This was an incorrect assumption. Read more. Saito leaves the officers standing all day in the intense heat. Some Japanese viewers resented the movie's depiction of their engineers' capabilities as inferior and less advanced than they were in reality. This page was last modified on 6 February 2023, at 06:05. 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. Has two but they are small. Starring Alec Guinness, William Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa, among others, it paints an . The movie has been included on the American Film Institutes list of best American films ever made. Also, in the novel, the bridge is not destroyed: the train plummets into the river from a secondary charge placed by Warden, but Nicholson (never realising "what have I done?") 25. The ending of that was sort of the story of life. Dying, Nicholson stumbles toward the detonator and falls on the plunger, blowing up the bridge and sending the train hurtling into the river. It stretched from Japan, Korea, and China in the north all the way down to Indonesia. comment. To enjoy Thailand River cruises, you need to understand a little about the geography of Thailand and its river system. At all. The movie is best known for the "Colonel Bogey March", the song that is whistled by the POWs. 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. Prisoners, including the sick, were marched to camps further along Death Railway. He wanders into a Burmese village, is nursed back to health, and eventually reaches the British colony of Ceylon. Kanburi wasnt a work camp as such. - Colonel Saito, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai '. In January 1943, a base hospital was organised to care for sick and injured prisoners and labourers. 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. Nicholson forbids any escape attempts because they were ordered by headquarters to surrender, and escapes could be seen as defiance of orders. A make-up man was also badly injured in the same accident. Of course, he could not save many of his men from expiring, but he did their best to make conditions more comfortable. (This can be compared to a scene in the 1927 movie, The General, which starred Buster Keaton.). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Corrections? 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 . Forced labourers were labourers taken from the populations of Japan-conquered territories. 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 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. Sam Spiegel bought the railroad train from the Ceylonese government. He served as an adviser during the making of the movie. This way, he remained oblivious to the real nature of his characters fate. David Lean was completely at home in the hot and humid Ceylon jungle. For example, a Sergeant-Major Risaburo Saito was in real life second in command at the camp. Bridge over the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. [18] The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala. Construction began before anyone had been cast. 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. Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. He was listed as missing in action in June 1943. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a work of fiction, but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942 to 1943 for its historical setting. 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. Alec Guiness overseeing men working on the tracks in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. He created the railroad. Nicholson desperately tries to keep Joyce from depressing the plunger, while Shears and Warden try to kill Nicholson. In fact, the cemetery is the original burial ground started by the prisoners themselves. [40], The Bridge on the River Kwai was a massive commercial success. 7. 3. Showing the impact of disease on the workforce, Kanchanaburi contains two graves holding the ashes of 300 Cholera victims. Read our Cookie Policy, Terms & Conditions and Data Protection & Privacy Policy. 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. Read the response of the CWGC to the findings of the Special Committee. In reality, Japanese engineers proved to be just as capable at construction efforts as their Allied counterparts.[58][59]. When, the next morning, Saito orders all the British prisoners to begin building the bridge under the command of a Japanese engineer, Nicholson and the other officers refuse, even when Saito threatens to kill them. [16], Director David Lean clashed repeatedly with his cast members, particularly Guinness and James Donald, who thought the novel was anti-British. [63], The film was restored in 1985 by Columbia Pictures. For one sunset scene, David Lean specifically traveled 150 miles to capture it. According to Columbia Pictures, they followed an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio. Toosey was very different from Nicholson and was certainly not a collaborator who felt obliged to work with the Japanese. Sessue Hayakawa considered his performance as Saito as the highlight of his career. All the filming locations of The Bridge on the River Kwai are listed below. You can also take a boat down the Kwai River . 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. 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. The bridge depicted in the film is most definitely real. c. 1945. Nicholson will not cooperate and finally insists that the bridge can be built only under his command. Image: British troops surrender at Singapore. The Kwai River Bridge was part of the meter-gauge railway constructed by the Japanese during World War Two. [54] Slant magazine gave the film four out of five stars. 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. 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 . She retired Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Its this structure, Bridge 277, that still stands and is a famous local tourist attraction. Instead, the Lt. Col would stand up for his men when necessary to try to alleviate some of their hardships. Wrote Guinness: "I felt like turning around and getting back on the plane and paying my own fare home!" 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. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. Bangkok-Kanchanaburi, by train or private transport, for the Bridge on River Kwai; Kanchanaburi-Nam Tok, by train or private transport, for Death Railway and Hellfire Pass; You can book your bus tickets online and in advance here. Nicholson suddenly realizes that his pride in the bridges construction has blinded him to his military duty. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. The Bridge on the River Kwai was a smash hit on release. Get information about our funding, our Customer Charter and our Strategic Plan. That evening, the officers are placed in a punishment hut, while Nicholson is beaten and locked in an iron box. 18. 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Both the wooden and the adjacent steel bridge were subjected to numerous air raids between January and June 1945. You carry it in your pack like the plague. Work on the bridge proceeds badly, due to both the faulty Japanese engineering plans and the prisoners' slow pace and deliberate sabotage. Tonight, enjoy dinner at a hotel restaurant Overnight: Kanchanaburi 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. With William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa. The real Bridge on the River Kwai. All Rights Reserved. 12. Mitch Miller had a hit with a recording of both marches. Today, he rests alongside his fellow POWs in Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Burma (Myanmar). 5. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Nicholson yells for help, while attempting to stop Joyce from reaching the detonator. Camps were set up at 100-metre intervals. 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. In 1941 the Japanese Army invaded Thailand. Thanks to the film, the Bridge, situated in the Thai town of Kanchanaburi a couple of hours drive from Bangkok, is one of Thailand . Commonwealth war graves commission Caring for the fallen, Commonwealth war graves foundation Our charity site. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. They built a railway to link Bangkok to Rangoon. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British-American epic war movie directed by David Lean and starring William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Alec Guinness, featuring Sessue Hayakawa.