train on the bridge over the river kwai in kanchanaburi, thailan - bridge over the river kwai stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images FLOATING HOUSES ON THE RIVER KWAI, KANCHANABURI, THAILAND. 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. Victims were cremated and their remains are buried in the aforementioned graves. 16. Nicholson undertakes the construction of a well-made bridge, at first thinking it a good way to improve the morale and discipline of his regiment but gradually coming to regard the structure not as a part of the enemy war effort but as a monument to British ingenuity. But poor old Goebbels The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-43 for its historical setting. Guinness had appeared in Lean's Dickens films but had since made a name for himself doing goofy comedies like The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). The bridge is still in everyday use as part of the Bangkok-Nam Tok line. as for the bridge on the River Kwai, it crossed the river only in the imagination of its author. Nicholson desperately tries to keep Joyce from depressing the plunger, while Shears and Warden try to kill Nicholson. This was an incorrect assumption. By Barry Fox. The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. US Navy Commander Shears tells of the horrific conditions. Tracy had read the book and told Spiegel emphatically that the part must be played by an Englishman. Some Japanese viewers resented the movie's depiction of their engineers' capabilities as inferior and less advanced than they were in reality. The movie has been included on the American Film Institutes list of best American films ever made. It is also known as the "River Kwai March". The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. The young soldier from Suffolk was dispatched to work on the bridge over the River Kwai, one of the railway's most daunting engineering projects. During WW II, Japan constructed the meter-gauge railway line from Ban Pong, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. David Lean's classic 1957 World War II movie Bridge on the River Kwai depicted the horrors endured by the Allied prisoners of war (POWs) forced to build the Thailand-Burma railway by the Japanese Imperial Army. Mortally wounded, he falls onto the plunger, the bridge is blown up, and the train with the dignitaries falls into the river. Reviews There are no reviews yet. The negative itself manifested many of the kinds of issues one would expect from a film of this vintage: torn frames, embedded emulsion dirt, scratches through every reel, colour fading. Omissions? Subsequent releases of the film finally gave them proper screen credit. However, in 1943 a railway bridge was built by Allied POWs over the Mae Klong river renamed Khwae Yai in the 1960s as a result of the film at Tha Ma Kham, five kilometres from Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Guinness regarded this one tiny scene as some of the finest work he did throughout his entire career. 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. It had previously belonged to an Indian maharajah and had seen 65 years of active service. The trials of Australian Army Lieutenant George Hamilton Lamb reflected the mens awful experience building the Burma-Siam Death Railway. The Japanese did indeed force British, Dutch, Australian, and American prisoners to build the Burma Railway, resulting in some 13,000 POW deaths and at least 80,000 civilian deaths. A make-up man was also badly injured in the same accident. Also, the dense surrounding jungle renders escape virtually impossible. Join us in an act of virtual remembrance and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The elephants employed in helping build the bridge would take breaks every four hours and lie around the water, whether the crew wanted them to or not. Weill you be in London for the Coronation in 2023? His career was hurt by the advent of sound, and then by increasing anti-Japanese sentiment in America. Here is 'Minder' telling me to get the timber off the base and start cutting up the dowels. The movie is based on the novel "Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai" by Pierre Boulle. Toosey would provide the inspiration for Lt. Col Nicholson portrayed by Alec Guinness in the 1957 film. British people of Anglotopia, what do you make of the whole anglophile thing ? 2023 Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The Colonel Bogey strain was accompanied by a counter-melody using the same chord progressions, then continued with film composer Malcolm Arnold's own composition, "The River Kwai March", played by the off-screen orchestra taking over from the whistlers, though Arnold's march was not heard in completion on the soundtrack. Shears is enjoying his hospital stay in Ceylon unwittingly within a commando school referred to as "Force 316" (likely based on the real world Force 136 of the Special Operations Executive (SOE)). Pitted against the warden, Colonel . Search by location, regiment, nationality, and more fields to find the war dead involved in building the blood-soaked Burma-Siam Railway. Under cover of darkness, Shears and Joyce plant explosives on the bridge towers. