The Bridge on the River Kwai

British POWs under Colonel Nicholson are forced by their Japanese captors to build a railway bridge in Burma, with Nicholson taking pride in the project as a matter of discipline. Meanwhile an escaped American prisoner is recruited to lead a commando mission to destroy it. The two threads converge in a tense climax at the bridge's opening.

The film is loosely inspired by the construction of the Thailand–Burma Railway and bridges over the Mae Klong (Kwai Yai) river, built with forced Allied POW and Asian civilian labor under brutal conditions. No real bridge was destroyed by commandos as depicted; the story is fictionalized from Pierre Boulle's novel.

Largely fictional in plot and character; the real bridges still stand (rebuilt) and there was no Nicholson-like collaboration or commando demolition raid as shown.

Directed by David Lean

Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa

Positioned at 1942–1943 within the World War II phase of the war, as part of the Burma Railway construction. This is entry 84 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• POW camp
• Burma Railway
• bridge sabotage
• classic war film
• David Lean

• 

  The Railway Man

  1942–1943

• 

  Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence

  1942–1944

• 

  Paradise Road

  1942–1945

• 

  A Town Like Alice

  1942–1945

• 

  King Rat

  1944–1945

• 

  Went the Day Well?

  1942 (hypothetical invasion scenario)