The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

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 | Torture

Awards:

Won 7 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 5 nominations

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
Heihachirô Ôkawa	...	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

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:

Original novelist Pierre Boulle actually had been a prisoner of war in Thailand. His creation of Colonel Nicholson was an amalgam of his memories of various French officers who collaborated with his captors.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: At the start of the movie, while the officer's and men are marching, they whistle. Unfortunately, while their whistling is meant to help keep them all in step, the music does not match their marching steps. In fact, had they been marching in step, their left foot would have been on the first and third beats of the song.

Quotes:

Colonel Nicholson: What have I done?

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Take Off (1978)

Soundtrack:

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

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.