The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

Timing: 2:42 (162 min)

7.823/10
2338

7.721/10
10311

8.1/10
248000

All about film

Video 6

Photo 68

Actors and characters

Release date

1957-10-11

Country

United Kingdom

Production

Horizon Pictures

Genre

Drama, History, War

Budget

$3 000 000

Revenue

$27 200 000

Website

Director

David Lean

Actors

William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, James Donald, Geoffrey Horne, André Morell, Peter Williams, John Boxer, Percy Herbert
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Sam Spiegel

Operator

Jack Hildyard

Composer

Malcolm Arnold

Artist

Geoffrey Drake

Audition

Editing

Peter Taylor
All team (23)

• The film is based on Pierre Boulle's novel "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai, 1952).
• Screenwriters Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman were blacklisted on suspicion of communist ties. Their names were removed from the credits, and Pierre Boulle, the author of the novel the film is based on, received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The award was returned to them in 1984, but Wilson received it posthumously.
• The assistant director died in a car crash on the way to the set.
• The plot is based on the true story of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toose. Memories of him were collected in Peter Davis's book "The Man Behind the Bridge" (1991).
• In the film, the bridge was built in 2 months, but in reality, a British company built the bridge for the film in Ceylon for a full 8 months, with the participation of 500 workers and 35 elephants. The bridge turned out to be 425 feet long and 50 feet high. Its cost was 85,000 pounds sterling (by 2002 standards - 1.2 million pounds).
• Howard Hawks was offered to direct the film, but he refused after the failure of his previous film "Land of the Pharaohs." He thought that critics would love "The Bridge on the River Kwai," but audiences would not (in fact, with a budget of $3 million, "The Bridge" grossed around $27 million).
• In Pierre Boulle's original book, Colonel Nicholson manages to prevent the bridge from being blown up. A train is blown up by one of the backup charges set by saboteurs, but the bridge remains intact.
• The train wreckage that viewers see at the end of the film was purchased from an Indian maharaja.
• The film is based on Pierre Boulle’s novel “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai, 1952).
• Screenwriters Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman were blacklisted on suspicion of communist ties. Their names were removed from the credits, and Pierre Boulle, whose novel the film is based on, received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1984, the award was returned to them, but Wilson received it posthumously.
• The plot is based on the true story of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toose. Memories of him were collected in Peter Davis's book “The Man Behind the Bridge” (1991).
• Howard Hawks was offered the chance to direct the film, but he declined after the failure of his previous film, “Land of the Pharaohs.” He believed that critics would love “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” but audiences would not (in reality, the film grossed around $27 million on a budget of $3 million).