Lean only got $150,000 himself, but he always said Holden was worth it. However, in 1943 a railway bridge was built by Allied POWs over the Mae Klong river – renamed Khwae Yai in the 1960s as a result of the film – at Tha Ma Kham, five kilometres from Kanchanaburi, Thailand. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel/concrete bridge a few months later. Starring Alec Guinness in one of his most famous roles, it is considered a classic today and won seven Academy Awards in 1958. David Lean, director of such landmark epics as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, didn't always make giant movies. Arnold won an Academy Award for the film's score. Ordinarily, the film would have been taken by boat to London, but due to the Suez crisis this was impossible; therefore the film was taken by air freight. An example of this is when commandos Warden and Joyce hunt a fleeing Japanese soldier through the jungle, desperate to prevent him from alerting other troops. The four commandos parachute in, though one is killed on landing. Put on your marching boots and whistle a jaunty tune as we investigate some behind-the-scenes facts about this enduring war film. The screenplay was instead credited to the novelist, Boulle—which was quite a feat, since he didn’t speak or read English. As Ashton explained, it was so cheap because "we used local labor and elephants; and the timber was cut nearby.". [24][25][26][27], The plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay were almost entirely fictional.[28]. He insisted that Lean add a scene where Shears, the American played by William Holden, cozies up to a nurse (Ann Sears). He didn't like the screenplay because it reduced Nicholson to secondary status. Lean insisted that Laughton could lose weight before shooting began, but Columbia Pictures' insurance underwriters refused to cover him, saying he was too unhealthy to endure several months on location in the jungles of Ceylon. [31] Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the railway construction and POW camps described in the novel/film, stated in a 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. 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. The senior British officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson, informs Saito that the Geneva Conventions exempt officers from manual labour. Bandaranaike, then Prime Minister of Ceylon, and a team of government dignitaries. The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala. 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."[32]. [54] The original negative for the feature was scanned at 4k (roughly four times the resolution in High Definition), and the colour correction and digital restoration were also completed at 4k. Lean wanted Charles Laughton (who'd starred in his 1954 film Hobson's Choice) to play Colonel Nicholson, the role that ultimately went to Alec Guinness. 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. [22] Gavin Young[23] recounts meeting Donald Wise, a former prisoner of the Japanese who had worked on the Burma Railway. For him, its completion will exemplify the ingenuity and hard work of the British Army long after the war's end. The commandant, Colonel Saito, informs them that all prisoners, regardless of rank, are to work on the construction of a railway bridge over the River Kwai that will help connect Bangkok and Rangoon. 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. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Wrote Guinness: "I felt like turning around and getting back on the plane and paying my own fare home!" He created the railroad. [43] 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. 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. 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, Anglotopia’s Grand Adventure – Land’s End to John O’Groats. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. [15] Guinness later reflected on the scene, calling it the "finest piece of work" he had ever done. 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 calls, "a very terrible scene" between William Holden and the nurse on the beach. Log in, Latest British news from Anglotopia right in your email inbox every Tuesday. To the producers' horror, the film containers were found a week later on an airport tarmac in Cairo, sitting in the hot sun. The film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943. Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. [30], Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey of the British Army was the real senior Allied officer at the bridge in question. The Japanese Railway Regiment forced thousands of allied POWs and natives to build the railway using what they could carry in their … During World War II, British soldiers added lyrics to the tune that went approximately along these lines: (There were other verses, too, which treated in more depth the number, location, and status of Hitler's anatomy, but you get the idea.) Guinness later said that he subconsciously based his walk while emerging from "the Oven" on that of his eleven-year-old son Matthew,[14] who was recovering from polio at the time, a disease that left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. According to Columbia Pictures, they followed an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio. Their roles and characters, however, are fictionalised. The major railway bridge described in the novel and film didn't actually cross the river known at the time as the Kwai. Meanwhile, Nicholson drives his men hard to complete the bridge on time. 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. Did he really want the enemy to come in across it?”[46], Some Japanese viewers disliked the film's depiction of the Japanese characters present in the movie and the historical background presented as being inaccurate, particularly in the interactions between Saito and Nicholson. [37], 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[38] but the following year its revised total US and Canadian revenues were reported by Variety as $17,195,000. Meanwhile, three prisoners attempt to escape. "[43], Variety gave high praise for the movie saying that it is "a gripping drama, expertly put together and handled with skill in all departments. [6][7] In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th century. To ensure they captured the one-time event, multiple cameras from several angles were used. 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. [49] 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. You might be interested to find out some of the more fascinating … [45], Warren Buffett said it was his favorite movie. Madness! 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. 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. [17], The producers nearly suffered a catastrophe following the filming of the bridge explosion. 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. His first epic was his twelfth film: The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden as P.O.W. 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. When Major Clipton, the British medical officer, warns Saito there are too many witnesses for him to get away with murder, Saito leaves the officers standing all day in the intense heat. The train crashed into a generator on the other side of the bridge and was wrecked. After Guinness was done with the scene, Lean said, "Now you can all fuck off and go home, you English actors. The cast includes (He didn't attend the Oscars, either.) When the shipment failed to arrive in London, a worldwide search was undertaken. 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. (Spiegel got a British military adviser to help with that side of things, too.). At the morning assembly, Nicholson orders his officers to remain behind when the enlisted men march off to 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. Persuaded that the film would be about the horror and folly of war, the Japanese government sent a military adviser to help with the camp scenes. 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. "[44] Significant praise was also given to the actors especially Alec Guinness, Variety said that "the film is unquestionably Guinness'". [25] He strongly denied the claim that the book was anti-British, although many involved in the film itself (including Alec Guinness) felt otherwise. The official credit was given to Pierre Boulle (who did not speak English), and the resulting Oscar for Best Screenplay (Adaptation) was awarded to him. Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa. A train carrying important dignitaries and soldiers is scheduled to be the first to cross the bridge the following day, so Warden waits to destroy both. [9], 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). As the Japanese engineers had chosen a poor site, the original construction is abandoned and a new bridge begun downstream. [29] 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.

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