River Kwai Bridge Original

David lean s the bridge on the river kwai 1957 is a brilliant triple character study set during world war ii.
River kwai bridge original. Train crossing the wooden bridge which spanned the mae klong river renamed kwai yai river in 1960. The largely fictitious plot is based on the building in 1942 of one of the railway bridges over the mae klong river renamed khwae yai in the 1960s at a place called tha ma kham five kilometres from the thai town of kanchanaburi. Hellfire pass cemeteries and museums an even more significant war related site located off the train tracks today but originally part of the death railway s construction is hellfire pass. The original parts of the bridge are now displayed in the war museum.
The bridge on the river kwai is a 1957 epic war film directed by david lean and based on the 1952 novel written by pierre boulle. Begun in october 1942 using prisoner of war pow labour it was completed and operational by early february 1943. We follow the engaging alec guinness as he masterfully and stubbornly manipulates and debates with a japanese colonel while another man escapes their prison camp to only return to blow up the bridge the british pow s forced to construct. Three sections of bridge river kwai were destroyed.
The famous bridge of the burma railway crosses the river at tha makham subdistrict of the mueang district. The bridge on the river kwai commonly referred to as the railroad of death or death railway which stands in kanchanaburi thailand was one of only eight steel bridges of the estimated 688 that were built. David lean s famous 1957 film the bridge on the river kwai centres around one of the line s main engineering feats the bridge across the kwae yai river just north of kanchanaburi. The screenplay was adapted from frenchman pierre boulle s novel the bridge over the river kwai which blended fact and fiction in an attempt to portray the futility of war.
Lean s offering further distorted the building of the infamous death. According to the commonwealth war graves commission. The film uses the historical setting of the construction of the burma railway in 1942 1943. However this is not the same bridge as depicted in the bridge on the river kwai by pierre boulle and in its film adaptation a bridge was built of wood approximately 100 metres 330 ft upriver from the current bridge during the construction of the iron and concrete bridge which.
Allied forces bombed the iron bridge in 1944. The present bridge has two of its central spans rebuilt. The rest were made of wood and local materials. The cast included william holden jack hawkins alec guinness and sessue hayakawa.