In case there was any doubt concerning man's savagery to his fellow kind, then the Thai-Burma railway, all 415 kilometres of it, stands as a horrific testament to human brutality. Constructed under order of the Japanese by prisoners of war and enslaved locals during WWII, the Death Railway's most famous section, 'The Bridge Over the River Kwai', now acts as one of Thailand's major tourist attractions.
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), the memorable, epic World War II adventure/action, anti-war drama, was the first of director David Lean's major multi-million dollar, wide-screen super-spectaculars (his later epics included Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965)). The screenplay was based upon French author Pierre Boulle's 1954 novel of the same name - although he received sole screenplay credit, other deliberately uncredited, blacklisted co-scripting authors (Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson) collaborated with him and were post-humously credited years later.
The film's story was loosely based on a true World War II incident, and the real-life character of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey. One of a number of Allied POW's, Toosey was in charge of his men from late 1942 through May 1943 when they were ordered to build two Kwai River bridges in Burma (one of steel, one of wood), to help move Japanese supplies and troops from Bangkok to Rangoon. In reality, the bridges were actually used for two years, and were only destroyed two years after their construction - in late June 1945. The memoirs of the 'real' Colonel Nicholson were compiled into a 1991 book by Peter Davies entitled The Man Behind the Bridge.
The film was the number one box-office success of the year (the highest grossing film) and it won critical acclaim as well - eight Academy Award nominations and seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Alec Guinness), Best Director, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Pierre Boulle), Best Cinematography, Best Score, and Best Film Editing. Only Sessue Hayakawa, a former silent screen star, who was nominated for his Best Supporting Actor role as the Japanese colonel, lost. The film created an additional stir when it appeared on ABC television on September 25, 1966. The date was dubbed "Black Sunday" due to the loss of business at movie theatres on account of its popular airing.
Shot on location in the steamy, colorful, dense tropical jungles of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the story's theme is the futility and insanity of war, viewed through the psychological, confrontational struggle of imperialistic wills between a British and Japanese Colonel. The two protagonists are symbols of different, opposing cultures, but actually they share much in common - egotistical pride, dedication, a belief in saving "face," and stubborn, inflexible obedience to their class, military codes and rules. Themes of heroism, pride, military tradition, hierarchy, and power are masterfully interwoven into a plot that is ambiguous enough to allow for various viewpoints and perspectives.
Before and during the title credits, an evocative opening shows a single soaring, circling hawk, free from restraints. The aerial camera view pulls back to reveal a vast, green, tropical jungle (from the hawk's point of view), then descends into the teeming, chattering, underbrush of the forest to pan by a row of crude graveyards (in the jungle and next to train tracks), marked with makeshift wooden crosses. A train with a machine-gunner on top whistles as it roars past the graves, coming upon POWs in a World War II Japanese prisoner of war camp. The camp inhabitants and building one link in the infamous Bangkok-Rangoon "death railway."
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