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Bridge over the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. [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. As the train approaches, Nicholson frantically pulls up the wire, following it to find the detonator. The film was directed by David Lean and starred William Holding, Jack Hawkins and academy award winner Sir Alex Guinness. Ten Interesting Facts about The Bridge on the River Kwai - Anglotopia.net 9. Use our search tools to explore our records and find out about those we commemorate. The River Kwai, also known as Khwae Noi or Khwae Sai Yok is a river located in the western region of Thailand. The film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" dramatized the WWII story of the Thailand-Burma Railway, yet it was largely fictional. Within 16 months the bridge was completed but it took another two years to complete the entire rail line. [13], Many directors were considered for the project, among them John Ford, William Wyler, Howard Hawks, Fred Zinnemann, and Orson Welles (who was also offered a starring role). The filming of the bridge explosion was to be done on 10 March 1957, in the presence of S.W.R.D. [64] The image was restored by OCS, Freeze Frame, and Pixel Magic with George Hively editing. The train crashed into a generator on the other side of the bridge and was wrecked. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KHWAI - FACT, FICTION AND FANCY - Diwerent He is commemorated on the Labuan Memorial, Malaysia. The story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942-1943, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle's own life experience working in Malaysia rubber . Approximately 5 kilometres north of Kanchanaburi there were two bridges that were built by POWs during the war. You can also take a boat down the Kwai River . The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is an epic World War II adventure/action, anti-war drama. The movie is best known for the "Colonel Bogey March", the song that is whistled by the POWs. Death Railway was bombed heavily by the Allies from 1943 onwards. [22], Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by the river current during a break from filming.[23]. As Ashton explained, it was so cheap because "we used local labor and elephants; and the timber was cut nearby.". Read our FAQs or send a question to our customer service team. Despite the discomfort the rest of the crew were experiencing, Lean was thrilled about the shoot and never complained about his living conditions. Bridges beyond the River Kwai | Michigan Today Goering Sign-up for free daily emails with the latest news about British culture, heritage, and history! Guinness, however, had his own reservations. In 1997, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. The Bridge over the River Kwai (French: Le Pont de la rivire Kwa) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. Bridge on the River Kwai - silverfox175 It is a landmark of Kanchanaburi Province. Thailand: Bangkok, Krabi, Pattaya, Kanchanaburi, Koh Samui (since 2005 As the train approaches, they hurry down to the riverbank to investigate. "[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. 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. The Bridge of the River kwai It is a tourist attraction of Kanchanaburi. [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. Both bridges stood for two years and were destroyed by bombers in 1945. The finished screenplay had significant contributions from both Wilson and Foreman, though each went to his grave insisting he was the more important contributor. Nicholson is shocked by the poor job being done by his men and orders the building of a proper bridge, intending it to stand as a tribute to the British Army's ingenuity for centuries to come. 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. 16- "You make me sick with your heroics! 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 . He insisted that Lean add a scene where Shears, the American played by William Holden, cozies up to a nurse (Ann Sears). [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. 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. 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.. In fact, the cemetery is the original burial ground started by the prisoners themselves. Joyce, manning the detonator, breaks cover and stabs Saito to death. [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. Neither of them got credit, though, as The Bridge on the River Kwai was released during the three-year period when people who'd ever been Communists (or who refused to answer questions about it before Congress) were ineligible for Academy Awards. Nicholson yells for help, while attempting to stop Joyce from reaching the detonator. Where Is the River Kwai Located? - The Bridge on the River Kwai Pitted against the warden, Colonel . David Lean, director of such landmark epics as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, didn't always make giant movies. 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). Here is 'Minder' telling me to get the timber off the base and start cutting up the dowels. Tooseys men stated this never happened. [63], The film was restored in 1985 by Columbia Pictures. This film is produced by Sam Spiegel, and the music is composed by Malcolm Arnold for . The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. They would work in appalling conditions, given minuscule amounts of food, snatches of sleep, and little to no medical treatment. [9], The film was relatively faithful to the novel, with two major exceptions. The Bridge on the River Kwai was widely praised, winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the 30th Academy Awards. An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 civilians also died in the course of the project, chiefly forced labour brought from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, or conscripted in Siam (Thailand) and Burma. 