THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI

 "THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI" --- (1957) --- 

SYNOPSIS: "British POWs are ordered by their Japanese captors to construct a bridge of strategic importance and are happy to sabotage and delay the progress until their commanding officers orders them to continue the work unhindered to its completion, but are his actions tantamount to collaborating with the enemy?"

STARRING: Alec Guiness, William Holden, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins, Geoffrey Horne, Ann Sears, Percy Herbert, James Donald, Andre Morell, John Boxer and Vilaiwan Wattanapanich.

SCREENPLAY: Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson; based on "The Bridge on the River Kwai" by Pierre Boulle.

DIRECTOR: David Lean

AWARDS & OTHER HONORS:

It was nominated for eight ( 8 ) Academy Awards and won seven (7) of them for:

"Best Picture"

"Best Director"

"Best Actor"

"Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium"

"Best Cinematography"

"Best Film Editing"

"Best original Score"

It was nominated for twenty-eight (28) additional awards, from various entities, and won twenty-one (21) of them.

American Film Institute lists:

• 1998 — AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies — #13
• 2001 — AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills — #58
• 2006 — AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers — #14

The British Film Institute placed The Bridge on the River Kwai as the 11th greatest British film.

In 1997, it was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry at The Library of Congress.