Concurrently, Shears, after a harrowing journey in which he nearly loses his life more than once, is rescued by the British and then required to lead a group of commandoes headed by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) back to the POW camp that he escaped from in order to blow up the bridge. The Bridge over the River Kwai met its fate in 1945. 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 Bridge on the River Kwai is now widely recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. All Rights Reserved. In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . When the sun rises, the commandoes realize that the water level in the river has fallen, exposing the explosives and wiring. Construction began before anyone had been cast. "[47] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". 5. POWs and indentured labourers were worked to death while busy constructing the railway simultaneously. To enjoy Thailand River cruises, you need to understand a little about the geography of Thailand and its river system. According to Columbia Pictures, they followed an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio. [35], Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey of the British Army was the real senior Allied officer at the bridge in question. The Bridge on the River Kwai. We worked at bayonet point and under bamboo lash, taking any risk to sabotage the operation whenever the opportunity arose. Unique to this film, in some ways, were other issues related to poorly made optical dissolves, the original camera lens and a malfunctioning camera. Thousands of Asian workers and POWs (prisoners of war) died while working on the project. Save up to 50% on Thailand River Cruises August 2024. The commandoes arrive for their mission as the finishing touches are being put on the bridge. The deaths of the Asian workers and the prisoners were real events, but most of the book and the movie are not true. As the train approaches, they hurry down to the riverbank to investigate. 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. 7. They are joined by approximately 1,850 Dutch casualties and one non-war grave. At all. c. 1945. Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. David Lean was completely at home in the hot and humid Ceylon jungle. Just two months later, Lieutenant Lamb was dead. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Pitted against the warden, Colonel . Their roles and characters, however, are fictionalised. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. Despite the discomfort the rest of the crew were experiencing, Lean was thrilled about the shoot and never complained about his living conditions. [5][6] It has been included on the American Film Institute's list of best American films ever made. Nevertheless, the leeches in the recreated swamps were real. Corrections? Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 19421943, the plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay are almost entirely fictional. 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. 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. The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. Although the obvious link was by sea, Allied submarines controlling the region made it too treacherous. The film was directed by David Lean and starred William Holding, Jack Hawkins and academy award winner Sir Alex Guinness. He succumbed to malaria, dysentery, and malnutrition at Camp Kilo 101 in Thailand. Those who were there did not think much of the novel or film of the Bridge of the River Kwai. Himmler Boulle nonetheless enjoyed the film version though he disagreed with its climax. In the meantime, Shears manages to escape. Lambs sister received a letter from him in September 1943, saying he was in excellent health and being treated well by his captors. [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. There were no facilities on the island of Ceylon to process film rushes, so the days filming had to be flown to London to be processed and then flown back out to Ceylon. [31][32] Some consider the film to be an insulting parody of Toosey. 2. In early 1943, a contingent of British prisoners of war, led by Lt. Imperial Japanese Army Command deemed this unacceptable. Over 65,000 Allied P.O.W.s battled torture, starvation, and disease to hack the 255-mile railway out of harsh jungle for the Japanese. The negative itself manifested many of the kinds of issues one would expect from a film of this vintage: torn frames, embedded emulsion dirt, scratches through every reel, colour fading. Death Railway was bombed heavily by the Allies from 1943 onwards. [18] The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala. Bus Bangkok - Kanchanaburi $ 7.19 3h 30m. 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). He knew that the railway ran parallel to the Kwae for many miles, and he therefore assumed that it was the Kwae which it crossed just north of Kanchanaburi. He also didn't like hearing that he was Lean's second choice for the role, a fact made more awkward when he arrived in Ceylon and Lean greeted him with, "Of course, you know I really wanted Charles Laughton." It spans crosses the lazily winding Khwae Noi at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Boulle was given sole credit on the film and was awarded the Oscar for best screenplay. 13. 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. Toosey was very different from Nicholson and was certainly not a collaborator who felt obliged to work with the Japanese. The separate dialogue, music and effects were located and remixed with newly recorded "atmospheric" sound effects. A regiment of British prisoners arrives, whistling the Colonel Bogey March, under the command of Colonel Nicholson (Sir Alec Guinness). 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. A real train rode over the bridge as it blew up. The Hitchhiker's Guide has this to say about John Rabon: When not pretending to travel in time and space, eating bananas, and claiming that things are "fantastic", John lives in North Carolina. 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 film is taken from a popular novel written by Pierre Boulle in 1952. 10. 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. Work on the bridge proceeds badly, due to both the faulty Japanese engineering plans and the prisoners' slow pace and deliberate sabotage. 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 . Questions or feedback on our new site? Best time to visit Bridge Over The River Kwai (preferred time): 09:00 am - 01:00 pm. The River Kwai, also known as Khwae Noi or Khwae Sai Yok is a river located in the western region of Thailand. [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]. 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. Copyright 2020 Tons Of Facts. The Bridge on the River Kwai was widely praised, winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the 30th Academy Awards. They built a railway to link Bangkok to Rangoon. [41] According to Variety, the film earned estimated domestic box office revenues of $18,000,000[42] although this was revised downwards the following year to $15,000,000, which was still the biggest for 1958 and Columbia's highest-grossing film at the time. 