THE FILM
FILM DIRECTOR: David Lean
SCREENWRITER: Carl Foreman. Michael Wilson
FILM STARS: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, James Donald, Geoffrey Horne, André Morell, Percy Herbert
COUNTRY: Great Britain / USA
THIS BOOK
AUTHOR: Pierre Boulle
TYPE: Novel
PUBLISHER: Fontana
THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1958
COUNTRY: Great Britain
COVER: Paperback
THE ORIGINAL BOOK
ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above
YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1952
ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title
NOTES
GENRE: War
WORDS: The incidents portrayed in the book are fictional, and though it depicts bad conditions and suffering caused by the building of the Burma Railway and its bridges, based in part what Boulle saw as a French POW though he made his characters English in the book. For a relatively small book, David Lean (in David’s not so lean normal manner) has given us a big, long (long) film. It is engrossing but ultimately it is a well done war melodrama with perhaps mixed messages (are we supposed to feel a grudging admiration for Colonel Nicholson, is war hell or is it about personal honour and growth). Many of the characters aren’t people but just characters reflecting points of view.
Regardless, because it was a well made epic, beautifully filmed on location with a good cast it was a humongous hit.
Incidentally it was first scripted by Carl Foreman, and then by Michael Wilson who were both blacklisted in Hollywood (and working quietly in the UK, but still under cover … their names at the time would have affected an American release of the film). The film was credited to author, Pierre Boulle, who did not speak English.
Though, often assumed, and understandably so, to be an English film it is actually an English – American co-production. The money for the film came from Columbia studios who had money parked in England and where happy to use it there (The Guns of Navarone (1961) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) were also Columbia productions). I assume Columbia required a big name American lead so the William Holden role was written to accommodate his Americanness. Alec Guinness and the British and Japanese supporting cast are great and sometimes overshadow Holden, but, he and his post war American cynicism is perfect.
I loved it as a kid, but ultimately, if it wasn’t for Holden (who I love) I probably would have seen the film only once. Yes, I know some will disagree.
I can’t fault the theme song, the Colonel Bogey march, which was written in 1914, which is catchy.
The novel I read a long time ago and have little recollection of the same. I do know the Holden’s character was a British commando officer in the novel, and the bridge is not destroyed (but suffers minor damage) as the train plummets into the river from a secondary charge. Nicholson’s character (does not realise “what have I done?”) and does not fall onto the plunger.
LINKS
TRAILER
A great movie, with a wonderfully nuanced performance from Alec Guinness.
The novel is worth reading. It’s an interesting study of power relations and the need for those in notional authority- the captured officers- to appear to still be in control even when they are powerless.
AG played an army officer in “Tunes of Glory” that came out a couple of years after BOTRK- again an interesting study of authority.
Prisoner of war movies were a bit of a genre in the 1950 s and 60s- Stalag 17 and King Rat are two others that spring to mind.
Are you going to do’Planet of the Apes” as part of your series?
Yes, you are quite right on all that. The two POW films you mention, as well as The Great Escape and Von Ryans Express, being the best but there were many others as you suggest – The Password is courage, the Wooden Horse, The Colditz Story and a couple from the German point of view – The One that Got Away and , a little later, the Mckenzie Break.
Yes, I think “Monkey Planet” is on the list – I cant recall if its a “movie tie in” or “TV tie in”.