The Bridge on the River Kwai
All actors and roles (10)
All team (25)
Short description
During the Second World War, British soldiers held in a Japanese prison camp in the Burmese jungle are ordered to build a railway bridge over the River Kwai. Their commanding officer, Colonel Nicholson, initially refuses to let his officers work, citing the rights of prisoners under international conventions, and endures harsh treatment from the camp commander, Colonel Saito. The standoff eventually gives way to a different arrangement: Nicholson takes charge of the project himself, determined to show what British soldiers can achieve, and the bridge becomes a source of pride for him. Meanwhile, Allied officers mount a mission to destroy the completed structure, setting up a conflict between Nicholson's attachment to his work and the sabotage operation.
David Lean directed the film, which sits between Summertime and Lawrence of Arabia in a filmography that also includes Brief Encounter, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson wrote the screenplay, and Sam Spiegel produced. Alec Guinness plays Nicholson opposite Sessue Hayakawa as Saito, with William Holden, Jack Hawkins, James Donald and Geoffrey Horne among the credited cast of twenty. Made for about three million dollars, it took roughly twenty-seven million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8.1 from some 248,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.8 from about 2,450 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 9.4 from 103 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The assistant director died in a car crash on the way to the set.
- Screenwriters Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman were blacklisted on suspicion of communist ties. Their names were removed from the credits, and Pierre Boulle, whose novel the film is based on, received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1984, the award was returned to them, but Wilson received it posthumously.
- In the film, the bridge was built in 2 months, but in reality, a British company built the bridge for the film in Ceylon for a full 8 months, with the participation of 500 workers and 35 elephants. The bridge turned out to be 425 feet long and 50 feet high. Its cost was 85,000 pounds sterling (by 2002 standards - 1.2 million pounds).
- The train wreckage that viewers see at the end of the film was purchased from an Indian maharaja.
- The film is based on Pierre Boulle’s novel “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai, 1952).
- Howard Hawks was offered the chance to direct the film, but he declined after the failure of his previous film, “Land of the Pharaohs.” He believed that critics would love “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” but audiences would not (in reality, the film grossed around $27 million on a budget of $3 million).
- In Pierre Boulle's original book, Colonel Nicholson manages to prevent the bridge from being blown up. A train is blown up by one of the backup charges set by saboteurs, but the bridge remains intact.
- The plot is based on the true story of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toose. Memories of him were collected in Peter Davis's book “The Man Behind the Bridge” (1991).
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