Alright — I’m not naive.
I know most movies based on “true” events aren’t that, well, uh, you know, actually true.
It’s just how they’re made: Take something that kinda happened and blow it up with special effects and cool music and heroic acting and a few slight reality “enhancements” to make it more palatable to the movie-ticket-buying public.
Yeah, I know.
But I was somewhat shocked to learn that one of the most inspiring and honored war movies of all time, The Bridge on the River Kwai, was basically total BS.
The film was released in 1957 — 12 years after the end of World War II — and purported to portray the building of a bridge by British POWs at a jungle-based camp in Thailand.
OK, there actually WAS a rail line and a bridge built for the Japanese by the POWs, with thousands of men dying along the way due to the cruelty of their captors and terrible conditions of their imprisonment.
But that’s where the similarity between the actual story and the movie ends.
Yes, the bridge was built and many of the prisoner-builders did die. But it was NEVER blown up as the movie portrays.
In fact, the bridge is still in use today.
So what else didn’t happen?
Well, the actual leader of the prisoners — Lt. Col. Philip Toosey — was far different from the Col.
Nicholson portrayed by Alec Guinness. Guinness showed Nicholson to be almost a collaborator with the Japanese, wanting to show them how well and quickly Brits could build a bridge — but ultimately in effect helping the enemy.
Those who actually built the bridge said Toosey was very different, doing all he could to slow down the bridge’s construction — even at one point introducing termites into the bridge structure to weaken it.
Then there’s the esprit de corps demonstrated over and over by the whistling Brits as they marched to and from work. Catchy tune, to be sure, but it just didn’t happen.
One bridge survivor said "no such thing" about the whistling. They were too tired and beat down to whistle.
Another aspect that pissed off the Brits: The heroic American soldier, played by William Holden, helping with the sabotage that took down the bridge in the movie.
There were NO Americans ever near that work camp, let alone one that came to help destroy the bridge.
When you see and hear the trailer/preview for the movie, you’re led to believe it was something that really happened.
Well, a bridge was built. Prisoners did die. But it was never blown up by heroic saboteurs. The Japanese got the bridge they wanted, and the war went on for another two years until Hiroshima.
But hey, it’s still an enjoyable movie.
Just so not real.
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