Must-watchWorld War II · Film · 1957
The Bridge on the River Kwai
In a Japanese prison camp in the Thai jungle, a proud British colonel turns building a railway bridge into a matter of honour, while an escaped American is sent back to destroy it.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 3 places.
Stop 1: POW camp near Kanchanaburi
Colonel Nicholson refuses to let his officers do manual labour and endures the punishment box rather than give in to Colonel Saito.
Stop 2: Colombo, Ceylon
Recovering by the beach after his escape, Shears is drafted into a British commando team whose target is the new bridge.
Stop 3: Bridge over the Kwai at Tha Makham
Key location
The bridge is finished on time and the first train is due, while the commandos wait in the jungle with their charges set under the piers.
What really happened
To supply its army in Burma, Japan built a 415-kilometre railway from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat in Burma between June 1942 and October 1943. Some 60,000 Allied prisoners of war and more than 200,000 Asian labourers were forced to work on it; about 12,000 prisoners and perhaps 90,000 Asian workers died of disease, starvation and brutality, earning it the name Death Railway.
The film adapts Pierre Boulle's novel. The real bridges over the Mae Klong at Tha Makham, near Kanchanaburi, were built by prisoners under Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey, who did everything he could to slow the work; they were later damaged by Allied bombers, not blown up by commandos. The river's upper course was renamed Khwae Yai after the film made it famous.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- Directed by
- David Lean
- Countries
- United Kingdom, United States
- Languages
- English, Japanese
- Released
- 1957
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- China & Southeast Asia
- Themes
- Prisoners of war