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. Harry Cohn, the vulgar (but successful) man who ran Columbia Pictures at the time, was furious when he read the script and saw no . Alec Guiness, William Holden, and Jack Hawkins in front of bridge they built in a scene from the film 'The Bridge On The River Kwai', 1957. Despite this, he won an Oscar and a Grammy. A train carrying important dignitaries and soldiers is scheduled to be the first to cross the bridge the following day, and Warden wants to destroy both. Interested in advertising on the world's largest website dedicated to all things Britain? Read our FAQs or send a question to our customer service team. Spiegel finally sent Michael Wilson to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where Lean was in pre-production, and the two worked together to hammer out the final version. Major Warden of SOE invites Shears to join a commando mission to destroy the bridge just as it is completed. At their head was Lieutenant-Colonel Phillip Toosey. You can also take a boat down the Kwai River . The movie, based on the novel Le Pont de la rivire Kwa (1952) by French novelist Pierre Boulle, was adapted for the screen by Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, who were both at the time on the Hollywood blacklist. The finished screenplay had significant contributions from both Wilson and Foreman, though each went to his grave insisting he was the more important contributor. See details. Geoffrey Horne saved his life. 5. English / Japanese / Thai. Written 20 October 2021. The rest were made of wood and local materials. There's a stench of death about you. Chungkai War Cemetery is something of a sister site to Kanchanaburi. In 1985, the Academy officially recognized Foreman and Wilson as the screenwriters and posthumously awarded the Oscar to them. [3] Since it was not a documentary, there are many historical inaccuracies in the film, as noted by eyewitnesses to the building of the real Burma Railway by historians.[30][31][32][33]. [49] Mike Kaplan, reviewing for Variety, described it as "a gripping drama, expertly put together and handled with skill in all departments. Lean wanted to use the tune in Kwai, figured those lyrics wouldn't pass the censors (or the approval of the composer's widow), and opted to have the troops whistle it instead. To learn more about the men behind the real story of the Bridge on the River Kwai, and to discover the casualties, please use our Find War Dead tool. ", Warden fires a mortar, killing Shears and Joyce and fatally wounding Nicholson. ", 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. This was an entertaining story. Joyce, manning the detonator, breaks cover and stabs Saito to death. Lean insisted that Laughton could lose weight before shooting began, but Columbia Pictures' insurance underwriters refused to cover him, saying he was too unhealthy to endure several months on location in the jungles of Ceylon. comment. 12. In a prison camp, British POWs are forced into labor. In fact, two bridges were built: a temporary wooden bridge and a permanent steel/concrete bridge a few months later. The steel bridge was repaired and is still in use today. Lets find out. In the movie the bridge is destroyed by commandos. Boulle drew on the experiences of Far East POWs building the now infamous Burma-Siam Railway, linking modern-day Myanmar and Thailand to create his work. He knew that the railway ran parallel to the Kwae for many miles, and he therefore assumed that it was the Kwae which it crossed just north of Kanchanaburi. Japanese engineers had been surveying and planning the route of the railway since 1937, and they had demonstrated considerable skill during their construction efforts across South-East Asia. does not fall onto the plunger, and the bridge suffers only minor damage. It was not long before the Japanese army overrunning Java captured Lieutenant Lamb and his men. It was released in the US on December 14, 1957, taking in a reported $17M+, which made it the highest-grossing film of 1957. [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]. Once Spiegel relented, he realized Holden was a box office draw and offered him a great deal: $300,000 salary (about $2.5 million in 2016 dollars), plus 10 percent of the gross. By this time, the United States and its naval and industrial might had entered the war. A sketch of that bridge was used as the basis for the fictional one. 7. (This can be compared to a scene in the 1927 movie, The General, which starred Buster Keaton.). Roger Ebert focused on the symbolism of the bridge in this 1999 description: "[The war] narrows down to a single task, building a . 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 . Nicholson will not cooperate and finally insists that the bridge can be built only under his command. Servicemen who survived the death marches, appalling working conditions, and savage treatment by their guards thought the film nor book reflected the realities of their experience. The action of the movie takes place in a Japanese prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Burma during World War II. The bridge in the movie was near Kitulgala. He had basically retired when Lean approached him to play Colonel Saito in Kwai, a performance that earned Hayakawa an Oscar nomination. Kanchanaburi is served by a rail service from Bangkok Noi . [54] Slant magazine gave the film four out of five stars. During World War II, British soldiers added lyrics to the tune that went approximately along these lines: Hitler Lean feared Guinness' public persona had changed so much that audiences wouldn't buy him in this very dramatic role, but came around to the idea when the Laughton plan didn't work. [21] Guinness later reflected on the scene, calling it the "finest piece of work" he had ever done. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. They felt none of the Bridge on the River Kwai cast could fully understand or represent what it was like to be there. When Joyce is wounded by Japanese fire, Shears swims across, but is himself shot. The two did not collaborate on the script; Wilson took over after Lean was dissatisfied with Foreman's work. The Bridge on the River Kwai is a British 1957 movie from Columbia Pictures, based on Pierre Boulle's 1952 book The Bridge over the River Kwai (French: Le Pont de la Rivire Kwai). 19. 