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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) from Tuna |
| Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) was released in a special edition DVD set Nov 21st of this year. Voted number 50 of all time by IMDB readers at 8.4, it is too important a film to ignore completely. The original story, written in French by Pierre "Planet of the Apes" Boulle, contained no women at all, but some were added at studio (Columbia Pictures) request to help box office. Columbia also demanded that an American be cast in a major role, so a part was written in for William Holden. The budget was $2.8m, which was very high by mid 50's standards, and Columbia thought women were essential to a successful box office. Also not in the original novel was the destruction of the bridge. This was added by blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson (who were not originally credited due to the Hollywood blacklisting) to provide a suitable climax to the epic film. The original author later remarked that if he had thought of it, he would have blown up the bridge in the novel. |
| The original novel told the true story of the building of a railway across Thailand by the Japanese using mostly American POWs captured in the Philippines. Thousands died from malnutrition, disease and gunshots. The film is more about the characters, and the triumph of will of the British soldiers over their Japanese captors. |
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| As the film
starts, a brigade of British prisoners marches into a POW
camp. While marching in, they are whistling "The
Colonial Bogie March," which has very rude lyrics,
and was meant as an insult to the Japanese. I recall this
song being on every radio station, and in every juke box
in 1957. The commander orders that they build a bridge
across the River Kwai, and that everyone, officers and
enlisted alike, work on it. He is unimpressed when Alec
Guinness reminds him that the Geneva Accords clearly
state that officers may not be required to take part in
manual labor. Guinness refuses to allow the officers to
work, and is locked in a small metal box called the oven
for several days. The rest of the officers are also
locked up. Eventually, due to the lack of progress on the
bridge, the commander finds a way to give in and save
face as well by lifting his officer work order to
celebrate a Japanese holiday. Guinness decides that the
best way to improve moral and turn the brigade back into
a unit is to actually take over the building of the
bridge, and to build a good one. William Holden, an
American POW, has escaped. He is enlisted to return to
the camp with British commandos to blow up the bridge. Many aspects of this film are amazing. First and foremost, there is the struggle between Guiness and Hayakawa, where both end up with a respect for the other, but little understanding, and Guiness ends up more or less in charge. An interesting tidbit from the commentary was that zoom cameras did not exist at the time. The long shot at the end from overhead, where we recede from the bridge was done in a helicopter flying sideways away from the bridge. The bridge was not only built full-scale from trees near the river, but had to support the train. This film gained director David Lean international status. |
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Bridge on the River
Kwai won 7 Oscars:
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