10 Legendary Films You Never Realised Were Based On Books
4. The Bridge on The River Kwai – Based on The Bridge Over The River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
When discussing the greatest war films of all time, The Bridge on the River Kwai will often be brought up before too long, and for good reason. It’s a stunningly intricate portrayal of a World War Two era British general who happily collaborates with his Imperial Japanese captors to build a railway bridge, only to realise the true horrors that his blind pride may have wrought.
Pierre Boulle, author of the original French-language novel The Bridge Over The River Kwai, was falsely credited as the screenwriter for the film. This is because the actual writers, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, were on the Hollywood blacklist at the time and forbidden from working in the film industry. Boulle ended up being awarded the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for his “work”, an error that was rectified by the Academy twenty-seven years later.
The only major change to Boulle’s story was making one British character an American instead, likely so that the film would appeal more to a United States audience. The bridge also only suffers minor damage in the book, rather than being totally destroyed as it is at the film’s impressive climax.