16- "You make me sick with your heroics! Explore the CWGC Archive through our online portal. John Coast, a young British officer who went on to become a successful filmmaker who spent three and half years as a Japanese POW, said: As nobody should ever have need telling, the picture is a load of high-toned codswallop.. Thanks to the film, the Bridge, situated in the Thai town of Kanchanaburi a couple of hours drive from Bangkok, is one of Thailand . In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . Return trains are 12.55 and 15.15. The Burma-Siam Railway was 250 miles of railway constructed by Allied prisoners of war alongside forced Asian labourers. We worked at bayonet point and under bamboo lash, taking any risk to sabotage the operation whenever the opportunity arose. c. 1945. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" was set in 1942, shortly after the fall of Singapore. 14- "Be happy in your work.". Its telling that the railway workers had to see to their own medical care. British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it. Cutting the base board 1190 x 160 x 12 mm. Himmler Bus Bangkok - Kanchanaburi $ 7.19 3h 30m. The Bridge on the River Kwai, British-American war film, released in 1957 and directed by David Lean, that was both a critical and popular success and became an enduring classic. On another occasion, they argued over the scene where Nicholson reflects on his career in the army. [65], On 2 November 2010 Columbia Pictures released a newly restored The Bridge on the River Kwai for the first time on Blu-ray. However, cameraman Freddy Ford was unable to get out of the way of the explosion in time, and Lean had to stop filming. [39], The major railway bridge described in the novel and film did not actually cross the river known at the time as the Kwai. This film is produced by Sam Spiegel, and the music is composed by Malcolm Arnold for . 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Saito is expected to commit ritual suicide if he fails to meet the rapidly approaching deadline. But the unusual move paid off for ABCthe telecast drew huge ratings with a record audience of 72 million[60] and a Nielsen rating of 38.3 and an audience share of 61%. "[57], Some Japanese viewers have disliked the film's depiction of the Japanese characters and the historical background presented as being inaccurate, particularly in the interactions between Saito and Nicholson. Toosey was very different from Nicholson and was certainly not a collaborator who felt obliged to work with the Japanese. The movie starring William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins was shot at more than 1 locations. It was set up at the beginning of the Burma-Siams construction. 23. They would work in appalling conditions, given minuscule amounts of food, snatches of sleep, and little to no medical treatment. [10], Although Lean later denied it, Charles Laughton was his first choice for the role of Nicholson. Mitch Miller had a hit with a recording of both marches. Lean only got $150,000 himself, but he always said Holden was worth it. They built a railway to link Bangkok to Rangoon. She retired Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [14][15], The film was an international co-production between companies in Britain and the United States. The Bridge over the River Kwai (French: Le Pont de la rivire Kwa) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. Lamb, as he was known, had been a politician before calling up, serving the state legislature in Victoria, Australia. He described the music for The Bridge on the River Kwai as the "worst job I ever had in my life" from the point of view of time. Log in. [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. Express 08:30, 10:30. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Bridge On The River Kwai Trivia: Fun And Interesting . Lean filmed the scene from behind Guinness and exploded in anger when Guinness asked him why he was doing this. Lean and his production designer, Donald Ashton, were in Ceylon months ahead of time to construct the film's title character (the bridge, not the river). 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. In fact, the cemetery is the original burial ground started by the prisoners themselves. Camps were set up at 100-metre intervals. Tooseys men stated this never happened. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Casualties commemorated at Chungkai are mostly men who died in the field hospital set up by prisoners. By daybreak, however, the river level has dropped, exposing the wire connecting the explosives to the detonator. Bridge over the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Tonight, enjoy dinner at a hotel restaurant Overnight: Kanchanaburi Dying, Nicholson stumbles toward the detonator and falls on the plunger, blowing up the bridge and sending the train hurtling into the river. Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to the UK in order to continue working. Full scale plan drawing for the main cantilever bridge design. The Kwai River Bridge was part of the meter-gauge railway constructed by the Japanese during World War Two. He'd just been through a costly divorce from actress Ann Todd. They were supported by an unknown number of Malaysian labourers. Surviving veterans consider Toosey one of the finest officers they ever served under. Warden responds that he already knew and that the US Navy had agreed to transfer him to the British SOE with the simulated rank of Major to avoid embarrassment. The cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service to hold casualties made along the railways southern Bangkok to Nieke section. Starring Alec Guinness, it depicts the struggles and defiance of Japanese prisoners of war building the fictional Burma railway between 1943-44. Only in 1984 did the Academy rectify the situation by retroactively awarding the Oscar to Foreman and Wilson, posthumously in both cases. Death Railway was bombed heavily by the Allies from 1943 onwards. 