The Bridge on the River Kwai

I remember growing up in the 1980’s and early 90’s and my father watching The Bridge on the River Kwai on cable. He loved movies about history and talked about how this movie helped bring to life the real story of WWII POW’s and how they were treated by the Japanese during the war. He insisted that this was a true story of the building of this bridge and how it was important in the understanding of the world’s history. Boy was I surprised when I found a documentary entitled Return to the River Kwai and discovered that there is very little of real history to be found in the 1957 film that won Best Picture at the Oscars. It’s a truly epic war time drama but it doesn’t represent what really happened. Never take history lessons from a movie.

The Bridge on the River Kwai began life as a 1952 novel, Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï, by French author Pierre Boulle. The plot is almost entirely fictional but is framed around the construction of the Burma Railway as well as real world experiences the author underwent working in Malaya, Singapore and French Indochina during the second world war. The novel incorporates all that and tells a story about how the Imperial Japanese Army forced British prisoners of war to build a bridge for the “Death Railway”, so named because of the large number of men who died in the construction. While the novel dealt with the large scale death and destitution of the British POW’s it has been pointed out by those who actually were there that it didn’t go nearly far enough in realistically depicting what it truly was like being there. 

Shortly after the novel’s translation into English it was optioned to Horizon Pictures and went into production. Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson penned the script. Both were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to Europe to avoid the witch hunts of the McCarthy Trials. Neither collaborated on it but instead Wilson took over and completed Foreman’s work. As they both were barred from working in Hollywood the screen credit went to the original author, Boulle, who was awarded the screenplay Oscar for work he didn’t actually do. Close to thirty years later The Academy rectified this situation providing Oscars to the rightful writers. Director David Lean, who would go on to direct other historical epics such as Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, was chosen to helm the project and filming began in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. 

Alec Guinness was cast in the leading role of Colonel Nicholson, a British commander. He was not the first choice which caused some tension on the set between him and the director. He claimed that the actual reason for this tension was his belief that the film was anti-British though this is generally considered to not be the case. The more likely cause for the tension was a lack of consensus over how Colonel Nicholson should be played. Guinness felt the character as written was too boorish and wished to inject some humor into his interpretation of the man. Some of that makes it through in the final film but on screen he is still mostly depicted as a boorish and proper British commander, unwilling to submit to his captor’s demands, citing the Geneva treaty, until after a significant degree of torture. 

William Holdmen’s contract could have been a sticking point for Guinness, too. He was offered a significant percentage of the profits that made for a very nice payday for the actor. He plays Commander Shears, a US Navy officer who escapes the POW camp and later is recruited against his will to return to the bridge and plant explosives, destroying it. Holdmen is a charismatic actor and that shows through here, even when he is trying to weasel out of doing his duty. It takes transferring him to a British command to force him into going back. When he does relent, though, he gives it his all and is a major factor in the success of his mission.

Meanwhile, Nicholson and his officers are initially forced to perform manual labor in building the bridge but a combination of faulty Japanese engineering and the prisoners’ slow pace have caused the construction to fall well behind schedule. Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), the POW camp’s commander, releases the British officers from the manual labor and Nicholson, now able to command his men again, orders them to do a proper job in the building, showing pride in their work and accomplishments. This puts him at odds with some who believe this is collaborating with the enemy. Nicholson doesn’t see it that way and the bridge becomes an obsession to him.

All of this comes to a head when the bridge is finally complete and Nicholson is touring his men’s handiwork, only to spot signs of the explosives Spear’s team have set up. His obsession with the project and all the work his men have put in to complete it blinds him from seeing what should be obvious. He nearly undermines the plot to blow it up. Only in the end does he realize what it is he is fighting for. His efforts to stop the demolition cost the lives of allied soldiers and it is all his fault. “What have I done?” he exclaims before falling over onto the detonator in what would become one of the film’s most recognizable shots. 

This is an epic war film in every aspect of the term. The glorious location shooting and the large scale production work far and away outclasses anything that could be done with modern CGI. The film itself is leisurely paced as it should be to represent what the characters themselves are going through. When Nicholson is punished for refusing to allow his officers to participate in the manual labor he is put in an iron box and left out in the heat. His emergence from that box, dehydrated and barely able to stand, is truly harrowing to watch. And this film, like the book before it, doesn’t come close to representing the true state of POW’s in the Japanese camps of the time.

The Bridge on the River Kwai remains one of the greatest films ever made and is still a popular classic war film to this day. The production values, the scenery and the acting all collaborate to make for an epic and awe-inspiring glimpse into a skirmish of yesteryear. Sure it’s romanticized by Hollywood and jettisons true history in favor of a more interesting story but that doesn’t matter. This is still a good time at the movies offering plenty of spectacle for 1950’s audiences, many of whom would have served in that war or had fathers, brothers, uncles, or friends who did. It’s beautifully shot and scored and easily took home the Best Picture award for 1957 numbering it amongst the greatest films of all time.   

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Sam Spiegel (won)

Best Director: David Lean (won)

Best Actor: Alec Guinness (won)

Best Supporting Actor: Sessue Hayakawa 

Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium: Michael Wilson, Carl Foreman and  Pierre Boulle (won)

Best Cinematography: Jack Hildyard (won)

Best Film Editing: Peter Taylor (won)

Best Original Score: Malcolm Arnold (won)

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Release Date: December 14, 1957

Running Time: 161 Minutes

Rated PG

Starring: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, James Donald, Ann Sears and Geoffrey Horne

Directed By: David Lean