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. Want to work for the CWGC? Explore the CWGC Archive through our online portal. Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the railway construction and POW camps described in the novel/film, stated in his 1962 book, Through the Valley of the Kwai: In Pierre Boulle's book The Bridge over the River Kwai and the film which was based on it, the impression was given that British officers not only took part in building the bridge willingly, but finished in record time to demonstrate to the enemy their superior efficiency. Questions or feedback on our new site? The Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand - Travel Budget. Starring Alec Guinness, it depicts the struggles and defiance of Japanese prisoners of war building the fictional Burma railway between 1943-44. On another occasion, they argued over the scene where Nicholson reflects on his career in the army. Or maybe you have a story for us or would like to work together. Bus Bangkok - Kanchanaburi $ 7.19 3h 30m. Find the latest updates on the work of the Special Committee. 16- "You make me sick with your heroics! Has two but they are small. Shears is enjoying his hospital stay in Ceylon unwittingly within a commando school referred to as "Force 316" (likely based on the real world Force 136 of the Special Operations Executive (SOE)). Please select which sections you would like to print: Pat Bauer graduated from Ripon College in 1977 with a double major in Spanish and Theatre. 9. "[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. At their head was Lieutenant-Colonel Phillip Toosey. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KHWAI - FACT, FICTION AND FANCY - Diwerent 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. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) : ays - Internet Archive His career was hurt by the advent of sound, and then by increasing anti-Japanese sentiment in America. He'd just been through a costly divorce from actress Ann Todd. "[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. The movie is best known for the "Colonel Bogey March", the song that is whistled by the POWs. Prior to casting Alec Guinness, Sam Spiegel tried to persuade Spencer Tracy to play the part of Colonel Nicholson. 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. Bombing of the Bridge over the River Kwai Historic War Tours Kwai's composer, Malcolm Arnold, wove the march into his Oscar-winning score so seamlessly that modern viewers may assume it was original to the film. Lean shouted at them, 'For God's sake, whistle a march to keep time to.' One of the iconic war films of its time, the Bridge on the River Kwai has shone a spotlight on POWs suffering. Madness! Sam Spiegel bought the railroad train from the Ceylonese government. Instead, the Lt. Col would stand up for his men when necessary to try to alleviate some of their hardships. But he'd never made anything on an epic scale, wasn't well known outside of England, and wouldn't have been considered for The Bridge on the River Kwai if it weren't for Katharine Hepburn, the star of his 1955 film Summertime. 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". 3. A train carrying important dignitaries and soldiers is scheduled to be the first to cross the bridge the following day, and Warden wants to destroy both. Has something sim'lar Since it first graced the silver screen won the admiration of audiences everywhere and continues to do so. The Bridge on the River Kwai was a smash hit on release. Two labour forces, one based in Siam and the other in Burma, worked from opposite ends of the line towards the centre. 11. [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". There's a stench of death about you. Sri Lanka Filming Locations: The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) (There were other verses, too, which treated in more depth the number, location, and status of Hitler's anatomy, but you get the idea.) 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.. The year: 1943. Nicholson forbids any escape attempts because they were ordered by headquarters to surrender, and escapes could be seen as defiance of orders. The movie won seven Academy Awards, one for Best Picture. The river is the Mae Klong River which passes through a valley of the Khwae Noi River (little tributary). 1. Some of the characters in the film use the names of real people who were involved in the Burma Railway. Civilian workmen suffered terribly too, with their casualties far outstripping the military personnel. Tonight, enjoy dinner at a hotel restaurant Overnight: Kanchanaburi The film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" dramatized the WWII story of the Thailand-Burma Railway, yet it was largely fictional. The march was written in 1914 by Kenneth J. Alford, a pseudonym of British Bandmaster Frederick J. Ricketts. Thousands of Asian workers and POWs (prisoners of war) died while working on the project. The ending of that was sort of the story of life. Kwai River Bridge history. They would work in appalling conditions, given minuscule amounts of food, snatches of sleep, and little to no medical treatment. comment. At one point during filming, David Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by a river current. [43] By October 1960, the film had earned worldwide box office revenues of $30 million. 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 classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. The rest were made of wood and local materials. [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. Bought 4 and 6 mm dowel wood for bridge piers. [54] Slant magazine gave the film four out of five stars. 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. 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. 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). River Kwai Bridge | TakeMeTour 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 Bridge On The River Kwai Film Facts. Assistant director John Kerrison was killed in a car crash on the way to one of the locations. Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. A sketch of that bridge was used as the basis for the fictional one. We worked at bayonet point and under bamboo lash, taking any risk to sabotage the operation whenever the opportunity arose. Spiegel, the producer, bought the film rights to the book (the English version of which was called The Bridge Over the River Kwai) and hired Carl Foreman to write the script. The Bridge on the River Kwai: Fact and fiction - Sentinelassam The producer's press release, thoughwanting to emphasize that this was a Big Budget Hollywood Pictureclaimed the bridge had cost $250,000. John Coast, a young British officer who went on to become a successful filmmaker who spent three and half years as a Japanese POW, said: As nobody should ever have need telling, the picture is a load of high-toned codswallop.. Updates? The real swamps in Ceylon were deemed to be too dangerous. It was more of a transit hub where prisoners were moved to other work areas along the railway route. In the meantime, Shears manages to escape. It is also known as the "River Kwai March". Over a muddy jungle river called Kwai, a Japanese colonel, Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), must complete a railroad bridge vital to Japan's war effort. The movie was mainly filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and also in England. Cast the Expert: Percy Herbert, who played the role of a prisoner of war in the film, actually spent four . Best 17 The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Quotes First Joyce and then Shears are killed in the ensuing gunfire. 