The Kwai River Bridge was part of the meter-gauge railway constructed by the Japanese during World War Two. He, Shears, and Joyce reach the river in time with the assistance of Siamese women bearers and their village chief, Khun Yai. Just two months later, Lieutenant Lamb was dead. The cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service to hold casualties made along the railways southern Bangkok to Nieke section. Some Japanese viewers resented the movie's depiction of their engineers' capabilities as inferior and less advanced than they were in reality. It was repaired in time to be blown up the next morning, with Bandaranaike and his entourage present. Kwai River Bridge history. 1. 14. English / Japanese / Thai. But he'd never made anything on an epic scale, wasn't well known outside of England, and wouldn't have been considered for The Bridge on the River Kwai if it weren't for Katharine Hepburn, the star of his 1955 film Summertime. An example of this is when commandos Warden and Joyce hunt a fleeing Japanese soldier through the jungle, desperate to prevent him from alerting other troops. Explore the CWGC Archive through our online portal. [10], Although Lean later denied it, Charles Laughton was his first choice for the role of Nicholson. 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. [Ronald Searle, To the Kwai and Back: War drawings 1939-45, London, Collins, 1986, 104] 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' is now the best-known site on the Burma-Thailand railway but its fame is due more to a fictional film than its significance in World War II. The surviving sections stand as monuments to the men who suffered so much to build them. Pay on the train. Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 10 business days. POWs and indentured labourers were worked to death while busy constructing the railway simultaneously. Ironically, Allied bombing raids of the region between March and June 1943 contributed to casualties sustained around Thanbyuzayat. Chungkai War Cemetery is something of a sister site to Kanchanaburi. The River Kwai, also known as Khwae Noi or Khwae Sai Yok is a river located in the western region of Thailand. Search by location, regiment, nationality, and more fields to find the war dead involved in building the blood-soaked Burma-Siam Railway. In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally . Showing the impact of disease on the workforce, Kanchanaburi contains two graves holding the ashes of 300 Cholera victims. David Lean's 1957 epic Bridge on the River Kwai is regarded as one of the all-time great war films. : 1942: Boldly advancing through Asia, the Japanese need a train route from Burma going north. Despite the nightmarish conditions, and equipped only with the most basic of tools, the POWs pulled off an amazing feat of engineering. The filming of the bridge explosion was to be done on 10 March 1957, in the presence of S.W.R.D. The movie is based on the novel Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai by Pierre Boulle. Copyright 2020 Tons Of Facts. Their taskmasters were relentless. Kanchanaburi town is located around 130 kilometres northwest of Bangkok. Cutting the base board 1190 x 160 x 12 mm. Then he hired Lean to directand Lean didn't like Foreman's version. They included Chinese, Malayan, Burmese, Thai, Indonesian and Singaporean people. The Bridge on the River Kwai, commonly referred to as the Railroad of Death or Death Railway, which stands in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, was one of only eight steel bridges of the estimated 688 that were built. The movie won seven Academy Awards, one for Best Picture. The Bridge on the River Kwai. 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. Bought 4 and 6 mm dowel wood for bridge piers. - Colonel Saito, 'The Bridge on the River Kwai '. The story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942-1943, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle's own life experience working in Malaysia rubber . [54] Slant magazine gave the film four out of five stars. As it opens, two POWs, the American navy commander Shears (William Holden) and an Australian, are digging graves for their companions. Nicholson advises Saito that the officers cannot be required to do manual labour according to the Geneva Convention. 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The film was based on the 1952 novel Bridge over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle. The Japanese Railway Regiment forced thousands of allied POWs and natives to build the . The cast includes William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and . Bridge over the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The railway route, which ran through Burma and Thailand, had been planned by the British. Lets find out. At the POW camp, Nicholson not only requires officers to work on the bridge but also pulls men from the hospital in order to meet Saitos deadline for the project. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Addeddate 2021-08-19 15:12:20 Identifier the-bridge-on-the-river-kwai_202108 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4. plus-circle Add Review. They remain standing at attention throughout the day. Read our Cookie Policy, Terms & Conditions and Data Protection & Privacy Policy. According to Columbia Pictures, they followed an all-new 4K digital restoration from the original negative with newly restored 5.1 audio. During World War II, British soldiers added lyrics to the tune that went approximately along these lines: Hitler In reality, Risaburo Saito was respected by his prisoners for being comparatively merciful and fair towards them. He wanders into a Burmese village, is nursed back to health, and eventually reaches the British colony of Ceylon. US $4.49 Standard Shipping from outside US. Has something sim'lar Writers: Pierre Boulle (novel), Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (screenplay), Academy Award nominations (* denotes win), https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Bridge-on-the-River-Kwai-film-by-Lean, Filmsite - The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), BFI Screenonline - The Bridge on the River Kwai, Turner Classic Movies - The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). 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. [46], On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 96% based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of 9.4/10. During the cutting of Hellfire Pass, for example, 69 men were beaten to death across a twelve-week period. Check here to see our open positions and volunteer roles. Sessue Hayakawa considered his performance as Saito as the highlight of his career. Nicholson is shocked by the poor job being done by his men and orders the building of a proper bridge, intending it to stand as a tribute to the British Army's ingenuity for centuries to come. 17. The real Bridge over the River Kwai is bridge 277 of the Burma-Siam Railway. 