career was hurt by the advent of sound, and then by increasing anti-Japanese sentiment in America. Like Chungkai and Kanchanaburi, Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery was originally part of the camp set up serving the Burma-Siams construction. He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial, Malaysia. The screenplay was based on French author Pierre Boulle"s 1954 novel of the same name. Express 08:30, 10:30. A make-up man was also badly injured in the same accident. The weather is good, not hot The train passes at 10 AM and the train returns at 4 PM. It is also known as the "River Kwai March". See details. Lamb, as he was known, had been a politician before calling up, serving the state legislature in Victoria, Australia. The action of the movie takes place in a Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Burma during World War II. 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. Kanchanaburi, in Myanmar border, is home to the famous Bridge River Kwai. Join us in an act of virtual remembrance and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. His first epic was his twelfth film: The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden as P.O.W. Letters reveal British objections to plot of Bridge on the River Kwai The Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand - Travel 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. Under cover of darkness, Shears and Joyce plant explosives on the bridge towers. As it opens, two POWs, the American navy commander Shears (William Holden) and an Australian, are digging graves for their companions. Thanbyuzayat was originally a POW administration headquarters and base camp. We want to hear from you! Bridge On The River Kwai Ending Explained: What Happened to - OtakuKart Approximately 5 kilometres north of Kanchanaburi there were two bridges that were built by POWs during the war. Boulle was given sole credit on the film and was awarded the Oscar for best screenplay. Colonel Nicholson, arrive at a Japanese prison camp in Thailand. Two labour forces, one based in Siam and the other in Burma, worked from opposite ends of the line towards the centre. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. Pride, Fatalism, and Human Connection in 'The Bridge on the River Kwai At all. WILLIAM HOLDEN JACK HAWKINS 1957 BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 8X10 PHOTO | eBay Ten Interesting Facts about The Bridge on the River Kwai - Anglotopia.net 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. [49] Mike Kaplan, reviewing for Variety, described it as "a gripping drama, expertly put together and handled with skill in all departments. As Ashton explained, it was so cheap because "we used local labor and elephants; and the timber was cut nearby.". 7. His compassion and insistence on equality amongst the ranks ensured he protected his men as best he could. "[57], Some Japanese viewers have disliked the film's depiction of the Japanese characters and the historical background presented as being inaccurate, particularly in the interactions between Saito and Nicholson. Image: British troops surrender at Singapore. What's happening in this "The Bridge on the River Kwai" movie clip?Warden (Jack Hawkins from Land of the Pharaohs and Ben-Hur) fires a mortar, wounding Nicho. Other parts have been placed in various local war museums. Burma-Siam Railway labourers and prisoners of war slept in rudimentary bamboo huts on filthy floors. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Lets find out. Nicholson objects, informing Saito the Geneva Convention exempts officers from manual labour. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. 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. After the final scene was shot, producer Sam Spiegel shipped the movie footage on five different planes to minimize the risk of loss. Questions or feedback on our new site? The Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi 1942. The rail link, however, would . He'd just been through a costly divorce from actress Ann Todd. Chandran Rutnam and William Holden while shooting The Bridge on the River Kwai. The Bridge on the River Kwai was actually one of the reasons movies started becoming prime-time television programming. 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. 18. 938 Bridge Over The River Kwai Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images As shown in the movie, Guinness played the scene without flinching. Mitch Miller had a hit with a recording of both marches. [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. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - Trivia - IMDb Kanchanaburi town is located around 130 kilometres northwest of Bangkok. 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. The commandoes arrive for their mission as the finishing touches are being put on the bridge. By 1944, its operational capacity was being massively hampered by the damage caused by air raids. US $4.49 Standard Shipping from outside US. 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." ABC, sponsored by Ford, paid a record $1.8 million for the television rights for two screenings in the United States. The Bridge Over The River Kwai: The Real Story - Travel Happy Despite the discomfort the rest of the crew were experiencing, Lean was thrilled about the shoot and never complained about his living conditions. 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. 