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The Bridge On The River Kwai

The Bridge On The River Kwai. Made in 1957 Dir. By David Lean Won Oscar Also directed “Dr. Zhivago” Oscars for: Cinematography Editing Score Picture Written by Pierre Boulle (Novel and Script) Won Oscar Also “Planet of the Apes” William Holden stars as Cmdr. Shears

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The Bridge On The River Kwai

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  1. The Bridge On The River Kwai

  2. Made in 1957 • Dir. By David Lean • Won Oscar • Also directed “Dr. Zhivago” • Oscars for: • Cinematography • Editing • Score • Picture • Written by Pierre Boulle (Novel and Script) • Won Oscar • Also “Planet of the Apes” • William Holden stars as Cmdr. Shears • Also starred in “The Towering Inferno” & “Network”

  3. Alec Guinness stars as “Col. Nicholson” • Won Oscar • Also in “Star Wars” • Sessue Hayakawa stars as “Col. Saito” • Also starred in “Swiss Family Robinson” • Oscar Nomination • Carl Foreman wrote screenplay • Guinness originally turned down role first and it was offered to several prominent actors. • Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, and Laurence Olivier. • Lean and Guinness clashed on “Oliver Twist” earlier and had reservations about working again.

  4. Howard Hawks, John Ford, and Nicholas Ray were prior directors lined up for the film. • Carl Foreman was once on the infamous blacklist created by the McCarthy Trials. • Therefore Pierre Boulle received sole credit on the Oscar. • Film bridge took eight months instead of the two weeks in the movie. • Also took 500 workers and 35 elephants. • Train had a diesel engine at back of the boxcars to make sure they sailed off the bridge. • Was purchased from Indian Maharajah • In some prints Guinness name appears as Guiness.

  5. Bridge cost $250,000 to make and crew began constructing before cast was set. • Producer Sam Spiegel shipped film on five different planes to LA for fear of loss. • Film aired on TV on Sep. 25, 1966 and ABC emptied their whole primetime schedule so they could air it in one night. • Song “Colonel Bogey March” suggested by Percy Herbert who played Pvt. Grogan. • Actual Saito was said to be a very reasonable and humane person. • Loosely based on real WWII event. • Bridge took 100,000 Asian workers and 12,000 prisoners to build.

  6. In reality two bridges were built, a wooden one and steel one, both were used for a while until bombed by Allied troops. • Steel bridge was rebuilt and is still used today • First take of bridge explosion it didn’t blow up. • Footage of the explosion was lost somewhere between Ceylon and London. • Was found later on the runway in Cairo, Egypt • John Gielgud was first to play Maj. Warden. • Sessue edited his script so that he only had his lines so he didn’t know Saito’s fate

  7. David lean nearly drowned when filming a river sequence. • Lean traveled some 150 miles to get the shot for one of the sunsets. • Asst. Dir. John Kerrison was killed in car crash on his way to one of the locations. • Suez crisis of 1956 caused a delay due to the shipping of supplies. • Days filming had to be flown to London every day for processing, from Ceylon. • Real swamps in Ceylon were too dangerous so swamps had to be made.

  8. After bridge blew several souvenir hunters scrounged the scraps for timber. • Guinness never saw the bridge blow up.

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