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 was the highest-grossing film of 1957 and scooped up seven Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor. 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. [30], A 1969 BBC television documentary, Return to the River Kwai, made by former POW John Coast,[33] sought to highlight the real history behind the film (partly through getting ex-POWs to question its factual basis, for example Dr Hugh de Wardener and Lt-Col Alfred Knights), which angered many former POWs. It was still highly unusual at that time for a television network to show such a long film in one evening; most films of that length were still generally split into two parts and shown over two evenings. Commonwealth war graves commission Caring for the fallen, Commonwealth war graves foundation Our charity site. After the enlisted men are marched to the bridge site, Saito threatens to have the officers shot, until Major Clipton, the British medical officer, warns Saito there are too many witnesses for him to get away with murder. Read more. By the end, prisoners working on the rail route werent calling it the Burma-Siam Railway. A Smith article describes bridge on River Kwai, near Kanchanaburi, Thailand, built by Allied POWs during Japanese occupation of Thailand in World War II and subject of famous film The Bridge on . You carry it in your pack like the plague. (There were other verses, too, which treated in more depth the number, location, and status of Hitler's anatomy, but you get the idea.) [48], Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised the film as "a towering entertainment of rich variety and revelation of the ways of men". The movie is based on the novel "Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai" by Pierre Boulle. However, cameraman Freddy Ford was unable to get out of the way of the explosion in time, and Lean had to stop filming. [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. A small tourist train offers rides across the bridges span, while pedestrians can also travel over it on foot. Guinness regarded this one tiny scene as some of the finest work he did throughout his entire career. This is now known as the Death Railway. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. In 1942 Japan seized Myanmar from British control and quickly decided to build a rail link to Thailand in order to maintain a secure supply route to their forces. Use our search tools to explore our records and find out about those we commemorate. The movie is best known for the "Colonel Bogey March", the song that is whistled by the POWs. Workers died at a rate of 20 men per day. "[53], Among retrospective reviews, Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, noting that it is one of the few war movies that "focuses not on larger rights and wrongs but on individuals", but commented that the viewer is not certain what is intended by the final dialogue due to the film's shifting points of view. Thanbyuzayat is in Myanmar. International shipment of items may be subject to customs processing and additional charges. The movie was filmed in Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. After Saito cuts a ceremonial ribbon, Nicholson spots a detonator wire. Vital equipment that would normally have been shipped through the canal had to be flown out to the location instead. At one point during filming, David Lean nearly drowned when he was swept away by a river current. Part of this project was building bridges over Thailand's Kwai Yai, at a place named Tamarkan, which is near a town named Kanchanaburi. 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. 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. 13. Tooseys men stated this never happened. The rest were made of wood and local materials. The steel bridge was repaired and is still in use today. Like thousands of other POWs, Lamb was kept in degrading conditions, refused medical treatment and barely fed. For example, a Sergeant-Major Risaburo Saito was in real life second in command at the camp. The Bridge On The River Kwai is the World War II Oscar winner about an Army colonel (Alec Guinness) obsessed with proving British superiority over his Japanese captors by showing that his . The rail link, however, would . At their head was Lieutenant-Colonel Phillip Toosey. Interested in advertising on the world's largest website dedicated to all things Britain? WILLIAM HOLDEN JACK HAWKINS 1957 BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI 8X10 PHOTO. Mitch Miller had a hit with a recording of both marches. [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. Concurrently, Shears, after a harrowing journey in which he nearly loses his life more than once, is rescued by the British and then required to lead a group of commandoes headed by Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) back to the POW camp that he escaped from in order to blow up the bridge. She spent most of the next 42 years working as a copy editor and editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica. The film was directed by David Lean and starred William Holding, Jack Hawkins and academy award winner Sir Alex Guinness. Its this structure, Bridge 277, that still stands and is a famous local tourist attraction. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. His first epic was his twelfth film: The Bridge on the River Kwai, starring Alec Guinness and William Holden as P.O.W. 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. Boulle nonetheless enjoyed the film version though he disagreed with its climax. To keep costs down, producer Sam Spiegel decided not to hire any extras, using crew members and Ceylon locals instead. After Guinness was done with the scene, Lean said, "Now you can all fuck off and go home, you English actors. 