The film shows us an ideological confrontation and an exciting adventure, as a man moved by a purpose is capable of facing the whole world, to see his dream come true. More than a war movie, it is a Shakespearean drama in which the protagonist, Colonel Nicholson played by Alec Guinness, in his particular vision and pursuit of his goal of "building a bridge" over the River Kwai, pushes the group of British prisoners who together with him are captives to overcome the circumstances in which they survive and recover their dignity and to be able to choose how to feel, although they are captives, there is something that no one can take away from their mind and the freedom to be able to think what they want they want.
Colonel Nicholson will put his vision, his dream, above anything else, even betraying his patriotism, his own identity as an Englishman, what identifies his values, his roots for the pursuit of his goal, thereby raising the spirits of his compatriots, but they did not understand that this personal vision in the end makes him lose his true patriotic sense of serving his country, his authentic mission in the event of a war.
The song "Coronel Bogey's march" is one of the most popular military marches ever composed and the English composer Malcolm Arnold adapted it for the soundtrack of the film in which it does not appear sung, only whistled, it becomes a hymn to enthusiasm that elevates and that can lift our spirits in the most tremendous circumstances, that melody that remains engraved in our minds and that we hum without realizing it, is what it became and today many people refer to it as “The March of the Bridge on the River Kwai.
The film is based on historical events in the construction of the infamous railway line between Burma and Siam the "train of death" in charge of thousands of European prisoners of war who were captured by the Japanese during World War II, was shot in Ceylon and the shooting lasted eight arduous months, although in the film it only takes two months to build the bridge, in reality it was eight months and it was a very hard experience for both the cast and the technical team that participated in it, under a strenuous heat and tremendous humidity.