25. 11. On another occasion, they argued over the scene where Nicholson reflects on his career in the army. The Bridge on the River Kwai was actually one of the reasons movies started becoming prime-time television programming. Begun in October 1942, using prisoner of war (POW) labour, it was completed and operational by early February 1943. The bridge construction is going badly, however, and Saito offers concessions to Nicholson in an effort to get the structure completed on schedule. International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges. The bridge they build will become a symbol of service and survival to one prisoner, Colonel Nicholson, a proud perfectionist. The documentary itself was described by one newspaper reviewer when it was shown on Boxing Day 1974 (The Bridge on the River Kwai had been shown on BBC1 on Christmas Day 1974) as "Following the movie, this is a rerun of the antidote."[37]. Bridge Over The River Kwai, Kanchanaburi | Ticket Price | Timings At all. (There were other verses, too, which treated in more depth the number, location, and status of Hitler's anatomy, but you get the idea.) A sketch of that bridge was used as the basis for the fictional one. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a British 1957 World War II film by David Lean based on the novel The Bridge Over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The movie was filmed in Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. While Nicholson disapproves of acts of sabotage and other deliberate attempts to delay progress, Toosey encouraged this: termites were collected in large numbers to eat the wooden structures, and the concrete was badly mixed. The curved-shaped truss spans are the originals on the bridge (constructed by the Japanese military during WWII) while the two trapezoidal-shaped bridge spans were provided by Japan as war reparations after the war ended in 1945 (to replace two curved-shaped truss spans that fell into the river after the bridge was attacked and bombed by Allied aircraft. The two did not collaborate on the script; Wilson took over after Lean was dissatisfied with Foreman's work. At the POW camp, Nicholson not only requires officers to work on the bridge but also pulls men from the hospital in order to meet Saitos deadline for the project. [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. One of the iconic war films of its time, the Bridge on the River Kwai has shone a spotlight on POWs suffering. Lean shouted at them, 'For God's sake, whistle a march to keep time to.' It was set up at the beginning of the Burma-Siams construction. 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. Colonel Nicholson, arrive at a Japanese prison camp in Thailand. The prisoners of war who had . Sessue Hayakawa edited his copy of the script to contain only his lines of dialog. The real swamps in Ceylon were deemed to be too dangerous. Check here to see our open positions and volunteer roles. Last survivor of the Bridge On The River Kwai Japanese railway British English: The Top 50 Most Beautiful British Insults, British Slang: Your Guide to British Police Slang for the Telly Watcher, British Slang: Tea Time British Words for Tea and Tea Related Culture, ltimate List of Funny British Place Names, 101 Budget Britain Travel Tips 2nd Edition, Great Britons Book: Top 50 Greatest Brits Who Ever Lived, Anglotopias Grand Adventure Lands End to John OGroats. A regiment of British prisoners arrives, whistling the Colonel Bogey March, under the command of Colonel Nicholson (Sir Alec Guinness). 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. In 1985, the Academy officially recognized Foreman and Wilson as the screenwriters and posthumously awarded the Oscar to them. The Burma-Siam Railways construction necessitated construction of over 670 bridges and numerous cuttings. The movie was mainly filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and also in England. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. The US was beginning to control the sea lanes, making it increasingly difficult for Japanese shipborne cargo to reach the army dotted across the Pacific. 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. The Bridge On The River Kwai | Film Locations Its a charming, idyllic spot, belying the intense horror and suffering the men who built it went through. "[17], The film was made in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). 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. Read the response of the CWGC to the findings of the Special Committee. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Despite this, he won an Oscar and a Grammy. 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. (Spiegel got a British military adviser to help with that side of things, too.). The film originally made thirty million dollars over its three million dollar budget and was rereleased in theaters just after Lean and Spiegel's Lawrence of Arabia came out. Basically, the bridge was built during World War II when the Japanese occupied Siam (now Thailand) and neighboring Burma (now Myanmar . By the end, prisoners working on the rail route werent calling it the Burma-Siam Railway. But in 1966, the film aired on American . This film is taken from a popular novel written by Pierre Boulle in 1952. Madness! Kanburi wasnt a work camp as such. US $4.49 Standard Shipping from outside US. Only minor damage was inflicted. Sri Lanka Filming Locations: The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) Return trains are 12.55 and 15.15. Save up to 50% on Thailand River Cruises August 2024. Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to England in order to continue working. That evening, the officers are placed in a punishment hut, while Nicholson is beaten and locked in an iron box. So Spiegel hired another writer, Calder Willingham, to give it a crack. The producer's press release, thoughwanting to emphasize that this was a Big Budget Hollywood Pictureclaimed the bridge had cost $250,000. 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 Bridge on the River Kwai Facts for Kids - Kiddle 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. A picture of the actual bridge over the River Kwai in June 2004. FIFTY years ago waves of Liberator bombers were deliberately destroying a remarkable feat of engineering. "[52] Harrison's Reports described the film as an "excellent World War II adventure melodrama" in which the "production values are first-rate and so is the photography. 3. Wise: "I never heard it in Thailand. The Bridge on the River Kwai: Directed by David Lean. Real Bridge on the River Kwai. Aerial reconnaissance photo of the Steel Bridge taken during a bombing raid. 7. Casualties commemorated at Chungkai are mostly men who died in the field hospital set up by prisoners. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - Trivia - IMDb Himmler (This can be compared to a scene in the 1927 movie, The General, which starred Buster Keaton.). She recommended Lean to producer Sam Spiegel, who'd been turned down by Fred Zinnemann, William Wyler, and Carol Reed, and offered the directing job to Lean as a last resort. Thanbyuzayat is in Myanmar. 14. 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. Harry Cohn, the vulgar (but successful) man who ran Columbia Pictures at the time, was furious when he read the script and saw no . Clipton objects, believing this to be collaboration with the enemy. This was an entertaining story. The camp commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), informs the prisoners that they will all begin working on the building of a railway bridge the following day. The Kwai River Bridge was part of the meter-gauge railway constructed by the Japanese during World War Two. 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. 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. The telecast of the film lasted more than three hours because of the commercial breaks. He didn't like the next draft of the screenplay, either, because it made Nicholson "a blinkered character." According to Columbia Pictures, they followed an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio. Its estimated around 16,000 Allied prisoners of war were killed during construction of the Burma-Siam Railway. The Bridge on the River Kwai / Trivia - TV Tropes The surviving sections stand as monuments to the men who suffered so much to build them. When he asks for Saitos help in cutting the wires, the hidden commando, Lieutenant Joyce (Geoffrey Horne), leaps up and kills Saito. does not fall onto the plunger, and the bridge suffers only minor damage. [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. The casualties of the Burma-Siam railway were often buried in camp burial grounds located close to where they originally fell. The Bridge on the River Kwai (Film) - TV Tropes 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. Instead of the five year predicted completion, the bridge on river Kwai, was completed in 16 months. British and American intelligence officers conspire . . 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 weather is good, not hot The train passes at 10 AM and the train returns at 4 PM. The British soldiers were slaves; they did not help the Japanese. Bridge On The River Kwai Ending Explained: What Happened to - OtakuKart 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. Roger Ebert focused on the symbolism of the bridge in this 1999 description: "[The war] narrows down to a single task, building a . Its telling that the railway workers had to see to their own medical care. [66] The original negative for the feature was scanned at 4k (four times the resolution in High Definition), and the colour correction and digital restoration were also completed at 4k. All Rights Reserved. [43] By October 1960, the film had earned worldwide box office revenues of $30 million. [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". 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. British people of Anglotopia, what do you make of the whole anglophile thing ? The British Film Institute placed The Bridge on the River Kwai as the 11th greatest British film. David Lean is taken that story and directed it in 1957. The Bridge on the River Kwai - Wikipedia 13. Bandaranaike, then Prime Minister of Ceylon, and a team of government dignitaries. He, Shears, and Joyce reach the river in time with the assistance of Siamese women bearers and their village chief, Khun Yai. Following the raids, Thanbyuzayat was evacuated. 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. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 World War II POW film directed by David Lean, about the construction of the bridges over the River Kwai, although it's heavily fictionalised.It's based on the French novel The Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle, of Planet of the Apes fame; Boulle, who could neither read nor write English, was also credited for the screenplay adaptation due to .