Lets examine the history behind the film and the men who made it. Starring Alec Guinness, it depicts the struggles and defiance of Japanese prisoners of war building the fictional Burma railway between 1943-44. It also won the BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay. Instead of the five year predicted completion, the bridge on river Kwai, was completed in 16 months. The place is regarded as "The Symbol of Peace". The movie was filmed in Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. [44], 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[45] but the following year its revised total US and Canadian revenues were reported by Variety as $17,195,000. David Lean, director of such landmark epics as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, didn't always make giant movies. Nicholson will not cooperate and finally insists that the bridge can be built only under his command. The Bridge on the River Kwai Facts for Kids. 24. In 1984 the Academy Board of Governors voted posthumous Oscars to Foreman and Wilson, and their names were included on prints of the film beginning in the 1990s. Lean liked that draft even less. The line passing through the scenic Three Pagodas Pass runs for 250 miles. The separate dialogue, music and effects were located and remixed with newly recorded "atmospheric" sound effects. The screenplay was instead credited to the novelist, Boullewhich was quite a feat, since he didnt speak or read English. American casualties were repatriated back to the United States. They were calling it the Death Railway. The British soldiers were slaves; they did not help the Japanese. In the film, a Colonel Saito is camp commandant. The movie has been included on the American Film Institutes list of best American films ever made. [38] Some Japanese viewers also disliked the film for portraying the Allied prisoners of war as more capable of constructing the bridge than the Japanese engineers themselves were, accusing the filmmakers of being unfairly biased and unfamiliar with the realities of the bridge construction, a sentiment echoed by surviving prisoners of war who saw the film in cinemas. 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). Thank God that I'm starting work tomorrow with an American actor (William Holden). In the setting of World War II, a defeated unit British Soldiers is marched into a Japanese prison camp in western Thailand, with the purpose of constructing a bridge over the River Kwai to carry a new railway line to invade Burma. Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to England in order to continue working. Nicholson yells for help, while attempting to stop Joyce from reaching the detonator. First Joyce and then Shears are killed in the ensuing gunfire. 3. The surviving sections stand as monuments to the men who suffered so much to build them. It spans crosses the lazily winding Khwae Noi at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Their taskmasters were relentless. After the enlisted men are marched to the bridge site, Saito threatens to have the officers shot, until Major Clipton, the British medical officer, warns Saito there are too many witnesses for him to get away with murder. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. Have a question about us or our work? Death Railway was bombed heavily by the Allies from 1943 onwards. [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. 25. They are joined by approximately 1,850 Dutch casualties and one non-war grave. 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. In fact, the cemetery is the original burial ground started by the prisoners themselves. Interested in advertising on the world's largest website dedicated to all things Britain? The bridge cost $250,000 to build. In particular, they objected to the implication presented in the film that Japanese military engineers were generally unskilled at their profession and lacked proficiency. Thanbyuzayat continued to be used as a POW reception centre to reinforce work parties along the Burma-Siam Railway. He didn't like the screenplay because it reduced Nicholson to secondary status. During the cutting of Hellfire Pass, for example, 69 men were beaten to death across a twelve-week period. As Ashton explained, it was so cheap because "we used local labor and elephants; and the timber was cut nearby.". Explore the CWGC Archive through our online portal. (Lean denied ever wanting Laughton for the role, despite abundant documented evidence to the contrary.). Tracy had read the book and told Spiegel emphatically that the part must be played by an Englishman. It was more of a transit hub where prisoners were moved to other work areas along the railway route. [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. A Cholera epidemic swept through Nieke Camp between May-June 1943. 9. It was set up at the beginning of the Burma-Siams construction. [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]. In a prison camp, British POWs are forced into labor. The weather is good, not hot The train passes at 10 AM and the train returns at 4 PM. Both bridges stood for two years and were destroyed by bombers in 1945. $ 3 million (estimated) 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 ). Read our Cookie Policy, Terms & Conditions and Data Protection & Privacy Policy. as for the bridge on the River Kwai, it crossed the river only in the imagination of its author. The cemetery itself is located just outside the town of Kanchanaburi at the point where the Kwai splits into the Mae Khlong and Kwai Noi rivers. Chungkai was also a POW worker base camp. The year: 1943. Laughton was in his habitually overweight state, and was either denied insurance coverage, or was simply not keen on filming in a tropical location. Bus Bangkok - Kanchanaburi $ 7.19 3h 30m. Carl Foreman was the initial screenwriter, but Lean replaced him with Michael Wilson. He didn't like the next draft of the screenplay, either, because it made Nicholson "a blinkered character." 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All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. 19. In the meantime, Shears manages to escape. Nevertheless, the leeches in the recreated swamps were real. The Bridge Over the River Kwai won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) in 1958. Its a charming, idyllic spot, belying the intense horror and suffering the men who built it went through. Sri Lanka Filming Locations: The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) Posted on July 17, 2017 by tokyofox. This is now known as the Death Railway. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and scooped up seven Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor. "[47] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [63], The film was restored in 1985 by Columbia Pictures. [34] 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. When Columbia Pictures read the script for Kwai, it was concerned that the story was too much about men and had no love interest. In the film, Lt. Col Nicholson is seen collaborating with his captors, even under duress. Other parts have been placed in various local war museums. Also, the dense surrounding jungle renders escape virtually impossible. Bridge Over The River Kwai Timing: 24-hrs. While the story is fiction, the broader setting--including the construction of the Burmese railway--is based on historical events. A real train rode over the bridge as it blew up. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Please select which sections you would like to print: Pat Bauer graduated from Ripon College in 1977 with a double major in Spanish and Theatre. They were supported by an unknown number of Malaysian labourers. California Doubling: The film is set in Thailand, but was filmed in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), a distinction the publicity of the time didn't see fit to make clear.Instead, it raved about the movie being shot in Ceylon in a way which implied the real-life River Kwai was located there. See details. Let's talk about British Food! The film won seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) at the 30th Academy Awards. Spiegel sent the screenplay to the Japanese government ahead of time, hoping to get their cooperation with the production. Approximately 5 kilometres north of Kanchanaburi there were two bridges that were built by POWs during the war. comment. Following the raids, Thanbyuzayat was evacuated. The place: Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma. Concurrently, Shears, after a harrowing journey in which he nearly loses his life more than once, is rescued by the British and then required to lead a group of commandoes headed by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) back to the POW camp that he escaped from in order to blow up the bridge. Lean wanted to use the tune in Kwai, figured those lyrics wouldn't pass the censors (or the approval of the composer's widow), and opted to have the troops whistle it instead. 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. After the final scene was shot, producer Sam Spiegel shipped the movie footage on five different planes to minimize the risk of loss. The train crashed into a generator on the other side of the bridge and was wrecked. 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. This film is taken from a popular novel written by Pierre Boulle in 1952. But whats the real story? [40], The Bridge on the River Kwai was a massive commercial success. He also didn't like hearing that he was Lean's second choice for the role, a fact made more awkward when he arrived in Ceylon and Lean greeted him with, "Of course, you know I really wanted Charles Laughton." Laughton would die (of cancer) five years later, at the age of 63. Of course, he could not save many of his men from expiring, but he did their best to make conditions more comfortable. Thanbyuzayat was originally a POW administration headquarters and base camp. Toosey was very different from Nicholson and was certainly not a collaborator who felt obliged to work with the Japanese. Return trains are 12.55 and 15.15. There's a stench of death about you. Alec Guiness, William Holden, and Jack Hawkins in front of bridge they built in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. Like thousands of other POWs, Lamb was kept in degrading conditions, refused medical treatment and barely fed. 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. Tonight, enjoy dinner at a hotel restaurant Overnight: Kanchanaburi c. 1945. By the end, prisoners working on the rail route werent calling it the Burma-Siam Railway. [7][8] In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th century. The Bridge on the River Kwai. Just two months later, Lieutenant Lamb was dead. In the movie the bridge is destroyed by commandos. In 1941 the Japanese Army invaded Thailand. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. Express 08:30, 10:30. 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. train on the bridge over the river kwai in kanchanaburi, thailan - bridge over the river kwai stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images FLOATING HOUSES ON THE RIVER KWAI, KANCHANABURI, THAILAND. 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. 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. ABC, sponsored by Ford, paid a record $1.8 million for the television rights for two screenings in the United States. Want to work for the CWGC? David Lean's 1957 epic Bridge on the River Kwai is regarded as one of the all-time great war films. By 1944, its operational capacity was being massively hampered by the damage caused by air raids. 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. Desperate, he uses the anniversary of Japan's 1905 victory in the Russo-Japanese War as an excuse to save face; he announces a general amnesty, releasing Nicholson and his officers and exempting them from manual labour. After Guinness was done with the scene, Lean said, "Now you can all fuck off and go home, you English actors. 6 Interesting And Awesome Facts About Dondokomon From Digimon, 20 Amazing And Fun Facts About San Bernardino, California, United States, 26 Fun And Fascinating Facts About The Gods Of Egypt Movie, 15 Interesting And Fun Facts About Napa, California, United States, 20 Interesting And Amazing Facts About National City, California, United States, 15 Interesting And Fascinating Facts About Needles, California, United States, 15 Interesting And Amazing Facts About Nevada City, California, United States, 15 Amazing And Interesting Facts About Newark, California, United States. [Ronald Searle, To the Kwai and Back: War drawings 1939-45, London, Collins, 1986, 104] 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' is now the best-known site on the Burma-Thailand railway but its fame is due more to a fictional film than its significance in World War II. Best time to visit Bridge Over The River Kwai (preferred time): 09:00 am - 01:00 pm. The majority of its smaller components are originals, while a few are post-war replacements. It is also known as the "River Kwai March". His first epic was his twelfth film: The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden as P.O.W. Allied bombers struck the wooden bridge and its concrete counterpart in February 1945 with one of the earliest uses of guided bombs in history. The Bridge on the River Kwai poses complex interpretive issues about the vagaries of war and military behavior as conveyed by the Japanese soldiers, Commander Saito, Lt. Col. Nicholson, and the British captives. (Spiegel got a British military adviser to help with that side of things, too.). As it opens, two POWs, the American navy commander Shears (William Holden) and an Australian, are digging graves for their companions. 