10 Movie Posters That Lied To Your Face

This 1957 war drama is widely considered one of the best films of all time. It certainly has the accolades to back it up being the highest grossing movie of its year, winning seven Academy Awards and now preserved by the National Film Registry for its significance to western culture.

That being said, for all that it did well, there were some very weird missteps along the way.

Bridge on the River Kwai has a few promotional posters but one that stands out is the one with William Holden’s character Commander Shears standing tall with the eponymous bridge in the background. Holden has first billing on all of the film’s marketing but what makes this strange is that he is arguably NOT the picture’s main character.

A pre-Obi Wan Kenobi Sir Alec Guinness plays Colonel Nicholson, whose character is at the heart of the bridge and who has the most important arc of the story. A British soldier who becomes obsessed with his labour to build the bridge, Nicholson ends the film by taking down his work in a final act of defiance.

Colonel Nicholson is the beating heart of the piece so this poster seemingly saying it was all about Commander Shears’ thrilling heroics was all wrong.