10 facts about the bridge on the river kwai

They would work in appalling conditions, given minuscule amounts of food, snatches of sleep, and little to no medical treatment. Did he really want the enemy to come in across it? The march was written in 1914 by Kenneth J. Alford, a pseudonym of British Bandmaster Frederick J. Ricketts. 19. The Bridge on the River Kwai | Plot, Cast, Awards, & Facts [23], British composer Malcolm Arnold recalled that he had "ten days to write around forty-five minutes worth of music" much less time than he was used to. Bridge on the River Kwai - silverfox175 For the scene when Colonel Nicholson emerges from the oven after several days confined there, Alec Guinness based his faltering walk on that of his son Matthew Guinness when he was recovering from polio. It is a landmark of Kanchanaburi Province. Here is 'Minder' telling me to get the timber off the base and start cutting up the dowels. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Forced labourers were labourers taken from the populations of Japan-conquered territories. First Joyce and then Shears are killed in the ensuing gunfire. Thanbyuzayat is in Myanmar. Disease was a huge killer among railway workers, but so was brutality. Updates? The Bridge On The River Kwai Trivia: Fun And Interesting Facts About As the train approaches, they hurry down to the riverbank to investigate. What I Learned From Watching: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957 Kanchanaburi is served by a rail service from Bangkok Noi . Kanburi wasnt a work camp as such. 20. The Bridge On The River Kwai | Film Locations It spans crosses the lazily winding Khwae Noi at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The film won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) at the 30th Academy Awards. 22. Image: British troops surrender at Singapore. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is an epic World War II adventure/action, anti-war drama. Bridge on the River Kwai - Thaizer 28. His compassion and insistence on equality amongst the ranks ensured he protected his men as best he could. 3. Japanese guards were known for their cruelty and would frequently torture and assault their prisoners. Omissions? Has two but they are small. 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. Carl Foreman was the initial screenwriter, but Lean replaced him with Michael Wilson. Allied soldiers had built a church and a hospital on the site where the cemetery now sits. The rail link, however, would . 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. Some sections, such as the infamous Hellfire Pass, required carving through tough sheer rock. In 1997, the movie was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. A Cholera epidemic swept through Nieke Camp between May-June 1943. 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. There's a stench of death about you. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle.Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-1943, the plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay are almost entirely fictional. He was contracted for $150,000 to be paid in installments. 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. But I am writing a factual account, and in justice to these menliving and deadwho worked on that bridge, I must make it clear that we never did so willingly. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. David Lean, director of such landmark epics as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, didn't always make giant movies. Bought 4 and 6 mm dowel wood for bridge piers. They were calling it the Death Railway. He'd just been through a costly divorce from actress Ann Todd. Has something sim'lar "[53], Among retrospective reviews, Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, noting that it is one of the few war movies that "focuses not on larger rights and wrongs but on individuals", but commented that the viewer is not certain what is intended by the final dialogue due to the film's shifting points of view. Questions or feedback on our new site? They felt none of the Bridge on the River Kwai cast could fully understand or represent what it was like to be there. 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. 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 screenplay was instead credited to the novelist, Boullewhich was quite a feat, since he didnt speak or read English. Within 16 months the bridge was completed but it took another two years to complete the entire rail line. 21. For one sunset scene, David Lean specifically traveled 150 miles to capture it. Their taskmasters were relentless. 12. 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.. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle. International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges. Return trains are 12.55 and 15.15. The River Kwai, also known as Khwae Noi or Khwae Sai Yok is a river located in the western region of Thailand. British and American intelligence officers conspire . In the film, Lt. Col Nicholson is seen collaborating with his captors, even under duress. Instead, the Lt. Col would stand up for his men when necessary to try to alleviate some of their hardships. The British soldiers were slaves; they did not help the Japanese. 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. The majority of its smaller components are originals, while a few are post-war replacements. 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. [30], A 1969 BBC television documentary, Return to the River Kwai, made by former POW John Coast,[33] sought to highlight the real history behind the film (partly through getting ex-POWs to question its factual basis, for example Dr Hugh de Wardener and Lt-Col Alfred Knights), which angered many former POWs. 