RETURN TO THE RIVER KWAI ( X )

Nevertheless, when one reads more about these terrible events, it is clear that Lean’s film and Pierre Boulle’s novel on which it is based , contain a number of inaccuracies that have helped perpetuate a number of historical myths and misconceptions .Fact and fiction have become closely interwoven to such an extent ,that it is extremely difficult to disentangle the two. It is important to do this because public perceptions of what happened here have been largely formed by the book and the film. For instance, the film portrays the building of the bridge at Kanchana Buri as a specifically British Army undertaking. This is clearly not so.There are many Dutch graves at Kanchana Buri of Dutch people captured when the Japanese overran the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).These casualty figures for the construction of the railway are the ones cited by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

TOTAL OF WORKERS ---------------- TOTAL OF DEAD
British 30,000 6,5040

Australians 13,000 2,710

Dutch 18,000 2,830

Asians 100 – 200,000 90,000

Other nationalities. 1,700 544

______________ ____________________

102,624

RETURN TO THE RIVER KWAI (IX)

The psychological battle between the two officers is very much part of the general insanity of behaviour that war always brings with it.Colonel Nicholson ,the Alec Guinness character slowly descends into total madness before our eyes.Completing the bridge becomes a personal obsession and he totally fails to see that he is aiding and abetting the enemy . The haste of the Japanese to build the bridge , the tight schedule they are under,is also well portrayed. The destruction of the completed bridge now makes you shake your head with disbelief. A beautiful structure,the fruit of months of backbreaking toil disappears in an instant . “Madness! Madness!” says the British army doctor ,and you have to agree with him.