10 facts about the bridge on the river kwai 10 facts about the bridge on the river kwai

It was 425 feet long, 90 feet high, and cost $52,085 out of the film's $2 million budget. Just two months later, Lieutenant Lamb was dead. Warden tells the Siamese women that he had to prevent anyone from falling into enemy hands, and leaves with them. Prior to casting Alec Guinness, Sam Spiegel tried to persuade Spencer Tracy to play the part of Colonel Nicholson. Laughton would die (of cancer) five years later, at the age of 63. Lean liked that draft even less. The movie is based on the novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai by Pierre Boulle. 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. Begun in October 1942, using prisoner of war (POW) labour, it was completed and operational by early February 1943. Alec Guiness overseeing men working on the tracks in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. [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. Has no balls Nicholson desperately tries to keep Joyce from depressing the plunger, while Shears and Warden try to kill Nicholson. According to Columbia Pictures, they followed an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio. The river is the Mae Klong River which passes through a valley of the Khwae Noi River (little tributary). Log in. The weather is good, not hot The train passes at 10 AM and the train returns at 4 PM. This film is produced by Sam Spiegel, and the music is composed by Malcolm Arnold for . 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. 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)). Their taskmasters were relentless. Ironically, Allied bombing raids of the region between March and June 1943 contributed to casualties sustained around Thanbyuzayat. [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. Starring Alec Guinness, it depicts the struggles and defiance of Japanese prisoners of war building the fictional Burma railway between 1943-44. The movie starring William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins was shot at more than 1 locations. The movie was filmed in Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. The deaths of the Asian workers and the prisoners were real events, but most of the book and the movie are not true. In early 1943, a contingent of British prisoners of war, led by Lt. Of course, he could not save many of his men from expiring, but he did their best to make conditions more comfortable. The producer's press release, thoughwanting to emphasize that this was a Big Budget Hollywood Pictureclaimed the bridge had cost $250,000. For many, its their first exposure to the horrors prisoners of wars suffered in the Far East. [22], Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by the river current during a break from filming.[23]. 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. The film was directed by David Lean and starred William Holding, Jack Hawkins and academy award winner Sir Alex Guinness. 17. Nicholson advises Saito that the officers cannot be required to do manual labour according to the Geneva Convention. They are joined by approximately 1,850 Dutch casualties and one non-war grave. They would work in appalling conditions, given minuscule amounts of food, snatches of sleep, and little to no medical treatment. The Japanese Railway Regiment forced thousands of allied POWs and natives to build the . [3] The cast includes William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI takes place in Japan-occupied Siam (later Thailand) in 1943, after the Imperial Japanese Empire has conquered vast territories of Asia. Put on your marching boots and whistle a jaunty tune as we investigate some behind-the-scenes facts about this enduring war film. 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. A photo of Kitulgala, Sri Lanka in 2004, where the bridge was made for the film. The filming of the bridge explosion was to be done on 10 March 1957, in the presence of S.W.R.D. But I am writing a factual account, and in justice to these menliving and deadwho worked on that bridge, I must make it clear that we never did so willingly. Chungkai War Cemetery is something of a sister site to Kanchanaburi. They included Chinese, Malayan, Burmese, Thai, Indonesian and Singaporean people. Victims were cremated and their remains are buried in the aforementioned graves. 10. In the film, a Colonel Saito is camp commandant. [34] According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma. Parts of the Burma-Siam railway still stand. 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. Assistant director John Kerrison was killed in a car crash on the way to one of the locations. He wanders into a Burmese village, is nursed back to health, and eventually reaches the British colony of Ceylon. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. "[47] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". 25. TakeMeTour's Review. Like thousands of other POWs, Lamb was kept in degrading conditions, refused medical treatment and barely fed. Then he hired Lean to directand Lean didn't like Foreman's version. At all. What's your favorite? Nicholson yells for help, while attempting to stop Joyce from reaching the detonator. Starring Alec Guinness, it depicts the struggles and defiance of Japanese prisoners of war building the fictional Burma railway between 1943-44. 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. Shears tries to get out of the mission by confessing that he impersonated an officer, hoping for better treatment from the Japanese. 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.. Kanburi wasnt a work camp as such. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. 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. The cast includes William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and . 8. 1957 World War II film directed by David Lean, This article is about the film. It is a landmark of Kanchanaburi Province. 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. 20. The ending of that was sort of the story of life. [64] The image was restored by OCS, Freeze Frame, and Pixel Magic with George Hively editing. One of a number of Allied POW"s . 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. The Bridge on the River Kwai was selected in 1997 for preservation in the National Film Registry. A real train rode over the bridge as it blew up. Some 5,000 Commonwealth World War Two casualties are buried or commemorated in Kanchanaburi. POWs and indentured labourers were worked to death while busy constructing the railway simultaneously. It is also known as the "River Kwai March". Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to England in order to continue working. The real swamps in Ceylon were deemed to be too dangerous. Pierre Boulle, a Frenchman, who had experienced great hardship after being captured by the Vichy French on the Mekong River, wrote a novel called 'Le Pont de la rivire Kwa' - The Bridge of the . 19. It is famously known as the setting for the a 1957 World War Two epic Bridge over the River Kwai. Budget. (Lean denied ever wanting Laughton for the role, despite abundant documented evidence to the contrary.). [10], Although Lean later denied it, Charles Laughton was his first choice for the role of Nicholson. Train crossing the wooden bridge which spanned the Mae Klong River (renamed Kwai Yai River in 1960). Nicholson's obsession with the bridge eventually drives him to allow his officers to volunteer to engage in manual labor. Only in 1984 did the Academy rectify the situation by retroactively awarding the Oscar to Foreman and Wilson, posthumously in both cases. [5][6] It has been included on the American Film Institute's list of best American films ever made. The Bridge On The River Kwai Film Facts. 5. Dying, Nicholson stumbles toward the detonator and falls on the plunger, blowing up the bridge and sending the train hurtling into the river. 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). A Cholera epidemic swept through Nieke Camp between May-June 1943. (Spiegel got a British military adviser to help with that side of things, too.). This records the names of 11 Indian army men buried in Muslim cemeteries throughout Thailand whose graves could not be maintained. In the film, Lt. Col Nicholson is seen collaborating with his captors, even under duress. The railway route, which ran through Burma and Thailand, had been planned by the British. The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. To enjoy Thailand River cruises, you need to understand a little about the geography of Thailand and its river system. [16], Director David Lean clashed repeatedly with his cast members, particularly Guinness and James Donald, who thought the novel was anti-British. 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. : 1942: Boldly advancing through Asia, the Japanese need a train route from Burma going north. The plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay were almost entirely fictional. By daybreak, however, the river level has dropped, exposing the wire connecting the explosives to the detonator. 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. Unlike the other two, it is not located in Thailand. The bridge construction is going badly, however, and Saito offers concessions to Nicholson in an effort to get the structure completed on schedule. He didn't like the screenplay because it reduced Nicholson to secondary status. [39], The major railway bridge described in the novel and film did not actually cross the river known at the time as the Kwai. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-43 for its historical setting. Initial estimates from Japanese engineers suggested it would take five years. 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. He insisted that Lean add a scene where Shears, the American played by William Holden, cozies up to a nurse (Ann Sears). 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. They were supported by an unknown number of Malaysian labourers. Subsequent releases of the film finally gave them proper screen credit. 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). Copyright 2020 Tons Of Facts. It is close to, but not over the country's border with Myanmar. [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. Some Thailand River cruises begin in Bangkok and lead along the Mekong River to destinations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The Bridge Over the River Kwai won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) in 1958. 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. 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. The Bridge on the River Kwai is now widely recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. 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. 15. As it opens, two POWs, the American navy commander Shears (William Holden) and an Australian, are digging graves for their companions. On 16 October 1943, the two ends of the Burma-Thailand railway were joined at Konkoita in Thailand. Work on the bridge proceeds badly, due to both the faulty Japanese engineering plans and the prisoners' slow pace and deliberate sabotage. Bridge On The River Kwai is an Epic war-based film. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Bridge On The River Kwai Trivia: Fun And Interesting . 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. Workers died at a rate of 20 men per day. Read our Cookie Policy, Terms & Conditions and Data Protection & Privacy Policy. Pitted against the warden, Colonel . Lamb, as he was known, had been a politician before calling up, serving the state legislature in Victoria, Australia. 23. 14- "Be happy in your work.". The movie, based on the novel Le Pont de la rivire Kwa (1952) by French novelist Pierre Boulle, was adapted for the screen by Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, who were both at the time on the Hollywood blacklist. Some of the characters in the film use the names of real people who were involved in the Burma Railway. Forced labourers were labourers taken from the populations of Japan-conquered territories. This was an incorrect assumption. With William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa. The movie garnered seven Academy Awards, including that for best picture, as well as three Golden Globe Awards and four BAFTA awards. Bandaranaike, then Prime Minister of Ceylon, and a team of government dignitaries. Get information about our funding, our Customer Charter and our Strategic Plan. [65], On 2 November 2010 Columbia Pictures released a newly restored The Bridge on the River Kwai for the first time on Blu-ray. Only minor damage was inflicted. FIFTY years ago waves of Liberator bombers were deliberately destroying a remarkable feat of engineering. A make-up man was also badly injured in the same accident. Check out where to stay in Kanchanaburi and book an accommodation of your choice. During the cutting of Hellfire Pass, for example, 69 men were beaten to death across a twelve-week period. Bridge Over The River Kwai Address: Tha Makham, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The year: 1943. Civilian workmen suffered terribly too, with their casualties far outstripping the military personnel. Their roles and characters, however, are fictionalised. David Leans 1957 epic Bridge on the River Kwai is regarded as one of the all-time great war films. [40], The Bridge on the River Kwai was a massive commercial success. Reviews There are no reviews yet. The Burma-Siam Railways construction necessitated construction of over 670 bridges and numerous cuttings. Nicholson objects, informing Saito the Geneva Convention exempts officers from manual labour. Take a look below for 28 more fun and interesting facts about The Bridge on the . He created the railroad. This was an entertaining story. Goering 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. 