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. Is Bridge on River Kwai a true story? - IronSet 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. It was 425 feet long, 90 feet high, and cost $52,085 out of the film's $2 million budget. The line passing through the scenic Three Pagodas Pass runs for 250 miles. This article is part of our Classic Film Throwback series - By Sam Hendrian - "Madness. Despite the discomfort the rest of the crew were experiencing, Lean was thrilled about the shoot and never complained about his living conditions. See some of the commonly asked questions about the Special Committee. His first epic was his twelfth film: The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden as P.O.W. Its a charming, idyllic spot, belying the intense horror and suffering the men who built it went through. Some Japanese viewers resented the movie's depiction of their engineers' capabilities as inferior and less advanced than they were in reality. The adventure war film The Bridge on the River Kwai may have swept the board of awards and attracted acclaim as one best films of the 20th century, but the War Office was very nervous "it would . It is also known as the "River Kwai March". Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson have written the screenplay for this film. After the final scene was shot, producer Sam Spiegel shipped the movie footage on five different planes to minimize the risk of loss. The story about this bridge has also been made into a Hollywood movie such as "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), which is based on the novel of the same name and another movie . Allied bombers struck the wooden bridge and its concrete counterpart in February 1945 with one of the earliest uses of guided bombs in history. Read the response of the CWGC to the findings of the Special Committee. 7. All Rights Reserved. Shears, who is a British commando officer like Warden in the novel, became an American sailor who escapes from the POW camp. Only he survives, though he is wounded. All the filming locations of The Bridge on the River Kwai are listed below. Prisoners, including the sick, were marched to camps further along Death Railway. Bridge on the River Kwai; the true story - Digger History Sam Spiegel bought the railroad train from the Ceylonese government. The movie won seven Academy Awards, one for Best Picture. Goering Highly competent work is also done by William Holden, Jack Hawkins and Sessue Hayakawa". Toosey would provide the inspiration for Lt. Col Nicholson portrayed by Alec Guinness in the 1957 film. Construction began before anyone had been cast. 11. The Bridge On The River Kwai Film Facts. The Bridge on the River Kwai / Trivia - TV Tropes The Bridge on the River Kwai is now widely recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. Pride, Fatalism, and Human Connection in 'The Bridge on the River Kwai The bridge cost $250,000 to build. The Kwai River Bridge was part of the meter-gauge railway constructed by the Japanese during World War Two. [27] Gavin Young[28] recounts meeting Donald Wise, a former prisoner of the Japanese who had worked on the Burma Railway. David Lean is taken that story and directed it in 1957. Although the Death Railway has never again reached the Myanmar border, a shorter stretch was reopened by Thailand's railway authorities between 1949 and 1958, and trains on this modern-day line cross the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai. Express 08:30, 10:30. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The bridge, several museums, and cemeteries have respectfully preserved the history and memorialized the dead. Victims were cremated and their remains are buried in the aforementioned graves. 's working to build and/or destroy a bridge for the Japanese during World War II. Harry Cohn, the vulgar (but successful) man who ran Columbia Pictures at the time, was furious when he read the script and saw no . In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . In fact, the cemetery is the original burial ground started by the prisoners themselves. The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. Lets examine the history behind the film and the men who made it. [18] The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala. The movie is based on the novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai by Pierre Boulle. Wise: "I never heard it in Thailand. This was an incorrect assumption. When Joyce is wounded by Japanese fire, Shears swims across, but is himself shot. The Bridge on the River Kwai - Anzac Portal 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). He succumbed to malaria, dysentery, and malnutrition at Camp Kilo 101 in Thailand. Leadership Analysis: The Bridge On The River Kwai | MBA Skool The Bridge on the River Kwai - Wikipedia The process of adapting Pierre Boulle's French-language novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai was difficult (more on that later), but the two writers ultimately responsible for it were Carl Foreman (High Noon) and Michael Wilson (A Place in the Sun). 14. The movie garnered seven Academy Awards, including that for best picture, as well as three Golden Globe Awards and four BAFTA awards. Camps were set up at 100-metre intervals. 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. Visiting The Bridge On The River Kwai, Kanchanaburi Wrote Guinness: "I felt like turning around and getting back on the plane and paying my own fare home!" 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. Since it first graced the silver screen won the admiration of audiences everywhere and continues to do so. ", Warden fires a mortar, killing Shears and Joyce and fatally wounding Nicholson. The real River Kwai, and its bridge, is in what was then Siam, now Thailand.The name 'River Kwai' refers to the Khwae Noi and Khwae Yai rivers in western Thailand, which converge to become the Mae Klong river at Kanchanaburi, about 70 miles northwest of Bangkok, and it was across the Mae Klong that the infamous bridge was built. On another occasion, they argued over the scene where Nicholson reflects on his career in the army. . Rather than start building at two ends and meet in the middle, as per normal railway construction, the Japanese created hundreds of camps across its lengths. 