The Bridge on the River Kwai (novel and film)

### Novel

***The Bridge over the River Kwai*** (French: Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. The story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942–43, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle's own life experience working in Malaysia rubber plantations and later working for allied forces in Singapore and Indochina during World War II. The novel deals with the plight of World War II British prisoners of war forced by the Imperial Japanese Army to build a bridge for the "Death Railway", so named because of the large number of prisoners and conscripts who died during its construction. The novel won France's Prix Sainte-Beuve in 1952.

The bridge described in the book didn't actually cross the River Kwai. Boulle had never been to the bridge. He knew that the 'death railway' ran parallel to the River Kwae for many miles, and he therefore assumed that it was the Kwae which it crossed just north of Kanchanaburi. This was an incorrect assumption; the bridge actually crossed the Mae Klong river.

#### Plot Summary

The story describes the mistreatment of prisoners in the POW camp and how they tried to sabotage the construction of the bridge.

Lt. Colonel Nicholson marches his men into Prisoner of War Camp 16, commanded by Colonel Saito. Saito announces that the prisoners will be required to work on construction of a bridge over the River Kwai so that the railroad connection between Bangkok and Rangoon can be completed. However, Saito also demands that all men, including officers, will do manual labour. In response to this, Nicholson informs Saito that, under the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), officers cannot be required to do hard work. Saito reiterates his demand and Nicholson remains adamant in his refusal to submit his officers to manual labour. Because of Nicholson's unwillingness to back down, he and his officers are placed in the "ovens"—small, iron boxes sitting in the heat of day. Eventually, Nicholson's stubbornness forces Saito to relent.

Construction of the bridge serves as a symbol of the preservation of professionalism and personal integrity to one prisoner, Colonel Nicholson, a proud perfectionist. Pitted against Colonel Saito, the warden of the Japanese POW camp, Nicholson will nevertheless, out of a distorted sense of duty, aid his enemy. While on the outside, as the Allies race to destroy the bridge, Nicholson must decide which to sacrifice: his patriotism or his pride.

Boulle's portrayal of the British officers was satirical, for example, Colonel Nicholson is a military snob. Boulle also examines friendship between individual soldiers, both among captors and captives. The victorious Japanese soldiers cooperate with their prisoners, who strive to establish their superiority through the construction of the bridge.

#### Parody

In 1962 Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, with Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller, released the record 'The Bridge on the River Wye', a spoof of the film version of 'Kwai' based around the 1957 Goon Show 'An African Incident'. It was intended to have the same name as the film, but shortly before its release, the film company threatened legal action if the name was used. Producer George Martin edited out the 'K' every time the word 'Kwai' was spoken; thus, 'The Bridge on the River Wye' was created.

### Film

> "*It spans a whole new world of entertainment!"*
>
>

***The Bridge on the River Kwai*** is a 1957 British-American epic war film directed by David Lean and starring William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Alec Guinness, and featuring Sessue Hayakawa. Based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai (1952) by Pierre Boulle, the film is a work of fiction, but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943 for its historical setting. The movie was filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala.

After the film was released, the Thais faced a problem as thousands of tourists came to see the 'bridge over the River Kwai', but no such bridge existed due to Boulle's aforementioned misassumption. As the film and book meant to 'portray' the bridge over the Mae Klong, the Thai authorities officially renamed the river. The Mae Klong is now called the Kwae Yai ('Big Kwae') for several miles north of the confluence with the Kwae Noi ('Little Kwae'), including the bit under the bridge.

Carl Foreman was the initial screenwriter, but Lean replaced him with Michael Wilson. Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to England in order to continue working. As a result, Boulle, who did not speak English, was credited and received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; many years later, Foreman and Wilson posthumously received the Academy Award.

The film, released October 11, 1957 (UK) and December 14, 1957 (US), was widely praised, winning seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) at the 30th Academy Awards. In 1997, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. It has been listed among the best American films ever made by the American Film Institute. In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th Century.

#### Plot

The film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson, they are persuaded that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse circumstances. At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito. He is an honourable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded obsessive. He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of collaboration with the enemy. Unknown to him, the Allies have sent a mission into the jungle, led by Warden and an American, Shears, to blow up the bridge. [IMDb.com]

#### The Japanese View

The Japanese resented the implication in the movie that their engineers were less capable than British engineers. In fact, Japanese engineers had been surveying the route of the railway since 1937 and were highly organised. In essence, viewers disliked the "glorification of the superiority of Western civilisation" represented in the movie, illustrated by the British being able to build a bridge that the Japanese could not. The film also contains a scene where Colonel Nicholson, while inspecting the bridge construction progress, refers to the Japanese overseeing them as "barbarians". In the version of the movie edited for DVD in 2000, the reference is overdubbed with a water splash sound.

#### Music and Soundtrack

British composer Malcolm Arnold recalled that he had "ten days to write around forty-five minutes worth of music" - much less time than he was used to. He described the music for The Bridge on the River Kwai as the "worst job I ever had in my life" from the point of view of time.

The album was released October 21, 1957.

A memorable feature of the film is the tune that is whistled by the POWs—the first strain of the march "Colonel Bogey"—when they enter the camp. Journalist Gavin Young recounts meeting Donald Wise, a former prisoner of the Japanese who worked on the Burma Railway. Young: "Donald, did anyone whistle Colonel Bogey ... as they did in the film?" Wise: "I never heard it in Thailand. We hadn't much breath left for whistling. But in Bangkok I was told that David Lean, the film's director, became mad at the extras who played the prisoners—us—because they couldn't march in time. Lean shouted at them, 'For God's sake, whistle a march to keep time to.' And a bloke called George Siegatz ... —an expert whistler—began to whistle Colonel Bogey, and a hit was born."

Arnold's own composition, "The River Kwai March," played by the off-screen orchestra taking over from the whistlers, though Arnold's march was not heard in completion on the soundtrack. Mitch Miller had a hit with a recording of both marches.

In many tense, dramatic scenes, only the sounds of nature are used. An example of this is when commandos Warden and Joyce hunt a fleeing Japanese soldier through the jungle, desperate to prevent him from alerting other troops. Arnold won an Academy Award for the film's score.

Listen to the soundtrack album on Deezer.

### Return from the River Kwai

***Return from the River Kwai*** is a 1989 British film directed by Andrew McLaglen and starring Edward Fox, Chris Penn and Timothy Bottoms. The film also stars Star Trek's George Takei, and Space: 1999's Nick Tate.

The film is based on a 1979 factual book with the same name about a 1944 Japanese prisoner transport of 2,217 British and Australian POWs, who had been working as forced labour on the Burma Railway, building the famous bridge over the River Kwai. They were taken by railway to Singapore, and from there aboard two ships, Rakuyo Maru and Kachidoki Maru, destined for Japan. On September 12, 1944, both ships were torpedoed by US submarines, and 1,559 of the prisoners perished.

When released in the United Kingdom on April 14, 1989, the film carried a disclaimer that it was not related to or a sequel to the 1957 David Lean film The Bridge on the River Kwai. Nonetheless, due to legal disputes over the title with the US owners of the 1957 film, Return from the River Kwai was never released theatrically in the USA or Canada.