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 prisoners of war who had . He, Shears, and Joyce reach the river in time with the assistance of Siamese women bearers and their village chief, Khun Yai. Madness! 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. Read our FAQs or send a question to our customer service team. 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. Allied soldiers had built a church and a hospital on the site where the cemetery now sits. 21. In fact, the cemetery is the original burial ground started by the prisoners themselves. Supplying it by ship was the only practical solution. The River Kwai, also known as Khwae Noi or Khwae Sai Yok is a river located in the western region of Thailand. 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. 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 place: Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma. 9. 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. The separate dialogue, music and effects were located and remixed with newly recorded "atmospheric" sound effects. It spans crosses the lazily winding Khwae Noi at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. And a bloke called George Siegatz[29] an expert whistlerbegan to whistle Colonel Bogey, and a hit was born.". [12], William Holden's deal was considered one of the best ever for an actor at the time, with him receiving $300,000 plus 10% of the film's gross receipts. These issues, running throughout the film, were addressed to a lesser extent on various previous DVD releases of the film and might not have been so obvious in standard definition.[67]. Spiegel finally sent Michael Wilson to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where Lean was in pre-production, and the two worked together to hammer out the final version. He joined up in 1940 and served in the Middle East with the 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion before transferring back to the Dutch East Indies in early 1942. That evening, the officers are placed in a punishment hut, while Nicholson is beaten and locked in an iron box. Following the raids, Thanbyuzayat was evacuated. The march was written in 1914 by Kenneth J. Alford, a pseudonym of British Bandmaster Frederick J. Ricketts. Both bridges stood for two years and were destroyed by bombers in 1945. The railway ran for 250 miles from Ban Pong, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma and is now known as the Death Railway. Tooseys men stated this never happened. The bridge in the movie was near Kitulgala. 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. Warden, Shears, and two other commandos parachute into Thailand; one, Chapman, dies after falling into a tree, and Warden is wounded in an encounter with a Japanese patrol and must be carried on a litter. Nicholson will not cooperate and finally insists that the bridge can be built only under his command. [50] William Holden was also credited for his acting for giving a solid characterization that was "easy, credible and always likeable in a role that is the pivot point of the story". 26. 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. Some Japanese viewers resented the movie's depiction of their engineers' capabilities as inferior and less advanced than they were in reality. 4. According to one biographer, he was "broke and needed work; he had even pawned his gold cigarette case." The rest were made of wood and local materials. 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 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. 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). Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Recognising Shears, Nicholson exclaims, "What have I done? In particular, they objected to the implication presented in the film that Japanese military engineers were generally unskilled at their profession and lacked proficiency. A small tourist train offers rides across the bridges span, while pedestrians can also travel over it on foot. 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. Wrote Guinness: "I felt like turning around and getting back on the plane and paying my own fare home!" 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. Written 20 October 2021. By the way, the real Kwai River was just a trickle near Burma, where Boulle set his bridge; the actual bridge had been built 200 miles away, near Bangkok. Thank God that I'm starting work tomorrow with an American actor (William Holden). Thanbyuzayat is in Myanmar. He served as an adviser during the making of the movie. [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. 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. Laughton was in his habitually overweight state, and was either denied insurance coverage, or was simply not keen on filming in a tropical location. The Bridge on the River Kwai. David Lean was completely at home in the hot and humid Ceylon jungle. [54] Slant magazine gave the film four out of five stars. 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. Victory over the Japanese navy at Midway in June 1942 had created a turning point in the Far East and Pacific. [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. In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . 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. After a few days, the British medical officer Major Clipton (James Donald) tries to persuade both Saito and Nicholson to compromise, but both are unyielding. The cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service to hold casualties made along the railways southern Bangkok to Nieke section. While the British prisoners celebrate their accomplishment that night, the commandoes wire the bridge with explosives to be detonated by a plunger operated by a hidden soldier, timed to collapse the bridge just as an inaugural train carrying Japanese dignitaries is crossing it. 28. [31] He strongly denied the claim that the book was anti-British, although many involved in the film itself (including Alec Guinness) felt otherwise.[36]. Bangkok - Kanchanaburi More info / Tickets. This Week's Toybox is . He was listed as missing in action in June 1943. Servicemen who survived the death marches, appalling working conditions, and savage treatment by their guards thought the film nor book reflected the realities of their experience. [9], The film was relatively faithful to the novel, with two major exceptions. 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.