The Bridge on the River Kwai

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the film. For the novel, see The Bridge on the River Kwai (novel).

The Bridge on the River Kwai
Original movie poster
Directed by	David Lean Gus Agosti & Ted Sturgis (assistants)
Produced by	Sam Spiegel
Written by	Pierre Boulle (novel) Carl Foreman & Michael Wilson (screenplay)
Starring	Alec Guinness Sessue Hayakawa William Holden Jack Hawkins
Music by	Malcolm Arnold
Cinematography	Jack Hildyard
Editing by	Peter Taylor
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	October 2, 1957
Running time	161 min.
Language	English
Budget	US$3,000,000 (est)
IMDb profile

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) was an Anglo-American World War II war film based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï by French writer Pierre Boulle. It was directed by David Lean and starred Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins and William Holden. It was filmed mostly in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) near Kitulgala, with a few scenes shot in England.

[edit] Synopsis

The film opens in a Japanese World War II prison camp located in southern Burma. Two prisoners are burying the dead in a graveyard. American Navy Commander Shears (William Holden) routinely bribes the guards to ensure he gets sick duty, which allows him to stay in camp and avoid the hard labor of building a bridge. A large contingent of new British prisoners arrives. Though beaten and having been ordered to surrender, the regiment marches in proudly, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), whistling the Colonel Bogey March.

The Japanese commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), addresses the new prisoners, informing them of his rules. He points out that there are no fences or guard posts, because escaping through the surrounding jungle is a near-impossibility; however, anyone caught trying will be shot. The prisoners, without regard to rank, are to help build a bridge over the Kwai River that will link all of Burma.

Later in the day, Nicholson assumes command of the prisoner barracks, as is customary for the highest ranking prisoner. He then meets Shears, who informs him that things are run a bit differently in this camp, but Nicholson scoffs, insisting that Saito seems a reasonable man.

The next day, everyone is ordered to march out and work, but Nicholson orders his officers to stand fast. Saito is infuriated by this act of defiance and backhands Nicholson in the face, but the latter refuses to back down. He cites the Geneva Convention accords, which state that officers who are prisoners-of-war are exempt from hard labor; he pulls out his copy. The Japanese commander throws the book down, reiterating that all prisoners will work, but still Nicholson refuses. The rest of the prisoners are sent to work, while Nicholson and his officers are left standing in the intense heat; as the day wears on, a few of them collapse. At the end of the day, the prisoners return to find Nicholson and the officers still standing at attention under the scorching sun. Saito then orders the officers into a punishment cage and Nicholson into his own wooden box for solitary confinement.

The next day, Major Clipton (James Donald), a British medic, requests that he be allowed to check the officers. Saito agrees on the condition that Clipton relay the message that unless Nicholson changes his mind, the British officers will be shot one by one, but Nicholson refuses to give in. In the meantime, the building of the bridge is severely behind schedule due to many accidents. Saito needs the officers to work if he is to meet the deadline imposed on him. If he fails, it will bring him great shame. This would oblige him to commit suicide by disemboweling himself with his sword, in the samurai tradition.

With no other choice, Saito reluctantly meets with Nicholson and the two come to a compromise: the officers will not work, but will oversee the construction and supervise the prisoners. Upon their release, Nicholson and his officers proudly walk through the camp, to a jubilant reception.

Meanwhile, three men attempt to escape, including Shears. The other two are killed, but Shears escapes, falling into the river and being swept downstream. After many days in the jungle, he stumbles into a small Burmese village, where he receives assistance to rejoin his side. Shears is shipped to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he is given a hero's welcome. While recuperating, he dallies with a lovely nurse.

Major Warden (Jack Hawkins), a member of the British Special Forces, asks to speak with him, mostly about details of the prison camp. Shears is about to be sent home, but he is happy to tell what he knows. Warden informs Shears that he is leading a small group of elite commandos on a mission to destroy the bridge. He then asks Shears to volunteer, since he would be the best guide. Shears refuses, but then Warden drops a bombshell: the real Commander Shears was killed some years back. The imposter before him is an enlisted man who impersonated him in the hope that he would get preferential treatment in prison. This didn't happen, so he had to resort to bribing the guards instead. The American Navy found out the truth, but because so much had been made about his escape, the Navy chose not to expose him to avoid the embarrassment. Knowing the consequences of his crime (death), Shears reluctantly gives in. In exchange though, he will be allowed to keep his rank without being brought up on charges, if he survives.

Back at the prison camp, Nicholson takes over the bridge project with maniacal enthusiasm; he tolerates no slackers, not even those in sickbay. When reminded that it is the duty of POW's to impede the enemy, he replies that it isn't a bridge that he wants to build, but a great monument that might last hundreds of years that the prisoners can be proud of. Nicholson realizes that the men need something to do to keep their spirits up. As the Japanese engineers had chosen a poor site, the original bridge is abandoned and construction of a new bridge is commenced 400 feet downriver.

Meanwhile, the commando unit parachutes in and makes its way to the river, assisted by native women porters. The bridge is finished on time. As the camp celebrates, Shears and Lieutenant Joyce (Geoffrey Horne) wire explosives to it under cover of darkness. The next day, a Japanese train full of soldiers is scheduled to be the first to cross over the bridge; Warden wants to blow up the bridge while the train is on it.

As dawn approaches, Nicholson proudly walks up and down the bridge, reminding Saito that it was British ingenuity and work ethic that built it, irritating the Japanese commander, though he is relieved that it was completed on time. As they make a final inspection, the receding water exposes the wire connected to the explosives as the train can be heard approaching. The two men hurry downstream, pulling up the wire.

When they get too close, Joyce breaks cover and fatally stabs Saito. Nicholson yells for help and then tries to stop the commando (who can't bring himself to kill Nicholson) from getting to the detonator. A firefight erupts. When Joyce is hit, Shears runs out into the open to finish the job, but is killed just before he can reach the colonel. Recognizing Shears, Nicholson suddenly comes to his senses and exclaims "What have I done!?!" as a mortar round mortally wounds him. Whether by intent or happenstance, he stumbles over to the plunger and falls on it, just in time to blow up the bridge and send the train hurtling into the river. (A full-sized bridge and a real train were used, probably the first time this was done without model shots since the silent film era. Buster Keaton's The General included an almost identical scene.)

His mission accomplished, Warden hobbles back into the jungle, aided by his Burmese porters. The British medic, Clipton, a witness to the horror and carnage, utters one of the most memorable last lines in the history of motion pictures, "Madness!!! Madness!!!"

[edit] Historical accuracy

The bridge over the Kwai River in June 2004. The round truss spans are the originals; the angular replacements were supplied by the Japanese as war reparations.

The story is based on the building in 1943 of one of the railway bridges over the Kwai Yai at a place called Tamarkan, five kilometres from the Thai town of Kanchanaburi. This was part of a project to link existing Thai and Burmese railway lines to create a route from Bangkok, Thailand to Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) to support the Japanese occupation of Burma. About a hundred thousand conscripted Asian labourers and 12,000 prisoners of war died on the whole project.

Although the suffering caused by the building of the Burma Railway and its bridges is true, the incidents in the film are mostly fictional. The real senior Allied officer at the bridge was Lieutenant Colonel (later Sir) Philip Toosey. Some consider the film to be an insulting parody of Toosey. On the BBC Timewatch programme, a former prisoner at the camp said that it is unlikely that a man like the fictional Nicholson could have risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel. If he had, he thought that the 'Nicholson' character probably would have been "quietly eliminated" by the other prisoners.

Julie Summers, in her book The Colonel of Tamarkan, said that Pierre 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.

The destruction of the bridge as depicted in the film is entirely fictional. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel and concrete bridge a few months later. Both bridges were used for two years until they were destroyed by Allied aerial bombing using the AZON bomb. The steel bridge was repaired and is still in use today.

[edit] Primary cast

• Alec Guinness : Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson
• Sessue Hayakawa : Colonel Saito
• William Holden : Commander Shears
• Jack Hawkins : Major Warden
• James Donald : Major Clipton, medic
• Geoffrey Horne : Lieutenant Joyce
• Peter Williams : Captain Reeves
• André Morell : Colonel Green
• John Boxer : Major Hughes
• Percy Herbert : Private Grogan
• Harold Goodwin : Private Baker
• Ann Sears : Nurse at Ceylon hospital
• Heihachiro Okawa : Captain Kanematsu
• Keiichiro Katsumoto : Lieutenant Miura
• M.R.B. Chakrabandhu : Yaityu

[edit] Awards

[edit] Academy Awards

Other awards:

• BAFTA Award for Best Film
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
• New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Film
• Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (David Lean, Assistants: Gus Agosti & Ted Sturgis)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture (David Lean)
• New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Director (David Lean)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (Alec Guinness)
• New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor (Alec Guinness)

Other nominations:

• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture (Sessue Hayakawa)
• Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album, Dramatic Picture Score or Original Cast (Malcolm Arnold)

The screenwriters, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, were on the Hollywood blacklist and could only work secretly. Pierre Boulle, who did not speak English, was given screen credit for adapting his own novel, and the Oscar was awarded to him. Only in 1984 did the Academy rectify the situation by awarding the Oscar to Foreman and Wilson retrospectively (and posthumously in both cases, although Foreman did live long enough to know that it was going to happen). At about the same time a new release of the film finally gave them proper screen credit.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

It was ranked #14 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers.

[edit] Music

A memorable feature of the movie is the tune that is whistled by the POWs — the Colonel Bogey March. This piece, originally written in 1914 by Kenneth Alford, was rearranged by Sir Malcolm Arnold and is now widely associated with the movie. The new version is called the River Kwai March and has a new counter-melody. The film won an academy award for its score.

• The Colonel Bogey March MIDI file

Besides serving as an example of British fortitude and dignity in the face of privation, the Colonel Bogey March suggested (whether or not it was intended by the screenwriters) a specific symbol of defiance to older movie-goers; many World War II veterans and some of their baby boomer children associated the melody with a vulgar verse about Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany and Japan's principal ally during the war. Although the mocking lyrics were not used in the film, audience members of the time knew them well enough to mentally sing along when the tune was heard.

[edit] See also

• JEATH War Museum

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Bridge on the River Kwai

• Account of bombing crew
• The Bridge on the River Kwai at the Internet Movie Database (1957)