Journal 3

The film I chose to watch is the Bridge On the River Kwai directed by David Lean. I chose this film because it won numerous Academy Awards including best picture (1957). It is based on the novel by Pierre Boulle. The film is about British POWs and Allied soldiers. When the British POWs build a railway bridge in enemy occupied Burma, allied commandoes are assigned to destroy the bridge. It is still praised for its excellence as a film but also behind the scenes.
The two writers of the film, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson were on the Hollywood Backlist and could only work on the film in secret. The Hollywood Backlist was a group of writers, directors and actors who were not allowed to work on films because of their political beliefs. The idea for the script came from a novel by Pierre Boulle called, Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï. It is a fiction novel but it borrows the construction of the Burma Railway as a main part of the plot. From my research it seems that the film and the novel are very similar. It used the same plot and characters and matched the novel very well. Foreman and Wilson did not collaborate on the script which led to Foreman walking out on the project and Wilson taking over. Previously Carl Foreman wrote the script for High Noon, a popular western film. Michael Wilson also wrote the script for The Planet of the Apes. The credit for the screenplay was given to Pierre Boulle because the two were on the Backlist and Boulle was awarded an Oscar for writing even though he did not speak a word of English. In 1984 Foreman and Wilson were finally awarded an Oscar for the writing of the film.
Many directors were considered for the project, among them John Ford, William Wyler, Howard Hawks, Fred Zinnemann, and Orson Welles. They finally decided on David Lean, a British Director who was virtually unheard of outside of Britain. But that didn’t mean he was a nobody, he directed films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. Lean was a person who wanted a lot to do with the actors and wanted them to be the type of character he wanted. Often times he would get into fights with the actors, most importantly Alec Guinness, the star of the film. Lean had a totally different view of how to play Nicholson (Guinness) as Guinness did. It seemed like Lean stayed away from the Cinematography aspect and focused more on the acting. He was awarded Best Director in the 1957 Academy Awards for his work in the film.
The Bridge on the River Kwai is a fantastic film that was one of the first of its kind. It was praised for its direction and writing and is still a popular film today. It incorporated very new ideas and was a very entertaining and in depth film.