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. Tracy had read the book and told Spiegel emphatically that the part must be played by an Englishman. When, the next morning, Saito orders all the British prisoners to begin building the bridge under the command of a Japanese engineer, Nicholson and the other officers refuse, even when Saito threatens to kill them. Some of the Second World War's fiercest battles involved bridges and inspired some riveting accounts - capture of key bridges (Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day"; Stephen. Initial estimates from Japanese engineers suggested it would take five years. Express 08:30, 10:30. [5][6] It has been included on the American Film Institute's list of best American films ever made. On 16 October 1943, the two ends of the Burma-Thailand railway were joined at Konkoita in Thailand. Bangkok - Kanchanaburi More info / Tickets. . But poor old Goebbels After the final scene was shot, producer Sam Spiegel shipped the movie footage on five different planes to minimize the risk of loss. Warden tells the Siamese women that he had to prevent anyone from falling into enemy hands, and leaves with them. He created the railroad. The year: 1943. [64] The image was restored by OCS, Freeze Frame, and Pixel Magic with George Hively editing. Dying, Nicholson stumbles toward the detonator and falls on the plunger, blowing up the bridge and sending the train hurtling into the river. "[52] Harrison's Reports described the film as an "excellent World War II adventure melodrama" in which the "production values are first-rate and so is the photography. The Kanchanaburi Memorial sits with the cemetery grounds. Warden, Shears, and two other commandos parachute into Thailand; one, Chapman, dies after falling into a tree, and Warden is wounded in an encounter with a Japanese patrol and must be carried on a litter. For one sunset scene, David Lean specifically traveled 150 miles to capture it. During WW II, Japan constructed the meter-gauge railway line from Ban Pong, Thailand to Thanbyuzayat, Burma. [23], British composer Malcolm Arnold recalled that he had "ten days to write around forty-five minutes worth of music" much less time than he was used to. [31][32] Some consider the film to be an insulting parody of Toosey. 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. [40] Boulle had never been to the bridge. 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 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. There's a stench of death about you. "[55], Balu Mahendra, the Tamil film director, observed the shooting of this film at Kitulgala, Sri Lanka during his school trip and was inspired to become a film director. David Lean, a British director then in his late forties, had made 11 films, including well-received adaptations of Charles Dickens (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist) and Noel Coward (Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter). We want to hear from you! [50] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times claimed the film's strongest points were for being "excellently produced in virtually all respects and that it also offers an especially outstanding and different performance by Alec Guinness. Victims were cremated and their remains are buried in the aforementioned graves. Just as in Love is a Many Splendored Thing, normally hairy chested William Holden had to have a full body wax for his many shirtless scenes in the movie. 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. 12. The Bridge of the River kwai It is a tourist attraction of Kanchanaburi. The telecast of the film lasted more than three hours because of the commercial breaks. One of a number of Allied POW"s . [21] Guinness later reflected on the scene, calling it the "finest piece of work" he had ever done. ", 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. Before the US began rolling up Japanese possessions throughout the Pacific, and the British really started gaining momentum in Burma, Japan had carved out a large empire. Two labour forces, one based in Siam and the other in Burma, worked from opposite ends of the line towards the centre. British people of Anglotopia, what do you make of the whole anglophile thing ? The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle. By 1944, its operational capacity was being massively hampered by the damage caused by air raids. Lean shouted at them, 'For God's sake, whistle a march to keep time to.' 16- "You make me sick with your heroics! Nicholson will not cooperate and finally insists that the bridge can be built only under his command. Casualties commemorated at Chungkai are mostly men who died in the field hospital set up by prisoners. 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. The Bridge over the River Kwai met its fate in 1945. Kanburi wasnt a work camp as such. Despite this, he won an Oscar and a Grammy. 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. The Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi 1942. Find the latest updates on the work of the Special Committee. By this time, the United States and its naval and industrial might had entered the war. 11. 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. All the filming locations of The Bridge on the River Kwai are listed below. They felt none of the Bridge on the River Kwai cast could fully understand or represent what it was like to be there. The Bridge on the River Kwai was actually one of the reasons movies started becoming prime-time television programming. Thanbyuzayat was originally a POW administration headquarters and base camp. Has two but they are small. On another occasion, they argued over the scene where Nicholson reflects on his career in the army. All Rights Reserved. One of the iconic war films of its time, the Bridge on the River Kwai has shone a spotlight on POWs suffering. The place: Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma. Over a muddy jungle river called Kwai, a Japanese colonel, Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), must complete a railroad bridge vital to Japan's war effort. Corrections? He didn't like the screenplay because it reduced Nicholson to secondary status. 27. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. According to one biographer, he was "broke and needed work; he had even pawned his gold cigarette case." as soon as he signed, Lean borrowed $2,000 from Columbia Pictures to get his teeth fixed. 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. He'd just been through a costly divorce from actress Ann Todd. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [65], On 2 November 2010 Columbia Pictures released a newly restored The Bridge on the River Kwai for the first time on Blu-ray. These issues, running throughout the film, were addressed to a lesser extent on various previous DVD releases of the film and might not have been so obvious in standard definition.[67]. The movie garnered seven Academy Awards, including that for best picture, as well as three Golden Globe Awards and four BAFTA awards. Did he really want the enemy to come in across it? Bridge Over The River Kwai Address: Tha Makham, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Only he survives, though he is wounded. Persuaded that the film would be about the horror and folly of war, the Japanese government sent a military adviser to help with the camp scenes. 22. [50] William Holden was also credited for his acting for giving a solid characterization that was "easy, credible and always likeable in a role that is the pivot point of the story". 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.