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. [60] The 167-minute film was first telecast, uncut, in colour, on the evening of 25 September 1966, as a three hours-plus ABC Movie Special. Both bridges were used for two years, until they were destroyed by Allied bombing. The telecast of the film lasted more than three hours because of the commercial breaks. [34] According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by Commonwealth, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project driven by the need for improved communications to support the large Japanese army in Burma. It spans crosses the lazily winding Khwae Noi at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. 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. At all. Take a look below for 28 more fun and interesting facts about The Bridge on the . In reality, Risaburo Saito was respected by his prisoners for being comparatively merciful and fair towards them. You carry it in your pack like the plague. Other parts have been placed in various local war museums. It stars Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins and William Holden. The place is regarded as "The Symbol of Peace". [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 United States Army Air Force (USAAF) was the first to conduct air raids on the bridges over the River Kwai between November 1944 and January 1945. 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. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. California Doubling: The film is set in Thailand, but was filmed in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), a distinction the publicity of the time didn't see fit to make clear.Instead, it raved about the movie being shot in Ceylon in a way which implied the real-life River Kwai was located there. David Lean was completely at home in the hot and humid Ceylon jungle. Workers died at a rate of 20 men per day. They were soon sent to Thailand to begin labouring on the Death Railway. Read the response of the CWGC to the findings of the Special Committee. Its this structure, Bridge 277, that still stands and is a famous local tourist attraction. It worked. 7. He created the railroad. Its estimated around 16,000 Allied prisoners of war were killed during construction of the Burma-Siam Railway. 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. In January 1943, a base hospital was organised to care for sick and injured prisoners and labourers. Chungkai was also a POW worker base camp. A temporary wooden bridge was completed at the beginning of 1943 and a few months later the steel bridge (which can be seen today) was finished. Train crossing the wooden bridge which spanned the Mae Klong River (renamed Kwai Yai River in 1960). It was initially scripted by screenwriter Carl Foreman, who was later replaced by Michael Wilson. Allied soldiers had built a church and a hospital on the site where the cemetery now sits. Forced labourers were labourers taken from the populations of Japan-conquered territories. 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 . The events depicted in the film, of a chaotic Commando raid and Lt. Col Nicholsons wounded body falling dramatically on the detonator and blowing the bridge up, are completely false. [5][6] It has been included on the American Film Institute's list of best American films ever made. Spiegel sent the screenplay to the Japanese government ahead of time, hoping to get their cooperation with the production. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. The camp commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), informs the prisoners that they will all begin working on the building of a railway bridge the following day. Prior to casting Alec Guinness, Sam Spiegel tried to persuade Spencer Tracy to play the part of Colonel Nicholson. Two bridges were built; one was made of wood, one was made of concrete and steel. [61][62], In 1972, the movie was among the first selection of films released on the early Cartrivision video format, alongside classics such as The Jazz Singer and Sands of Iwo Jima. In 1997, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. Nicholson advises Saito that the officers cannot be required to do manual labour according to the Geneva Convention. In 1984 the Academy Board of Governors voted posthumous Oscars to Foreman and Wilson, and their names were included on prints of the film beginning in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the leeches in the recreated swamps were real. He shows a rare sense of humor and a feeling for the poetry of situation; and he shows the even rarer ability to express these things, not in lines but in lives. [44], The film was re-released in 1964 and earned a further estimated $2.6 million at the box office in the United States and Canada[45] but the following year its revised total US and Canadian revenues were reported by Variety as $17,195,000. Nicholson spots the wire and brings it to Saito's attention. The screenplay was based on French author Pierre Boulle"s 1954 novel of the same name. For one sunset scene, David Lean specifically traveled 150 miles to capture it. 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. Has two but they are small. "[17], The film was made in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The Japanese Railway Regiment forced thousands of allied POWs and natives to build the . Both the wooden and the adjacent steel bridge were subjected to numerous air raids between January and June 1945. There were no facilities on the island of Ceylon to process film rushes, so the days filming had to be flown to London to be processed and then flown back out to Ceylon. THE HEAD OF COLUMBIA PICTURES FORCED LEAN TO ADD A LOVE SCENE. Read more. Some 5,000 Commonwealth World War Two casualties are buried or commemorated in Kanchanaburi. He, Shears, and Joyce reach the river in time with the assistance of Siamese women bearers and their village chief, Khun Yai. Saito leaves the officers standing all day in the intense heat.