The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors, not knowing that the allied forces are planning to destroy it.

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

Pierre Boulle (novel), Carl Foreman (screenplay)

Stars:

William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins

Top Rated Movies #171 | Won 7 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 Heihachirô 'Henry' Ôkawa)
Keiichirô Katsumoto	...	Lieutenant Miura (as Keiichiro Katsumoto) (as K. Katsumoto)
M.R.B. Chakrabandhu	...	Yai

Storyline

During WW II, allied POWs in a Japanese internment camp are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge, but under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson they're persuaded the bridge should be built to help morale, spirit. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of Japanese Commandant Colonel Saito, but soon they realise it's a monument to Nicholson, himself, as well as a form of collaboration with the enemy.

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Plot Keywords:

bridge | jungle | uniform | british soldier | japanese soldier | 

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Taglines:

It spans a whole new world of entertainment!

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | War

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Sir David Lean agreed to the project, he took on the task of re-working Carl Foreman's script. He felt that Foreman's script had discarded the best elements of the book in favor of heavy-handed melodrama, action, and adventure. Lean noted that the conflict between Colonel Nicholson and Saito became apparent far too late in the narrative, and that Saito was written like a stock B-movie villain. In terms of message, it was important to Lean that Nicholson's minor folly of building the bridge mirror the greater folly of the war itself.

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Goofs

As Major Shears and the others are parachuting, the POV is the audience looking up at them coming down. There are some white clouds, and a lot of clear sky. Cut to their guide waiting on the ground, watching the men for a few seconds. Cut back to the audience POV looking up, and the sky is now all dark clouds.

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Quotes

Colonel Nicholson: [looks at the completed bridge] I've been thinking. Tomorrow it will be 28 years to the day that I've been in the service. 28 years in peace and war. I don't suppose I've been at home more than 10 months in all that time. Still, it's been a good life. I loved India. I wouldn't have had it any other way. But there are times... when suddenly you realize you're nearer the end than the beginning. And you wonder, you ask yourself, what the sum total of your life represents. What difference your being...

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Crazy Credits

And introducing Geoffrey Horne

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Alternate Versions

Various versions have different main credits. There is the original that gives screenplay credit to Pierre Boulle, there is the restored version in which previously blacklisted Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson are credited and there is the original version that was distributed to cinemas at the time still lacking in CinemaScope equipment in which the Cinema Scope credit is omitted and the credits formatted to fit the smaller frame.

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Connections

Featured in The 52nd Annual Academy Awards (1980)

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Soundtracks

I Give My Heart To No One But You
(uncredited)
Music by Malcolm Arnold
Lyrics by Dave Shand

User Reviews

"This is not a game of cricket"

The Bridge on the River Kwai – David Lean's first epic, a genre he would later be associated with more than any other. Previously having made his mark as a director of deep and often psychological dramas, Lean's easy transition into bigger pictures reflects the change that was taking place in the genre itself, moving from the grandiose spectacle of De Mille et al, towards the "intimate" epic of the late 50s and early 60s.

We are also here seeing the development of the war, or rather, the anti-war picture. Prior to this most anti-war or anti-military pictures were small-scale dramas, whereas all the big war films were rousing flag wavers. Bridge on the River Kwai ticks both boxes, and is all the more effective for it. It is an anti-war film which prevents itself from becoming static or preachy, and an action film with a humanist edge.

The problem presented to David Lean, aside from the fact that he had never done anything on this scale before, is that Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman's multi-layered screenplay contains many different strands, with stories told from multiple points of view. Lean fortunately had dealt with such fragmentary narratives before – 1952's The Sound Barrier for example – and here he actually uses the trappings of the epic to keep the narrative focused. This was the first time he had used the cinemascope aspect ratio, but rather than employing it purely to show off the stunning landscapes (although he does do a fair bit of that too, and why not?) he also uses the width of the screen to cram varying elements into the frame. For example, in the scene where Nicholson (Alec Guinness) surveys the railway construction with his fellow officers, the figure of Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) can be seen on a hill in the background. This reminds us of his presence, and subtly keeps his story arc going.

Lean's use of colour is also remarkable. Of course, when your film is set in a PoW camp in the middle of a jungle, you have a fairly limited colour palette anyway, but Lean's crafty choice of camera angle and positioning is calculated to show off different tones at different times. In the opening moments, highly reminiscent of The African Queen (which, like Kwai, was produced by Sam Spiegel) he begins with the greens of the jungle – a fairly cold colour. As we descend through the trees, Lean gradually turns up the heat with those dusty yellows and browns. For the middle section of the film, he cools things off again with more lush greens and even some vibrant shades, before returning to the stark hot tones for the tense finale. Again, this is all very subtle director's work, but these touches do create little shifts in mood and influence the way we view each scene.

Lean's handling of the larger canvas was however not yet quite up to best showing off his actors upon it. That's a shame with such a good cast, although Alec Guinness in one of his earliest non-comedic roles shone through enough to garner an Oscar. William Holden was also deserving of at least a nomination, but didn't get one. To my mind though the best performance of the picture was that of Sessue Hayakawa. Hayakawa was an incredibly powerful silent film actor – check him out in De Mille's The Cheat (1915) – and it's great to see him at the top of his game again here.

Bombarded with awards, Bridge on the River Kwai is typical Oscar-winning fare, particularly for the conflicted political climate of the 1950s. It can be read as a damning critique of war, but also enjoyed as a gripping action film. This broad appeal, the depth of the screenplay and Lean's assured direction made it a hit in its day and allowed its popularity to endure in the generations since.

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English Japanese Thai

Release Date:

March 1958 (Canada)

Also Known As:

The Bridge on the River Kwai

Filming Locations:

Kalugamuwa, Gelioya, Kandy, Sri Lanka

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$27,200,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$27,200,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Horizon Pictures (II)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

161 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (1973 re-isssue 70 mm prints) (RCA Sound Recording) Mono (35 mm prints) (RCA Sound Recording) 4-Track Stereo (Linear PCM) Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1