The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

User Rating:

8.5/10   

Director:

David Lean

Writer (WGA):

Pierre Boulle (novel)

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 | Sabotage

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
Heihachiro Okawa	...	Captain Kanematsu (as Henry Okawa)
Keiichiro Katsumoto	...	Lieutenant Miura (as K. Katsumoto)
M.R.B. Chakrabandhu	...	Col. Broome Yai

Also Known As:

A Ponte do Rio Kwai (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Bron över floden Kwai (Finland: Swedish title) (Sweden) [sv]
Die Brücke am Kwai (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
El puente sobre el río Kwai (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Le pont de la rivière Kwai (Belgium: French title) (France) [fr]
Broen over floden Kwai (Denmark) [da]
De brug over de rivier Kwai (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
El pont sobre el riu Kwai (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Híd a Kwai folyón (Hungary) [hu]
Ha-Gesher Al Nahar Kwai (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
I gefyra tou potamou Kwai (Greece) [el]
Il ponte sul fiume Kwai (Italy) [it]
Kwai köprüsü (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Kwai-joen silta (Finland) [fi]
Most na reci Kvai (Serbia) [sr]
Most na rzece Kwai (Poland) [pl]
Most pres reku Kwai (Czech Republic) [cs]
The Bridge on the River Kwai (Hungary) [hu]

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:

When this film was first aired on commercial TV in the USA, on Sunday night, Sept. 25, 1966, ABC-TV pre-empted its entire evening's schedule so the film could be aired in one night, as opposed to two parts on consecutive nights. This was considered a bold move at the time. It was the longest single network telecast of a film up to then (three hours and 10 minutes with commercials; Ford Motor Co. was the lone sponsor), beating the previous record set by Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955), which was telecast by NBC over three hours on March 11, 1956. An estimated 60 million viewers watched the program.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Japan was not a signatory of the Geneva Conventions until 1953, therefore there was no expectation by Allied prisoners of being treated in accordance with them. In fact, the Japanese treatment of prisoners let to the review and update of the conventions in 1949.

Quotes:

Colonel Nicholson: Now, there's another important decision that can't be postponed. As most of the British soldiers will be working on the bridge, only a small number will be available for railway work. So, I must ask you, Colonel Saito, to lend us some of your own men to reinforce the railway gang, so that the final stretch of track can be completed as quickly as possible.
Colonel Saito: I have already given the order.
Colonel Nicholson: We must fix the daily work quota for your men. At first I thought of setting it at a yard and a half, so as not to overtire them, but don't you think it would be best if we make it the same as the British soldiers? That would also create a healthy competitive spirit.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

KWAI -- NOW

Without belittling `Kwai,' it does seem, looking backwards at David Lean's career, to be a dress rehearsal for the more operatic, tightly controlled (and better written) `Lawrence of Arabia.' Alec Guiness's passionate, detailed performance as Colonel Nicholson, above all other factors, makes Kwai a still watchable and important experience. The screenplay, however, divides unevenly between those who must build the Bridge and those who must destroy it. Ebert, in his Great Movies article, correctly identifies William Holden's character in Kwai as undergoing an implausible transition from escaped POW to martini-guzzling playboy to selfless war hero. Verbatim: `Holden's character, up until the time their guerrilla mission begins, seems fabricated; he's unconvincing playing a shirker, and his heroism at the end seems more plausible.' That, I believe, is also Kwai's greatest weakness. Holden's relationship with Jack Hawkins (playing a parallel role to his General Allenby in Lawrence) seems pallid next to the mighty Guiness/Hayakawa standoff – in fact, it seems to be in another movie altogether. Also, Malcolm Arnold's score, which I loved when I was a kid, seems now jarringly inappropriate from start to finish. I am too much influenced, I suppose, by the rock and roll jungle menace of Coppola's `Apocalypse Now.' Lastly, it is many decades past 1957. Images of whistling soldiers, marching proudly after months of captivity, then putting on an `entertainment' more expected in the world of Rodgers and Hammerstein, may ring very false to today's viewer. But keep your eyes fastened tight to Alec Guiness. Kwai is the Everest of his career, and very few actors climb that high.