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. [44], The film was re-released in 1964 and earned a further estimated $2.6 million at the box office in the United States and Canada[45] but the following year its revised total US and Canadian revenues were reported by Variety as $17,195,000. The Bridge on the River Kwai poses complex interpretive issues about the vagaries of war and military behavior as conveyed by the Japanese soldiers, Commander Saito, Lt. Col. Nicholson, and the British captives. [27] Gavin Young[28] recounts meeting Donald Wise, a former prisoner of the Japanese who had worked on the Burma Railway. Those who were there did not think much of the novel or film of the Bridge of the River Kwai. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and scooped up seven Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor. Only in 1984 did the Academy rectify the situation by retroactively awarding the Oscar to Foreman and Wilson, posthumously in both cases. 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. Under cover of darkness, Shears and Joyce plant explosives on the bridge towers. Take a look below for 28 more fun and interesting facts about The Bridge on the . 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. 14- "Be happy in your work.". Kanchanaburi is served by a rail service from Bangkok Noi . A picture of the actual bridge over the River Kwai in June 2004. 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. Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 10 business days. Only he survives, though he is wounded. 8. Death Railway was bombed heavily by the Allies from 1943 onwards. Both bridges stood for two years and were destroyed by bombers in 1945. 4. [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. The movie is based on the novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai by Pierre Boulle. When the sun rises, the commandoes realize that the water level in the river has fallen, exposing the explosives and wiring. Brigadier Varley would survive the hellish building work along the Burma-Siam Railway but not the war. However, cameraman Freddy Ford was unable to get out of the way of the explosion in time, and Lean had to stop filming. Contact us, Image: Rows of graves at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Image: Kanchanaburi Dutch Memorial commemorates Dutch POWs who died building Death Railway, Image: Chungkai War Cemetery's Cross of Sacrifice, Image: The Pavilion at Chungkai War Cemetery, Image: The cemetery's horticulture gives Chungkai a sense of serenity, Image: The Stone of Remembrance at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Image: Headstones and horticulture at Thanbyuzayat, Get the latest CWGC news and see some of our recent work, Report of the Special Committee to review historical inequalities in Commemoration, Discover world war casualties who lived in your area, The True Story of the Bridge over the River Kwai, Why and how were restoring the Menin Gate: What you need to know about this amazing project, A push through the desert: How The Allies Captured Jericho in 1918, Visit Commonwealth war graves in Arras, France. - Colonel Saito, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai '. The Suez Canal crisis of 1956 badly affected production. Nicholson's obsession with the bridge eventually drives him to allow his officers to volunteer to engage in manual labor. [56] Warren Buffett said it was his favorite movie. All but a small section of the route was built in dense, malarial jungles, in sweltering heat and monsoon rains. To counter the Allies tightening grip on supply lines, the Japanese army resurrected an old idea first mooted by regional powers in the late 19th century: to build a railway between Myanmar and Siam. The Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi 1942. While the story is fiction, the broader setting--including the construction of the Burmese railway--is based on historical events. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel/concrete bridge a few months later. River Kwai (Kanchanaburi): All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go - Tripadvisor After Saito cuts a ceremonial ribbon, Nicholson spots a detonator wire. The movie garnered seven Academy Awards, including that for best picture, as well as three Golden Globe Awards and four BAFTA awards. 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. This was an entertaining story. It was still highly unusual at that time for a television network to show such a long film in one evening; most films of that length were still generally split into two parts and shown over two evenings. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. 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. Has no balls 14. This film is taken from a popular novel written by Pierre Boulle in 1952. ", Warden fires a mortar, killing Shears and Joyce and fatally wounding Nicholson. Nicholson objects, informing Saito the Geneva Convention exempts officers from manual labour. Drilled holes for the piers; and cut them to length. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was set in 1942, shortly after the fall of Singapore. [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. Around 90,000 forced labourers are thought to have died building Death Railway. He had basically retired when Lean approached him to play Colonel Saito in Kwai, a performance that earned Hayakawa an Oscar nomination. Is Bridge on River Kwai a true story? - IronSet Camps were set up at 100-metre intervals. [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. BANGKOK TO BRIDGE ON RIVER KWAI: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW - A Million Travels [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]. The separate dialogue, music and effects were located and remixed with newly recorded "atmospheric" sound effects. Real Bridge on the River Kwai | New Scientist Toosey later defended him in his war crimes trial after the war, and the two became friends. Find out how you can apply to become a CWGC Volunteer. 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. By 1944, its operational capacity was being massively hampered by the damage caused by air raids. The bridge they build will become a symbol of service and survival to one prisoner, Colonel Nicholson, a proud perfectionist. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . 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 . David Lean's 1957 epic Bridge on the River Kwai is regarded as one of the all-time great war films. They were calling it the Death Railway. WILLIAM HOLDEN JACK HAWKINS 1957 BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 8X10 PHOTO | eBay Lean feared Guinness' public persona had changed so much that audiences wouldn't buy him in this very dramatic role, but came around to the idea when the Laughton plan didn't work. 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). Letters reveal British objections to plot of Bridge on the River Kwai 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. Spiegel had it refurbished completely and then had one mile of railway track laid for it. rainy day Therefore, there are not many people. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. 938 Bridge Over The River Kwai Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images