The Bridge on the River Kwai
9 august 2009Burma in 1943,
where a battle of wills rages between camp commander Colonel Saito (Sessue
Hayakawa) and newly arrived British colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). Saito
insists that Nicholson 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. Finally,
Nicholson agrees, not so much to cooperate 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
build, 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, eventually losing sight of the fact that it will benefit the
Japanese. Meanwhile, American POW Shears ( William Holden ), having escaped from
the camp, agrees to save himself from a court martial by leading a group of
British soldiers back to the camp to destroy Nicholson’s bridge. Upon his
return, Shears realizes that Nicholson’s mania to complete his project has
driven him mad. Filmed in
Ceylon,
Bridge on the River Kwai won
seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for the legendary
British filmmaker David Lean , and Best Actor for Guinness. It also won Best
Screenplay for Pierre Boulle, the author of the novel on which the film was
based, even though the actual writers were blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and
Michael Wilson, who were given their Oscars under the table.
Directed by:
Writers:
Pierre Boulle
Starring:
Country:
UK /
USA
Language:
English / Japanese/ Thai
Release Date:
2 October 1957 (
UK )
Genre:
