David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai" Quiz

Answer: World War II

"The Bridge on the River Kwai" was set in 1942, shortly after the fall of Singapore. It begins with British troops being marched into the prison camp after their surrender to the Japanese at Singapore. While the story is fiction, the broader setting--including the construction of the Burmese railway--is based on historical events.

Answer: Alec Guinness

Guinness starred in five other films directed by David Lean, the director of "The Bridge on the River Kwai": "Great Expectations"; "Oliver Twist"; "Lawrence of Arabia"; "Doctor Zhivago"; and "A Passage to India". And, rather famously, Guinness played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

Hayawaka, who portrayed Colonel Saito, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor but ended up losing to Red Buttons. Attenborough and Garner weren't in the film, but did star in another great WWII prison camp movie, "The Great Escape".

Answer: Officers performing manual labour

Colonel Saito instructed the prisoners that they would all be required to work on the bridge construction, without exception. Nicholson protested, pointing out that the Geneva Convention stipulates that prisoners of war of officer rank should not be made to perform manual labour. In response, Saito exclaimed, "Do not speak to me of rules. This is war! This is not a game of cricket!"

Nicholson's strict adherence to rules and "proper" conduct was his character mark, and is considered by some viewers to be an unflattering comment on British military character in general.

Answer: He was locked in an iron box in the blazing sun.

After their confrontation over the Geneva Convention, Saito left Nicholson and the other officers standing in the hot sun all day. When, by evening, Nicholson had not backed down, Saito had the officers locked in a punishment hut while Nicholson was thrown into a small iron box without food or water, and left there for days.

Answer: Burma

While the events in the movie are fictional, the Burmese Railway was a real piece of infrastructure, constructed largely by forced labour during World War II. The railway connected Bangkok in Thailand to Rangoon in Burma--a distance of 415km--and facilitated the transport of supplies to Japanese troops in Burma.

It is estimated that 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 prisoners of war worked on the railway, with more than 100,000 people losing their lives under the extremely harsh conditions.

Answer: Saito would have to commit ritual suicide.

Saito became visibly and increasingly upset at the resilience of the British soldiers, and his officers' inability to force them to work faster. Eventually he released Nicholson and the other officers under the pretence of an act of clemency to mark the anniversary of a great Japanese victory over Russia.

He was then humiliated by conceding to the British officers' plans to take over the construction management, even allowing his own soldiers to perform manual labour alongside the prisoners.

Answer: To boost morale and demonstrate British superiority

While his fellow officers were reluctant to support the plan, even suggesting that it was tantamount to collaborating with the enemy, they couldn't deny the positive impact Nicholson's leadership had on the troops' discipline and morale. Nicholson saw the project as a way of immortalising the achievements of the British Army, even in captivity. As he explained to Major Clipton:

"One day the war will be over. And I hope that the people that use this bridge in years to come will remember how it was built and who built it. Not a gang of slaves, but soldiers, British soldiers, Clipton, even in captivity."

Answer: William Holden

The role of Shears was expanded in the movie, compared to the source novel, and Holden was even given top billing over Alec Guinness' protagonist. This was intended to attract US audiences and capitalise on Holden's star power--he had previously received the Best Actor Academy Award nomination for "Sunset Boulevard" and won an Oscar for "Stalag 17".

Holden served in World War II as a 2nd lieutenant in the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces.

Answer: He has been impersonating a dead officer.

The leader of the Special Forces commando unit, Major Warden, asked Shears to volunteer to go back with them, since he'd been there before and knew the terrain. In fact, he'd already had the mission cleared with the US Navy. Shears protested that the order didn't apply, since he wasn't really Commander Shears: when his ship sank he took the uniform of a dead officer in order to get preferential treatment as a prisoner of war. To his dismay, Warden knew all of this already, and pointed out that if the story became public Shears would have to be charged with a serious offense.

Answer: He parachuted into a tree.

The commando force comprised Major Warden, the reluctant Shears, a young Canadian named Joyce and an officer named Chapman. Chapman only appears on screen briefly: he is the one who recommends Joyce join the team because of his strong swimming ability, and is described by Shears as having "ice in his veins". The next we see of Chapman is his lifeless body hanging from a tree in an unsuccessful dusk parachute attempt.

Somewhat ironically, Shears parachuted into the jungle without any training because, it was reasoned, the odds of dying increased with each jump so he was better off not wasting his luck on practice jumps!

Answer: The river had dropped, exposing the denotation wires.

Lieutenant Joyce was hiding on the river bank with the detonator. Throughout the morning he carefully threw handfuls on sand onto the wires running along the newly exposed shore, but there was nothing he could do about a wire draped over a stick in the middle of the river.

Answer: Major Warden

When Nicholson noticed the detonation wires he alerted Saito and both walked down to the river banks to investigate. Lieutenant Joyce stabbed Saito but although Nicholson recognised Joyce as a British officer, he called for help and tried to prevent Joyce from reaching the detonator. Joyce was shot by Japanese troops, as was Shears, while Warden fired a mortar that fatally wounded Nicholson. Realising in horror that he had unintentionally become a collaborator of the enemy, Nicholson stumbled towards the detonator and collapsed on it, destroying the bridge just as the train crossed over.

Answer: "Madness! Madness!"

"The Bridge on the River Kwai" can be viewed as a sombre critique of the madness of war, or it could be considered a very black comedy. The behaviour shown by a number of major characters could be considered insane by different viewers--adherence to rules above all else; willingness to kill oneself in the name of honour; single-minded focus on a goal with no regard to the costs of achieving it.

Shears states this plainly, speaking to the leader of the British commando unit:
"You and Colonel Nicholson, you're two of a kind, crazy with courage. For what? How to die like a gentleman...how to die by the rules - when the only important thing is how to live like a human being."

Answer: Colonel Bogey March

Many sets of lyrics, often crude, have been set to the tune. Arguably the most famous of these originated in England during the Second World War, titled "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball". Thus the film opened with candid black humour: prisoners of war, some injured, some wearing only the scraps of their uniform, marching with dignity yet mocking their enemy even in defeat.

The opening scene captured the popular portrayal of the British soldier as proud, resilient and never beaten in spirit.

Answer: Pierre Boulle

During World War II the French Boulle served as a secret agent loyal to Charles de Gaulle in Indochina. He was captured in 1943 and subjected to forced labour. After the war he drew on his experiences for both fiction and non-fiction works.

Although Boulle did not write the screenplay that adapted his book for film, he received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. This is because, in the post-war McCarthy era, the film's actual screenwriters (Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson) had been blacklisted as communist sympathisers.