There's a stench of death about you. Bus Bangkok - Kanchanaburi $ 7.19 3h 30m. 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. 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. Forced labourers were labourers taken from the populations of Japan-conquered territories. 18. 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. This records the names of 11 Indian army men buried in Muslim cemeteries throughout Thailand whose graves could not be maintained. 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. Colonel Nicholson, arrive at a Japanese prison camp in Thailand. The real swamps in Ceylon were deemed to be too dangerous. A sketch of that bridge was used as the basis for the fictional one. Find out how you can apply to become a CWGC Volunteer. Image: British troops surrender at Singapore. Sessue Hayakawa considered his performance as Saito as the highlight of his career. For one sunset scene, David Lean specifically traveled 150 miles to capture it. Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the railway construction and POW camps described in the novel/film, stated in his 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. Has only got one ball! 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. But whats the real story? Dying, Nicholson stumbles toward the detonator and falls on the plunger, blowing up the bridge and sending the train hurtling into the river. 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. Copyright 2020 Tons Of Facts. It was repaired in time to be blown up the next morning, with Bandaranaike and his entourage present. Use our search tools to explore our records and find out about those we commemorate. Thanbyuzayat is in Myanmar. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. They felt none of the Bridge on the River Kwai cast could fully understand or represent what it was like to be there. 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. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Both bridges stood for two years and were destroyed by bombers in 1945. Carl Foreman was the initial screenwriter, but Lean replaced him with Michael Wilson. [3] The cast includes William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa. 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]. Shears tries to get out of the mission by confessing that he impersonated an officer, hoping for better treatment from the Japanese. Lets examine the history behind the film and the men who made it. Subsequent releases of the film finally gave them proper screen credit. Also, the dense surrounding jungle renders escape virtually impossible. Prior to casting Alec Guinness, Sam Spiegel tried to persuade Spencer Tracy to play the part of Colonel Nicholson. 20. [27] Gavin Young[28] recounts meeting Donald Wise, a former prisoner of the Japanese who had worked on the Burma Railway. The Suez Canal crisis of 1956 badly affected production. Geoffrey Horne saved his life. 3. Civilian workmen suffered terribly too, with their casualties far outstripping the military personnel. [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. Guinness regarded this one tiny scene as some of the finest work he did throughout his entire career. Best time to visit Bridge Over The River Kwai (preferred time): 09:00 am - 01:00 pm. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. It worked. The weather is good, not hot The train passes at 10 AM and the train returns at 4 PM. Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. 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 . Despite the discomfort the rest of the crew were experiencing, Lean was thrilled about the shoot and never complained about his living conditions. For many, its their first exposure to the horrors prisoners of wars suffered in the Far East. But poor old Goebbels 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. When the sun rises, the commandoes realize that the water level in the river has fallen, exposing the explosives and wiring. 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. The ending of that was sort of the story of life. It was released in the US on December 14, 1957, taking in a reported $17M+, which made it the highest-grossing film of 1957. 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. 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 . Chandran Rutnam and William Holden while shooting The Bridge on the River Kwai. The Bridge on the River Kwai. In reality, Japanese engineers proved to be just as capable at construction efforts as their Allied counterparts.[58][59]. Questions or feedback on our new site? Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Burma-Siam Railway labourers and prisoners of war slept in rudimentary bamboo huts on filthy floors. Express 08:30, 10:30. [7][8] In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th century. 12. Thank God that I'm starting work tomorrow with an American actor (William Holden). 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. As the train approaches, they hurry down to the riverbank to investigate. This film is taken from a popular novel written by Pierre Boulle in 1952. [46], On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 96% based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of 9.4/10. The movie was filmed in Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. [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. The cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service to hold casualties made along the railways southern Bangkok to Nieke section. [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]. 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. Roger Ebert focused on the symbolism of the bridge in this 1999 description: "[The war] narrows down to a single task, building a . Toosey was very different from Nicholson and was certainly not a collaborator who felt obliged to work with the Japanese. Nicholson forbids any escape attempts because they were ordered by headquarters to surrender, and escapes could be seen as defiance of orders. [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. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. 28. (He didn't attend the Oscars, either.) He'd just been through a costly divorce from actress Ann Todd. Nicholson's obsession with the bridge eventually drives him to allow his officers to volunteer to engage in manual labor. 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). Here is 'Minder' telling me to get the timber off the base and start cutting up the dowels. THE HEAD OF COLUMBIA PICTURES FORCED LEAN TO ADD A LOVE SCENE. In the meantime, Shears manages to escape. Today, he rests alongside his fellow POWs in Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery in Burma (Myanmar). 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. [citation needed], Julie Summers, in her book The Colonel of Tamarkan, writes that Boulle, who had been a prisoner of war in Thailand, created the fictional Nicholson character as an amalgam of his memories of collaborating French officers. 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.. Instead, the Lt. Col would stand up for his men when necessary to try to alleviate some of their hardships. Lean liked that draft even less. He was a huge star, drawing a weekly salary of $5000 in 1915 (adjusted for inflation: $119,000) and appearing in more than 60 films between 1914 and 1924. Part of this project was building bridges over Thailand's Kwai Yai, at a place named Tamarkan, which is near a town named Kanchanaburi. "[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. Unique to this film, in some ways, were other issues related to poorly made optical dissolves, the original camera lens and a malfunctioning camera. International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges. Train crossing the wooden bridge which spanned the Mae Klong River (renamed Kwai Yai River in 1960). 8. 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.