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. Ian Watts, longtime professor of English at Stanford and author of the landmark The Rise of the Novel, had actually been a prisoner in the camp and helped with the construction of the bridge. [3] Since it was not a documentary, there are many historical inaccuracies in the film, as noted by eyewitnesses to the building of the real Burma Railway by historians.[30][31][32][33]. The movie was mainly filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and also in England. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. He shows a rare sense of humor and a feeling for the poetry of situation; and he shows the even rarer ability to express these things, not in lines but in lives. Lets find out. There are tourist trains to Nam Tok stopping at stations in between daily from the River Kwai Bridge station at 06.05, 11.00 and 14.30. The cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service to hold casualties made along the railways southern Bangkok to Nieke section. It is famously known as the setting for the a 1957 World War Two epic Bridge over the River Kwai. The Bridge on the River Kwai was widely praised, winning seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the 30th Academy Awards. The Bridge of the River kwai It is a tourist attraction of Kanchanaburi. The destruction of the bridge as depicted in the film is also entirely fictional. 2. Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. Journeying to the jungle where The Bridge On The River Kwai was filmed Sign-up for free daily emails with the latest news about British culture, heritage, and history! During WW II, Japan constructed the meter-gauge railway line from Ban Pong, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. Instead of the five year predicted completion, the bridge on river Kwai, was completed in 16 months. He didn't like the screenplay because it reduced Nicholson to secondary status. Join us in an act of virtual remembrance and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. At one point during filming, David Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by a river current. This was an entertaining story. Their roles and characters, however, are fictionalised. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. 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. Other parts have been placed in various local war museums. Interested in advertising on the world's largest website dedicated to all things Britain? One of the biggest causes of ire was the treatment of Toosey. As it opens, two POWs, the American navy commander Shears (William Holden) and an Australian, are digging graves for their companions. Boulle was given sole credit on the film and was awarded the Oscar for best screenplay. David Lean, a British director then in his late forties, had made 11 films, including well-received adaptations of Charles Dickens (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist) and Noel Coward (Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter). Kwai River Bridge history. 13. 1. 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). [39], The major railway bridge described in the novel and film did not actually cross the river known at the time as the Kwai. Check here to see our open positions and volunteer roles. The Bridge on the River Kwai | Moviepedia | Fandom 10 Day Central Thailand with River Kwai & Pattaya Family Tour Although the obvious link was by sea, Allied submarines controlling the region made it too treacherous. For example, a Sergeant-Major Risaburo Saito was in real life second in command at the camp. Kanchanaburi town is located around 130 kilometres northwest of Bangkok. 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. ", The screenwriters, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, were on the Hollywood blacklist and, even though living in exile in England, could only work on the film in secret. Tickets are 100 baht. It had previously belonged to an Indian maharajah and had seen 65 years of active service. In reality, Risaburo Saito was respected by his prisoners for being comparatively merciful and fair towards them. The Burma-Siam Railways construction necessitated construction of over 670 bridges and numerous cuttings. 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. We worked at bayonet point and under bamboo lash, taking any risk to sabotage the operation whenever the opportunity arose. [63], The film was restored in 1985 by Columbia Pictures. 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. "[50] Kaplan further praised the actors, especially Alec Guinness, later writing "the film is unquestionably" his. Servicemen who survived the death marches, appalling working conditions, and savage treatment by their guards thought the film nor book reflected the realities of their experience. Though he'd already earned five Oscar nominations (three for directing, two for adapting the Dickens novels) and would soon be widely celebrated for Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Doctor Zhivago (1965), at this stage, Lean was in trouble. Nicholson yells for help, while attempting to stop Joyce from reaching the detonator. Toosey was very different from Nicholson and was certainly not a collaborator who felt obliged to work with the Japanese. The bridge is still in everyday use as part of the Bangkok-Nam Tok line. as soon as he signed, Lean borrowed $2,000 from Columbia Pictures to get his teeth fixed. Nicholson objects, informing Saito the Geneva Convention exempts officers from manual labour.