History Vs Hollywood

This 1957 classic won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, but does it forgo facts for fiction?

Did The Bridge On The River Kwai overextend the truth?

01

The film follows British POWS constructing the titular bridge over the River Kwai. The conditions faced by the real POWS were far worse than those depicted in the film, with roughly 13,000 dying during construction of the Burma-siam Railway.

02

Alec Guinness won an Oscar for his role as Colonel Nicholson, based on the real-life Colonel Philip Toosey. Toosey attempted to delay the construction of the bridge and committed acts of sabotage, including using wood-destroying termites.

03

Sessue Hayakawa plays Colonel Saito. The real Saito was a sergeant major and not in charge of the camp. Toosey later commented that although Saito had been strict he was fair towards the prisoners and defended him after the war.

04

Jack Hawkins plays Major Warden, a commando in Force 316. Although some of its commanders were British the majority of the agents were indigenous or from groups such as Chinese Canadian. Those shown in the film are Caucasian.

05

During the film’s climax the bridge is blown up by a squad of crack commandos, an event which never occurred in real life. While the two real bridges were destroyed by Allied bombing, the steel bridge was rebuilt and continued to be used.

VERDICT: Described by Colonel Philip Toosey as “good theatre but totally removed from reality”, this superb film is almost entirely fictional