Evin FetkovichJosh Paus

The movie The Bridge on the River Kwai is important because it is based on an actual event

Plus it is an interesting movie.

The film deals with the situation of British prisoners of war during World War II who are ordered to build a bridge to accommodate the Burma-Siam railway. Their instinct is to sabotage the bridge but, under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson, they are persuaded that the bridge should be constructed as a symbol of British morale, spirit and dignity in adverse circumstances.

At first, the prisoners admire Nicholson when he bravely endures torture rather than compromise his principles for the benefit of the Japanese commandant Saito. He is an honorable but arrogant man, who is slowly revealed to be a deluded obsessive.

He convinces himself that the bridge is a monument to British character, but actually is a monument to himself, and his insistence on its construction becomes a subtle form of collaboration with the enemy. Unknown to him, the Allies have sent a mission into the jungle, led by Warden and an American, Shears, to blow up the bridge.

William Holden- Shears Alec Guiness- Colonel Nichols Jack Hawkins- Major Warren Sessue Hayakawa- Colonel Saito James Donals- Major Clipton John Boxer- Major Hughes Percy-Herbert-Grogan Harold Goodwin- Baker Ann Sears- Nurse Henry Okawa- captain Anemath Kielchiro Katsumoto- Lieutenant Miura M.R.B. Chakrab- HuasyaThe Characters are accurate

The events in the movie happened in the same order mostly as the actual event.

The movie changed some events around, and changed the number of workers and exactly how things occurred.

The language in the movie is English, but the actual people were Japanese and British.

The Japanese were hostile toward the POW’s

The nurse was more friendly. The POW’s were at the bottom of the

food chain.

The bridges were not actually built on the River Kwai, they were built on the Mae Klung River which is a few miles away.

In the movie, they blow up the bridge, but the bridges were not actually blown up.

The steel bridge was partially blown up in allied air raids, but it still stands today as a working functioning bridge and tourist attraction.

The movie bridge was 425 feet long The actual bridge was 415 km long In the movie, the bridge was built in 8

months by 500 workers, and 35 elephants.

The bridge was actually built in several months.

history.sandiego.edu/gen/filmnotes/bridgekwai.html 

www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/kwai.htm