The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British-American World War II film directed by David Lean, based on the eponymous French novel (1952) by Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. It stars William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guinness, and Sessue Hayakawa. The film was filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The bridge in the film was located near Kitulgala.
The film achieved near universal critical acclaim, winning seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) at the 30th Academy Awards, and in 1997, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.
It is widely considered to be one of the greatest films of all time
The Plot
In World War II, British prisoners are marched to a Japanese prison camp in western Burma. [3] The commandant, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), informs them that all prisoners, regardless of rank, are to work on the construction of a railroad bridge over the River Kwai. The senior British officer, Lt. Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), reminds Saito that the Geneva Conventions exempt officers from manual labor.
At the following morning’s parade, Nicholson orders his officers to remain behind when the enlisted men are sent off to work. Saito slaps him across the face with his copy of the conventions and threatens to have them shot, but Nicholson refuses to back down. When Major Clipton (James Donald), the British medical officer, intervenes, Saito leaves the officers standing all day in the intense tropical heat. That evening, the officers are placed in a punishment hut, while Nicholson is locked in "the oven," an iron box, without food or water.
Nicholson refuses to compromise. Meanwhile, the prisoners are working as little as possible and sabotaging whatever they can. Should Saito fail to meet his deadline, he would be obliged to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). Using the anniversary of Japan's great victory in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War as an excuse to save face, Saito announces a general amnesty and releases Nicholson and his officers.
Nicholson conducts an inspection and is shocked by the sloppy construction job being done on the bridge, some of it purposely sloppy so as to irritate the Japanese. Over the protests of some of his officers, he orders Captain Reeves (Peter Williams) and Major Hughes (John Boxer) to design and build a proper bridge, despite its military value to the Japanese, for the sake of maintaining his men's morale. The Japanese engineers had chosen a poor site, so the original construction is abandoned and a new bridge is begun downstream.
Meanwhile, three prisoners attempt to escape. Two are shot dead, but United States Navy Commander Shears (William Holden), gets away, although badly wounded. Shears eventually stumbles into a village. The residents help him escape by boat.
Shears is enjoying his recovery at the Mount Lavinia Hospital at Ceylon, when British Major Warden (Jack Hawkins) asks him to volunteer for a commando mission to destroy the bridge before it's completed and placed into service. Shears is appalled at the idea of returning to the bridge site and reveals that he is not an officer at all. He is an enlisted man "a swab jockey" who switched uniforms with the dead Commander Shears after the sinking of their cruiser, U.S.S. Houston as a ploy to get better treatment by the Japanese. Warden already knows this. Faced with the prospect of being charged with impersonating an officer, Shears volunteers, and Warden gives him the "simulated rank of major".
Meanwhile, Nicholson drives his men hard to complete the bridge on time. For him, its completion will exemplify the ingenuity and hard work of the British Army for generations. When he asks that their Japanese counterparts join in as well, a resigned Saito replies that he has already given the order.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83bmsluWHZc
This movie was a must see for Cadets - it brings out how an officer is expected to conduct himself in the face of grave adversity.
How he must stand up for his troops even at the cost of personal harm.
