The Bridge on the River Kwai – 1957 | 161mins | Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Based loosely on the true story of the construction of the Bangkok-Rangoon railway, A Bridge on the River Kwai portrays British soldiers held in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Burma during 1943. They are ordered to build a bridge across the River Kwai by camp commander Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), Saito insists that newly arrived British colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) order his men to build a bridge over the River Kwai, which will be used to transport Japanese munitions. Nicholson refuses, despite all the various “persuasive” devices at Saito’s disposal a psychological battle of wills ensues between Nicholson and Saito. Finally, Nicholson agrees, not so much to co-operate with his captor as to provide a morale-boosting project for the military engineers under his command. The colonel will prove that, by building a better bridge than Saito’s men could ever accomplish, the British soldier is a superior being even when under the thumb of the enemy. As the bridge goes up, Nicholson becomes obsessed with completing it to perfection, evidently losing all sight of the fact that it will be used to benefit the Japanese.

Meanwhile, American POW Shears (William Holden) makes a successful escape from the camp. Once on the outside, it is revealed that Shears is not who he claims to be — that he is actually an enlisted man pretending to be an American officer, ostensibly to ensure better treatment from the Japanese, and later again from the British. British Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) sees through Shears’ pose but offers him an option to court martial: Shears must lead a group of British soldiers back to the POW camp to destroy Nicholson’s bridge. Upon his return, Shears realises that Nicholson’s mania to complete his project has driven him mad. Film buffs still argue over whether or not Nicholson’s final, desperate action in Bridge on the River Kwai was accidental or intentional. Whatever the case, Major Clipton succinctly sums up the result of this action by murmuring “Madness….madness.”

Filmed in Ceylon, Bridge won seven Academy Awards including best picture, best director (David Lean), best actor (Alec Guinness), best cinematography (Jack Hildyard), best editing (Peter Taylor), best scoring (Malcolm Arnold, who used the famous WWI whistling tune “Colonel Bogey March” which he never wrote), and best screenplay (by Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, based on Pierre Boulle’s novel). The writers were blacklisted, so Boulle, who spoke no English – was credited with the script.