The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Director:

David Lean

Writer (WGA):

Pierre Boulle (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

14 December 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History | 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 | Japanese | Jungle | River | Torture

Awards:

Won 7 Oscars. Another 24 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

William Holden	...	Shears
Alec Guinness	...	Col. Nicholson
Jack Hawkins	...	Maj. Warden
Sessue Hayakawa	...	Col. Saito
James Donald	...	Maj. Clipton
Geoffrey Horne	...	Lt, Joyce
André Morell	...	Col. Green (as Andre Morell)
Peter Williams	...	Capt. Reeves
John Boxer	...	Maj. Hughes
Percy Herbert	...	Grogan
Harold Goodwin	...	Baker
Ann Sears	...	Nurse
Heihachirô Ôkawa	...	Capt. Kanematsu (as Henry Okawa)
Keiichirô Katsumoto	...	Lt. 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

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

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

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1957) (USA) (theatrical) (as Columbia Pictures Corporation)
• Warner Bros. (1957) (France) (theatrical)
• Columbia Film-Verleih (1958) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures (1963) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1966) (USA) (TV)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1992) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1993) (USA) (VHS) (digitally restored pan and scan)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1993) (USA) (VHS) (digitally restored/widescreen)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1994) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1998) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• LK-TEL (1999) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2000) (Netherlands) (DVD) (rental)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD) (retail)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Nothing's New Video (2005) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia Film (1958) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Columbia Films (1958) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Warner-Columbia Films (1972) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2005) (UK) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Egmont Entertainment (2000) (Finland) (DVD)
• Egmont Film (1996) (Sweden) (VHS)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV3) (1988) (1995) (Finland) (TV)
• Nelonen (2000) (2005) (Finland) (TV)
• Nordisk Film (2000) (Sweden) (DVD)
• R-Video (1980s) (Finland) (VHS)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2010) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Universal Pictures Nordic (2004) (Sweden) (DVD)
• VTC-Video (1980s) (Finland) (VHS)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1998) (Finland) (TV)

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)

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild war violence (re-rating) (1991)

Runtime:

161 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Japanese | Thai

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) (RCA Sound Recording) | Mono (35 mm prints) (RCA Sound Recording) | 4-Track Stereo (Linear PCM)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | USA:Approved | USA:PG (re-rating) (1991) | Brazil:12 | Japan:G (2010) | USA:TV-PG | 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:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Alec Guinness was always the first choice to play Colonel Nicholson, although he actually turned the part down when first offered it as he disliked the character and thought Pierre Boulle's original novel to be anti-British. Charles Laughton, James Mason, Ralph Richardson, Noel Coward and Anthony Quayle were all approached. It was only after Jack Hawkins had been cast in the part of Major Warden that Guinness reconsidered his position, largely at Hawkins' instigation.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At the first officers' meeting, Col Nicholson says Jennings name right, then he says it as Jenning.

Quotes:

Colonel Nicholson:I've been thinking. Tomorrow it will be twenty-eight years to the day that I've been in the service. Twenty-eight years in peace and war. I don't suppose I've been at home more than ten months in all that time. Still, it's been a good life. I loved India...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The A-Team: Diamonds 'n Dust (#2.1)" (1983)

Soundtrack:

I Give My Heart To No One But You

Ageless and all but perfect

Of all war movies this is the one with the best idea behind it. Think how easy it is to make a bad war movie. A group of people must blow up a bridge, and this is the story of their quest ... Actually, that DID serve as the premise for a film: it was called `Force Ten from Navarone', and it was dire. Or how about this one: we see close up the brutalities of war. (Then we see them again. Then we see some more of the brutalities of war. Then we see the credits.) Or how about this: a humble American soldier, with the pragmatism native to his breed, rejects his superiors' highfalutin talk of honour and glory and asserts his basic humanity in trying to stay alive. Or this one: we see English prisoners of war maintain their dignity in the face of Japanese brutality.

They're all present, in a sort of a way: but ALSO present is a magnificent, long, suspenseful, tight story, around which these apparent clichés wrap naturally. If the clichés don't wrap naturally then they, not the story, are bent out of shape. Just when we think that the American pragmatist will turn out to be the hero, we see him cut a rather shabby figure, and it seems that there really WAS something to that highfalutin talk of honour and glory, after all. But then we discover that he has standards of his own, and they appear to be better ones. But THEN it seems that ... I could go on indefinitely, since there are many people here with something to be said for them, and it requires some thought to see who has the most to be said for him in the end.

There's almost no need to mention the excellent performances, photography and music. The only thing one might have qualms about is historical accuracy. Nothing like this ever happened. Still, that makes the movie much less dishonest than those that base themselves on historical events, and then proceed to get them all wrong. You can only be misled by `The Bridge on the River Kwai' if you don't know that it's pure fiction. Well - you know now.