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 . For all the death and misery caused by its building, the Burma-Siam Railway only ever carried two Japanese divisions and 500,000 tons of supplies before VJ Day brought the war in Asia to a close. The place: Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma. 's working to build and/or destroy a bridge for the Japanese during World War II. It is close to, but not over the country's border with Myanmar. Kanchanaburi, in Myanmar border, is home to the famous Bridge River Kwai. Both bridges were used for two years, until they were destroyed by Allied bombing. The Bridge Over the River Kwai. Use our search tools to explore our records and find out about those we commemorate. Its estimated around 16,000 Allied prisoners of war were killed during construction of the Burma-Siam Railway. In 1941 the Japanese Army invaded Thailand. 25 March 1995. Contact us, Image: Rows of graves at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Image: Kanchanaburi Dutch Memorial commemorates Dutch POWs who died building Death Railway, Image: Chungkai War Cemetery's Cross of Sacrifice, Image: The Pavilion at Chungkai War Cemetery, Image: The cemetery's horticulture gives Chungkai a sense of serenity, Image: The Stone of Remembrance at Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Image: Headstones and horticulture at Thanbyuzayat, Get the latest CWGC news and see some of our recent work, Report of the Special Committee to review historical inequalities in Commemoration, Discover world war casualties who lived in your area, The True Story of the Bridge over the River Kwai, Why and how were restoring the Menin Gate: What you need to know about this amazing project, A push through the desert: How The Allies Captured Jericho in 1918, Visit Commonwealth war graves in Arras, France. The steel bridge was repaired and is still in use today. Approximately 5 kilometres north of Kanchanaburi there were two bridges that were built by POWs during the war. ", 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. [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]. [35], Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey of the British Army was the real senior Allied officer at the bridge in question. 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. Recognising Shears, Nicholson exclaims, "What have I done? 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International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges. He had basically retired when Lean approached him to play Colonel Saito in Kwai, a performance that earned Hayakawa an Oscar nomination. The real swamps in Ceylon were deemed to be too dangerous. Thanbyuzayat continued to be used as a POW reception centre to reinforce work parties along the Burma-Siam Railway. Commonwealth war graves commission Caring for the fallen, Commonwealth war graves foundation Our charity site. In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . Begun in October 1942, using prisoner of war (POW) labour, it was completed and operational by early February 1943. Young: "Donald, did anyone whistle Colonel Bogey as they did in the film?" Bridge On The River Kwai is an Epic war-based film. Prior to casting Alec Guinness, Sam Spiegel tried to persuade Spencer Tracy to play the part of Colonel Nicholson. 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. 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 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. 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. Workers died at a rate of 20 men per day. Cutting the base board 1190 x 160 x 12 mm. 3. The movie starring William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins was shot at more than 1 locations. Sessue Hayakawa considered his performance as Saito as the highlight of his career. Of course, he could not save many of his men from expiring, but he did their best to make conditions more comfortable. Japanese guards were known for their cruelty and would frequently torture and assault their prisoners. What's happening in this "The Bridge on the River Kwai" movie clip?Warden (Jack Hawkins from Land of the Pharaohs and Ben-Hur) fires a mortar, wounding Nicho. 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. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Bridge On The River Kwai Trivia: Fun And Interesting . Find the latest updates on the work of the Special Committee. See details. Madness! The bridge they build will become a symbol of service and survival to one prisoner, Colonel Nicholson, a proud perfectionist. ", Warden fires a mortar, killing Shears and Joyce and fatally wounding Nicholson. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The line passing through the scenic Three Pagodas Pass runs for 250 miles. ABC, sponsored by Ford, paid a record $1.8 million for the television rights for two screenings in the United States. A small tourist train offers rides across the bridges span, while pedestrians can also travel over it on foot. 11. It was set up at the beginning of the Burma-Siams construction. The Bridge on the River Kwai was actually one of the reasons movies started becoming prime-time television programming. The bridge depicted in the film is most definitely real. The casualties of the Burma-Siam railway were often buried in camp burial grounds located close to where they originally fell. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. Colonel Saito, the camp commandant, informs the new prisoners they will all work, even officers, on the construction of a railway bridge over the River Kwai that will connect Bangkok and Rangoon. [64] The image was restored by OCS, Freeze Frame, and Pixel Magic with George Hively editing. He was listed as missing in action in June 1943. As shown in the movie, Guinness played the scene without flinching. 