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. The Bridge On The River Kwai is the World War II Oscar winner about an Army colonel (Alec Guinness) obsessed with proving British superiority over his Japanese captors by showing that his . Mortally wounded, he falls onto the plunger, the bridge is blown up, and the train with the dignitaries falls into the river. Camps were set up at 100-metre intervals. [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. 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. No visit to the Western Front is complete without a trip to The CWGC Visitor Centre. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is an epic World War II adventure/action, anti-war drama. He created the railroad. 6. He succumbed to malaria, dysentery, and malnutrition at Camp Kilo 101 in Thailand. The deaths of the Asian workers and the prisoners were real events, but most of the book and the movie are not true. 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. Kanburi wasnt a work camp as such. Supplying it by ship was the only practical solution. 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). Nicholson desperately tries to keep Joyce from depressing the plunger, while Shears and Warden try to kill Nicholson. 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. Victims were cremated and their remains are buried in the aforementioned graves. 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. 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. 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. The movie was mainly filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and also in England. Read more. 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. To learn more about the men behind the real story of the Bridge on the River Kwai, and to discover the casualties, please use our Find War Dead tool. He didn't like the next draft of the screenplay, either, because it made Nicholson "a blinkered character." For one sunset scene, David Lean specifically traveled 150 miles to capture it. (There were other verses, too, which treated in more depth the number, location, and status of Hitler's anatomy, but you get the idea.) 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. Chungkai War Cemetery is something of a sister site to Kanchanaburi. 3. 25 March 1995. Roger Ebert focused on the symbolism of the bridge in this 1999 description: "[The war] narrows down to a single task, building a . Use our postcode search tool to discover more about the war dead from your local area. With William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa. Sessue Hayakawa considered his performance as Saito as the highlight of his career. [48], Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised the film as "a towering entertainment of rich variety and revelation of the ways of men". Starring Alec Guinness, William Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa, among others, it paints an . The Bridge on the River Kwai Ceylon Guide [51] Time magazine praised Lean's directing, noting he demonstrates "a dazzlingly musical sense and control of the many and involving rhythms of a vast composition. [65], On 2 November 2010 Columbia Pictures released a newly restored The Bridge on the River Kwai for the first time on Blu-ray. Bandaranaike, then Prime Minister of Ceylon, and a team of government dignitaries. The Bridge On The River Kwai Film Facts. One of a number of Allied POW"s . 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. [5][6] It has been included on the American Film Institute's list of best American films ever made. But in 1966, the film aired on American . Vital equipment that would normally have been shipped through the canal had to be flown out to the location instead. 1. Death Railway was bombed heavily by the Allies from 1943 onwards. At one point during filming, David Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by a river current. 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. This is now known as the Death Railway. Bridge on the River Kwai; the true story - Digger History as for the bridge on the River Kwai, it crossed the river only in the imagination of its author. Bridge on the River Kwai - silverfox175 [64] The image was restored by OCS, Freeze Frame, and Pixel Magic with George Hively editing. [21] Guinness later reflected on the scene, calling it the "finest piece of work" he had ever done. 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. For the novel, see, American theatrical release poster, "Style A", A transcript of the interview and the documentary as a whole can be found in the new edition of John Coast's book, Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, 11th greatest British film of the 20th century, the highest-grossing film of 1957 in the United States and Canada, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, Best Sound Track Album, Dramatic Picture Score or Original Cast, AFI's 100 Years 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "New to the National Film Registry (December 1997) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin", "Columbia Earns as It Holds Coin Due Bill Holden on 10% of 'Kwai', "Flashback: A look back at this day in film history (, "Sri Lanka to rebuild bridge from River Kwai movie", "Film locations for David Lean's The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957), in Sri Lanka", "How Father Brown Led Sir Alec Guinness to the Church", "sic - correct spelling is Siegertsz. The surviving sections stand as monuments to the men who suffered so much to build them. 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.