The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

David Lean

Writer (WGA):

Pierre Boulle (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

2 October 1957 (UK)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | War

Tagline:

It spans a whole new world of entertainment!

Plot:

After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.

Plot Keywords:

Bridge | British | Construction | Japanese | Sabotage

Awards:

Won 7 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 5 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Wed. July 22

10:00 PM

TCM

Cast

William Holden	...	Shears
Alec Guinness	...	Colonel Nicholson
Jack Hawkins	...	Major Warden
Sessue Hayakawa	...	Colonel Saito
James Donald	...	Major Clipton
Geoffrey Horne	...	Lieutenant Joyce
André Morell	...	Colonel Green (as Andre Morell)
Peter Williams	...	Captain Reeves
John Boxer	...	Major Hughes
Percy Herbert	...	Grogan
Harold Goodwin	...	Baker
Ann Sears	...	Nurse
Heihachiro Okawa	...	Captain Kanematsu (as Henry Okawa)
Keiichiro Katsumoto	...	Lieutenant Miura (as K. Katsumoto)
M.R.B. Chakrabandhu	...	Col. Broome Yai
Vilaiwan Seeboonreaung	...	Siamese Girl
Ngamta Suphaphongs	...	Siamese Girl
Javanart Punynchoti	...	Siamese Girl
Kannikar Dowklee	...	Siamese Girl

Directed by
David Lean

Writing credits (WGA)
Michael Wilson		(screenplay) originally uncredited and
Carl Foreman		(screenplay) originally uncredited
Pierre Boulle		(novel "Le pont de la rivière Kwaï")

Produced by
Sam Spiegel	....	producer

Original Music by
Malcolm Arnold		(music by)

Cinematography by
Jack Hildyard		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Peter Taylor		(chief editor)

Art Direction by
Donald M. Ashton

Makeup Department
Stuart Freeborn	....	makeup artist
George Partleton	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Cecil F. Ford	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gus Agosti	....	assistant director
Ted Sturgis	....	assistant director
John Kerrison	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Geoffrey Drake	....	assistant art director
Peter Dukelow	....	construction manager

Sound Department
Pam Bosworth	....	additional sound editor
Eric Boyd-Perkins	....	additional sound editor
Fred Burnley	....	additional sound editor
Rusty Coppleman	....	additional sound editor
John Cox	....	sound
Teddy Darvas	....	additional sound editor
Janet Davidson	....	additional sound editor
Joel Fein	....	sound mixer (restoration)
Don Hall	....	sound editor (restoration)
Norma Hawkes	....	additional sound editor
Gary Krivacek	....	sound editor (restoration)
Peter Miller	....	additional sound editor
Bob Minkler	....	sound mixer (restoration)
John W. Mitchell	....	sound (as John Mitchell)
Winston Ryder	....	chief sound editor
B. Tennyson Sebastian III	....	sound mixer (restoration) (as Tennyson Sebastian)
Peter Davies	....	post-synchronisation (uncredited)

Stunts
Nosher Powell	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Archie Dansie	....	chief electrician
Peter Newbrook	....	camera operator
Ron Drinkwater	....	clapper loader (uncredited)
Gerry Fisher	....	additional camera operator (uncredited)
Gerry Fisher	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Robert Merry	....	lighting technician (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
John Wilson-Apperson	....	wardrobe (as John Apperson)

Editorial Department
George Hively	....	editor (restoration)
William Pine	....	color timer (restoration) (as Bill Pine)
Sati Tooray	....	colorist (uncredited)

Other crew
Angela Martelli	....	continuity
Jim Painten	....	producer of restoration
L.E.M. Perowne	....	technical advisor (as Major-Gen. L.E.M. Perowne)
William Harrigan Jr.	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
Robert Haslam	....	consultant: explosives (uncredited)
Robert Haslam	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
Grady Johnson	....	publicist (uncredited)
Maurice Landsberger	....	production accountant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Horizon Pictures (II) (for)
• Columbia Pictures Corporation (presents)

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1957) (USA) (theatrical) (as Columbia Pictures Corporation)
• Warner Bros. (1957) (France) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures (1963) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1966) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1998) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (????) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1992) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (1999) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2000) (Netherlands) (DVD) (rental)
• LK-TEL (1999) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD) (retail)
• Nothing's New Video (2005) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia Film-Verleih (1958) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1994) (USA) (laserdisc)

Other Companies

• Ellis Burman III  audio restoration (uncredited)
• Equipment and Construction Co.  bridge construction (as Equipment and Construction Co. of Ceylon)
• Husband & Co. of Sheffield  consulting engineers for the bridge
• OCS/Freeze Frame/Pixel Magic  negative restoration (restoration) (as OCS/Freeze Frame)
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The  music played by
• Sony Pictures Studios  sound services (restoration) (as Sony Pictures Studio, Culver City, California)
• Sunset Gower Studios  sound stages (uncredited)

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild war violence. (1991 reissue)

Runtime:

161 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Japanese | Thai

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) (RCA Sound System) | Dolby SR (re-release) | Mono (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | USA:Approved | USA:PG (re-rating) (1991) | Brazil:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Spain:T | UK:PG | West Germany:12 (w) | Sweden:15 | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Ambepussa, Sri Lanka

Company:

Horizon Pictures (II)

Trivia:

In some prints of this movie, star Alec Guinness's surname is written as "Guiness".

Goofs:

Factual errors: Towards the end of the movie before the bridge is blown up, the soldiers are seen marching across the bridge on their way to a new camp. From the long shot it is not clear that they are marching in step, but it is clear from the sound effects. It has been a widely used practice since 1850 that soldiers marching across bridges will break step so as not to cause any undue resonant stress on the bridge and may cause it to collapse. While this notion that a bridge will collapse is still under debate, it may be that the scene shot in the film proves the exception.

Quotes:

Colonel Nicholson: Queer bird... even for an American.

Movie Connections:

Featured in I Love You to Death (1990)

Soundtrack:

Colonel Bogey March

KWAI -- NOW

Without belittling `Kwai,' it does seem, looking backwards at David Lean's career, to be a dress rehearsal for the more operatic, tightly controlled (and better written) `Lawrence of Arabia.' Alec Guiness's passionate, detailed performance as Colonel Nicholson, above all other factors, makes Kwai a still watchable and important experience. The screenplay, however, divides unevenly between those who must build the Bridge and those who must destroy it. Ebert, in his Great Movies article, correctly identifies William Holden's character in Kwai as undergoing an implausible transition from escaped POW to martini-guzzling playboy to selfless war hero. Verbatim: `Holden's character, up until the time their guerrilla mission begins, seems fabricated; he's unconvincing playing a shirker, and his heroism at the end seems more plausible.' That, I believe, is also Kwai's greatest weakness. Holden's relationship with Jack Hawkins (playing a parallel role to his General Allenby in Lawrence) seems pallid next to the mighty Guiness/Hayakawa standoff – in fact, it seems to be in another movie altogether. Also, Malcolm Arnold's score, which I loved when I was a kid, seems now jarringly inappropriate from start to finish. I am too much influenced, I suppose, by the rock and roll jungle menace of Coppola's `Apocalypse Now.' Lastly, it is many decades past 1957. Images of whistling soldiers, marching proudly after months of captivity, then putting on an `entertainment' more expected in the world of Rodgers and Hammerstein, may ring very false to today's viewer. But keep your eyes fastened tight to Alec Guiness. Kwai is the Everest of his career, and very few actors climb that high.