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. 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). Pay on the train. 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. Wise: "I never heard it in Thailand. US Navy Commander Shears tells of the horrific conditions. 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. [22], Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by the river current during a break from filming.[23]. Bridge Over The River Kwai Timing: 24-hrs. All but a small section of the route was built in dense, malarial jungles, in sweltering heat and monsoon rains. [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. Victims were cremated and their remains are buried in the aforementioned graves. Nicholson's obsession with the bridge eventually drives him to allow his officers to volunteer to engage in manual labor. As the train approaches, they hurry down to the riverbank to investigate. - Colonel Saito, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai '. The bridge construction is going badly, however, and Saito offers concessions to Nicholson in an effort to get the structure completed on schedule. Nicholson spots the wire and brings it to Saito's attention. The river is the Mae Klong River which passes through a valley of the Khwae Noi River (little tributary). There's a stench of death about you. The British Film Institute placed The Bridge on the River Kwai as the 11th greatest British film. 4. In reality, Risaburo Saito was respected by his prisoners for being comparatively merciful and fair towards them. According to one biographer, he was "broke and needed work; he had even pawned his gold cigarette case." Along with 1,250 other POWs, he died while in transit from Singapore to Japan aboard the Rakuyo Maro transport ship after it was torpedoed by a US submarine. So Spiegel hired another writer, Calder Willingham, to give it a crack. Its construction came about because Japan needed another supply route to link Singapore and Malaysia to its possessions in Burma following Singapores fall in February 1942. His compassion and insistence on equality amongst the ranks ensured he protected his men as best he could. 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 . Lean had a lengthy row with Guinness over how to play the role of Nicholson; the actor wanted to play the part with a sense of humour and sympathy, while Lean thought Nicholson should be "a bore." Questions or feedback on our new site? The Kanchanaburi Memorial sits with the cemetery grounds. They are joined by approximately 1,850 Dutch casualties and one non-war grave. Cast the Expert: Percy Herbert, who played the role of a prisoner of war in the film, actually spent four . [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. He served as an adviser during the making of the movie. [19], Guinness later said that he subconsciously based his walk while emerging from "the Oven" on that of his eleven-year-old son Matthew,[20] who was recovering from polio at the time, a disease that left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. The British soldiers were slaves; they did not help the Japanese. FIFTY years ago waves of Liberator bombers were deliberately destroying a remarkable feat of engineering. The bridge is still in everyday use as part of the Bangkok-Nam Tok line. 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.). (Lean denied ever wanting Laughton for the role, despite abundant documented evidence to the contrary.). The movie was mainly filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and also in England. On another occasion, they argued over the scene where Nicholson reflects on his career in the army. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was set in 1942, shortly after the fall of Singapore. Check here to see our open positions and volunteer roles. It was released in the US on December 14, 1957, taking in a reported $17M+, which made it the highest-grossing film of 1957. Get information about our funding, our Customer Charter and our Strategic Plan. 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). Just a stone's throw from the Menin Gate, visit our Information Centre to learn more about the CWGC. Although unconvinced of its merits, Lean agreed to include Shears affair with a British nurse. "[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. English / Japanese / Thai. At the POW camp, Nicholson not only requires officers to work on the bridge but also pulls men from the hospital in order to meet Saitos deadline for the project. What's your favorite? [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. Spiegel had it refurbished completely and then had one mile of railway track laid for it. The surviving sections stand as monuments to the men who suffered so much to build them. It begins with British troops being marched into the prison camp after their surrender to the Japanese at Singapore. 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. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. This records the names of 11 Indian army men buried in Muslim cemeteries throughout Thailand whose graves could not be maintained. 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. While the British prisoners celebrate their accomplishment that night, the commandoes wire the bridge with explosives to be detonated by a plunger operated by a hidden soldier, timed to collapse the bridge just as an inaugural train carrying Japanese dignitaries is crossing it. 