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. According to one biographer, he was "broke and needed work; he had even pawned his gold cigarette case." 23. There's a stench of death about you. The movie starring William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins was shot at more than 1 locations. He insisted that Lean add a scene where Shears, the American played by William Holden, cozies up to a nurse (Ann Sears). The bridge is still in everyday use as part of the Bangkok-Nam Tok line. The trials of Australian Army Lieutenant George Hamilton Lamb reflected the mens awful experience building the Burma-Siam Death Railway. Some Thailand River cruises begin in Bangkok and lead along the Mekong River to destinations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The railway route, which ran through Burma and Thailand, had been planned by the British. 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. All but a small section of the route was built in dense, malarial jungles, in sweltering heat and monsoon rains. rainy day Therefore, there are not many people. as soon as he signed, Lean borrowed $2,000 from Columbia Pictures to get his teeth fixed. The British Film Institute placed The Bridge on the River Kwai as the 11th greatest British film. . Alec Guiness overseeing men working on the tracks in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. [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. Saito is expected to commit ritual suicide if he fails to meet the rapidly approaching deadline. When Joyce is wounded by Japanese fire, Shears swims across, but is himself shot. 11. Both bridges were used for two years, until they were destroyed by Allied bombing. Let's talk about British Food! During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. US Navy Commander Shears tells of the horrific conditions. After the final scene was shot, producer Sam Spiegel shipped the movie footage on five different planes to minimize the risk of loss. Tracy had read the book and told Spiegel emphatically that the part must be played by an Englishman. The Bridge On The River Kwai Trivia: Fun And Interesting Facts About The Bridge On The River Kwai: Fascinating Facts About The Bridge on the River Kwai - Kindle edition by Randolph, Amanda. In January 1943, a base hospital was organised to care for sick and injured prisoners and labourers. They included Chinese, Malayan, Burmese, Thai, Indonesian and Singaporean people. Return trains are 12.55 and 15.15. 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 was selected in 1997 for preservation in the National Film Registry. The conditions to which POW and civilian labourers were subjected were far worse than the film depicted. Clipton objects, believing this to be collaboration with the enemy. 60,000 or so Allied prisoners of war, including British, Australian, Dutch and some US troops, alongside more than 200,000 civilian labourers were pressed into service. Camps were set up at 100-metre intervals. Ironically, Allied bombing raids of the region between March and June 1943 contributed to casualties sustained around Thanbyuzayat. Begun in October 1942, using prisoner of war (POW) labour, it was completed and operational by early February 1943. By Barry Fox. Young: "Donald, did anyone whistle Colonel Bogey as they did in the film?" One of the biggest causes of ire was the treatment of Toosey. Part of this project was building bridges over Thailand's Kwai Yai, at a place named Tamarkan, which is near a town named Kanchanaburi. [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. 25. The adventure war film The Bridge on the River Kwai may have swept the board of awards and attracted acclaim as one best films of the 20th century, but the War Office was very nervous "it would . The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The region was seized by the Japanese in 1942, and they then set about making preparations . American casualties were repatriated back to the United States. David Lean is taken that story and directed it in 1957. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel/concrete bridge a few months later. Nicholson will not cooperate and finally insists that the bridge can be built only under his command. When he asks for Saitos help in cutting the wires, the hidden commando, Lieutenant Joyce (Geoffrey Horne), leaps up and kills Saito. You can also take a boat down the Kwai River . Unlike the other two, it is not located in Thailand. Then he hired Lean to directand Lean didn't like Foreman's version. Reviews There are no reviews yet. Some 5,000 Commonwealth World War Two casualties are buried or commemorated in Kanchanaburi. One of a number of Allied POW"s . Harry Cohn, the vulgar (but successful) man who ran Columbia Pictures at the time, was furious when he read the script and saw no . Kanchanaburi, in Myanmar border, is home to the famous Bridge River Kwai. 4. As it opens, two POWs, the American navy commander Shears (William Holden) and an Australian, are digging graves for their companions. This was an incorrect assumption. British and American intelligence officers conspire . Its this structure, Bridge 277, that still stands and is a famous local tourist attraction. After the war, their remains were moved from these makeshift cemeteries and graveyards to purpose-built Commission sites. True Grit, Sanctum, Green Lantern and Superman. Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 10 business days. [56] Warren Buffett said it was his favorite movie. 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 . [49] Mike Kaplan, reviewing for Variety, described it as "a gripping drama, expertly put together and handled with skill in all departments. They were supported by an unknown number of Malaysian labourers. Lamb, as he was known, had been a politician before calling up, serving the state legislature in Victoria, Australia. For example, a Sergeant-Major Risaburo Saito was in real life second in command at the camp. In the film, Lt. Col Nicholson is seen collaborating with his captors, even under duress. Drilled holes for the piers; and cut them to length. It had previously belonged to an Indian maharajah and had seen 65 years of active service. Bridge On The River Kwai is an Epic war-based film. The Japanese Railway Regiment forced thousands of allied POWs and natives to build the . Pay on the train. The bridge in the movie was near Kitulgala. 26. The Bridge on the River Kwai Facts for Kids. [40], The Bridge on the River Kwai was a massive commercial success. [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. . Following the raids, Thanbyuzayat was evacuated. The Bridge on the River Kwai: Directed by David Lean. 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. Alec Guiness, William Holden, and Jack Hawkins in front of bridge they built in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. The movie is best known for the "Colonel Bogey March", the song that is whistled by the POWs. 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. Want to work for the CWGC? [14][15], The film was an international co-production between companies in Britain and the United States. 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.
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