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. 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 . 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. Cutting the base board 1190 x 160 x 12 mm. It is close to, but not over the country's border with Myanmar. Drilled holes for the piers; and cut them to length. But Laughton, a fine actor with such credits as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) on his resume, was in poor physical shapegreat for playing the corpulent Henry VIII in Young Bess (1953), not so great for playing a British military officer in a prison camp. The film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Guinness), not to mention a handful of Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and even a Grammy nomination for its soundtrack. The Suez Canal crisis of 1956 badly affected production. 20. "[57], Some Japanese viewers have disliked the film's depiction of the Japanese characters and the historical background presented as being inaccurate, particularly in the interactions between Saito and Nicholson. The actual bridge on the River Kwai is located in Thailand, and stretches over a part of the Mae Klong river, which was renamed Khwae Yai (Thai for big tributary). Get information about our funding, our Customer Charter and our Strategic Plan. The rail link, however, would . They built a railway to link Bangkok to Rangoon. [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. Allied soldiers had built a church and a hospital on the site where the cemetery now sits. Disease was a huge killer among railway workers, but so was brutality. Tickets are 100 baht. Only minor damage was inflicted. [9], The film was relatively faithful to the novel, with two major exceptions. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. To keep costs down, producer Sam Spiegel decided not to hire any extras, using crew members and Ceylon locals instead. After the war, their remains were moved from these makeshift cemeteries and graveyards to purpose-built Commission sites. : 1942: Boldly advancing through Asia, the Japanese need a train route from Burma going north. 15- "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.". 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. Alec Guiness overseeing men working on the tracks in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. Pitted against the warden, Colonel . [10], Although Lean later denied it, Charles Laughton was his first choice for the role of Nicholson. He was listed as missing in action in June 1943. Under cover of darkness, Shears and Joyce plant explosives on the bridge towers. Some of the Second World War's fiercest battles involved bridges and inspired some riveting accounts - capture of key bridges (Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day"; Stephen. This was an incorrect assumption. 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. Within 16 months the bridge was completed but it took another two years to complete the entire rail line. Prior to casting Alec Guinness, Sam Spiegel tried to persuade Spencer Tracy to play the part of Colonel Nicholson. It had previously belonged to an Indian maharajah and had seen 65 years of active service. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The Hitchhiker's Guide has this to say about John Rabon: When not pretending to travel in time and space, eating bananas, and claiming that things are "fantastic", John lives in North Carolina. [54] Slant magazine gave the film four out of five stars. Bridge Over The River Kwai Address: Tha Makham, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Has two but they are small. 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. Spiegel, the producer, bought the film rights to the book (the English version of which was called The Bridge Over the River Kwai) and hired Carl Foreman to write the script. Just as in Love is a Many Splendored Thing, normally hairy chested William Holden had to have a full body wax for his many shirtless scenes in the movie. He was contracted for $150,000 to be paid in installments. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. The real Bridge over the River Kwai is bridge 277 of the Burma-Siam Railway. Construction of the Burma-Siam railway began in October 1942 and would end in October 1943. The commandoes arrive for their mission as the finishing touches are being put on the bridge. The film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" dramatized the WWII story of the Thailand-Burma Railway, yet it was largely fictional. Real Bridge on the River Kwai. The key sites containing Thailand and Burma war graves related to Death Railway and the Bridge on the River Kwai are: Kanchanaburi War Cemetery is located a short distance from the former Kanburi POW camp. Bangkok - Kanchanaburi More info / Tickets. The film was directed by David Lean and starred William Holding, Jack Hawkins and academy award winner Sir Alex Guinness. 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. 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. But, what about the real men behind the real story of the construction of the Burma-Siam Railway? 1. [35], Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey of the British Army was the real senior Allied officer at the bridge in question. Boulle nonetheless enjoyed the film version though he disagreed with its climax. While Nicholson disapproves of acts of sabotage and other deliberate attempts to delay progress, Toosey encouraged this: termites were collected in large numbers to eat the wooden structures, and the concrete was badly mixed. ", 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. The plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay were almost entirely fictional. Over a muddy jungle river called Kwai, a Japanese colonel, Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), must complete a railroad bridge vital to Japan's war effort. The railway route, which ran through Burma and Thailand, had been planned by the British. Starring Alec Guinness, William Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa, among others, it paints an . Part of this project was building bridges over Thailand's Kwai Yai, at a place named Tamarkan, which is near a town named Kanchanaburi.