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. [63], The film was restored in 1985 by Columbia Pictures. As it opens, two POWs, the American navy commander Shears (William Holden) and an Australian, are digging graves for their companions. By the way, the real Kwai River was just a trickle near Burma, where Boulle set his bridge; the actual bridge had been built 200 miles away, near Bangkok. Parts of the Burma-Siam railway still stand. The Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi 1942. Although the obvious link was by sea, Allied submarines controlling the region made it too treacherous. Tickets are 100 baht. Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to England in order to continue working. Lambs sister received a letter from him in September 1943, saying he was in excellent health and being treated well by his captors. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). The Suez Canal crisis of 1956 badly affected production. To counter the Allies tightening grip on supply lines, the Japanese army resurrected an old idea first mooted by regional powers in the late 19th century: to build a railway between Myanmar and Siam. Ironically, Allied bombing raids of the region between March and June 1943 contributed to casualties sustained around Thanbyuzayat. 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. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. [31][32] Some consider the film to be an insulting parody of Toosey. Log in. Spiegel sent the screenplay to the Japanese government ahead of time, hoping to get their cooperation with the production. When Columbia Pictures read the script for Kwai, it was concerned that the story was too much about men and had no love interest. Around the time that he was offered the movie, David Lean had little money, as he was in the middle of a financially ruinous divorce, and was very much in need of a new project. Lean wanted Charles Laughton (who'd starred in his 1954 film Hobson's Choice) to play Colonel Nicholson, the role that ultimately went to Alec Guinness. By Barry Fox. 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]. 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. 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. British English: The Top 50 Most Beautiful British Insults, British Slang: Your Guide to British Police Slang for the Telly Watcher, British Slang: Tea Time British Words for Tea and Tea Related Culture, ltimate List of Funny British Place Names, 101 Budget Britain Travel Tips 2nd Edition, Great Britons Book: Top 50 Greatest Brits Who Ever Lived, Anglotopias Grand Adventure Lands End to John OGroats. The action of the movie takes place in a Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Burma during World War II. After the final scene was shot, producer Sam Spiegel shipped the movie footage on five different planes to minimize the risk of loss. This story is retold in: Anecdotal Tit Bits: Making "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "links for research, Allied POWs under the Japanese", "The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey and the Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey and the, "Once-Stupendous-Now-Modest $2,700,000 Budget Kept Secret; 'River Kwai's' Sockfull Gross", "Screen: 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' Opens", "Film Reviews: The Bridge on the River Kwai", "Balu Mahendra, who made his visuals speak, dies at 74", "Warren Buffett carries an American Express card and about $400 in cash", "How Cartrivision's 1972 VCR ForesawAnd ForfeitedThe Time-Shifted Future", "Movies | Disc & Digital | Sony Pictures", "Wayne and Shuster Show, The Episode Guide (19541990) (series)", Lost and Found: The Story of Cook's Anchor, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Drama, National Board of Review Award for Best Film, New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bridge_on_the_River_Kwai&oldid=1138405911, Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award-winning performance, Films featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance, Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award, Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award, Films whose director won the Best Directing Academy Award, Films whose director won the Best Director Golden Globe, Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award, Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award, Films with screenplays by Michael Wilson (writer), United States National Film Registry films, World War II films based on actual events, Short description is different from Wikidata, Album articles lacking alt text for covers, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Best DVD Original Retrospective Documentary/Featurette, Online Film & Television Association Awards, This page was last edited on 9 February 2023, at 14:21. The bridges were quickly repaired with the use of POW labour from the camp at Tha . After Saito cuts a ceremonial ribbon, Nicholson spots a detonator wire. 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. The cast includes William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and . Best time to visit Bridge Over The River Kwai (preferred time): 09:00 am - 01:00 pm. On 16 October 1943, the two ends of the Burma-Thailand railway were joined at Konkoita in Thailand. The cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service to hold casualties made along the railways southern Bangkok to Nieke section. He'd just been through a costly divorce from actress Ann Todd. David Lean is taken that story and directed it in 1957. The year: 1943. It was the highest-grossing film of 1957 in the United States and Canada and was also the most popular film at the British box office that year. 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. He didn't like the next draft of the screenplay, either, because it made Nicholson "a blinkered character." 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. Or maybe you have a story for us or would like to work together.

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