The Bridge that brought fame to Sri Lanka

Fifty one years ago on December 18, 1957, was released a cinema classic that made Sri Lanka famous as an ideal movie location and boosted the island’s tourism image.

Today it is mainly the older generation of Kithulgala who cherish fond memories of the shooting of the Bridge on the River Kwai directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel. Many have talked about the movie but only a few remember the making of it in Sri Lanka. The film was a Theatrical smash-it won seven academic awards and grossed 10 times its $3 Million cost .

In addition to the Hollywood team, four Sri Lankans figured prominently in the making of this cinemascope film .They were Gamini Fonseka, Vijaya Abeydeva ,Willie Blake and Chris Greet.In addition to being an assistant cameraman in this Columbia Pictures Production, Willie Blake was also the chief cameraman of the documentary film made on the shooting of the Bridge on the River Kwai. Gamini Fonseka and Vijeya Abeydeva worked as assistant directors.

I had the priveledge of associating with the Gamini for over 25 years and also working under him when he was the Governor of the now demerged North-East Province.

“We as young men were extremely fortunate for having had the opportunity to work under directors like David Lean”. He used to say “One gets a better start in one’s film career by getting behind the camera rather that by getting in front of it.

Sri Lankan Chris Greet got a title billing in this cinemascope movie starring , William Holden ,Alec Guiness, and Jack Hawkins.

Some locals in Kitulgala gave up their job to work on the bridge. Everyone in the area was so thrilled and excited about it . They have never seen anything like that in their entire lives.They were engaged in the project for six months. Many Sri Lankans were recruited as extras for the film.

It was the first time in Sri Lanka that a film company bought an entire train and destroyed it. The train was one of those that ran on the then narrow gauge kelani valley line.The wooden bridge that spanned the Kelani river at Kalugotenne, Kitulgala was named after the actual steel and concrete bridge on the river Kwai in Thailand .Yet it was the Kitulgala bridge that brought the real Kwai Bridge back into the lime light .It revived painful memories of hundreds of those that died building the Burma-Siam Death Railway in world war II.

In fact there were two bridges built over the Kelany at Kalugotenne . One was built in order to film a scene which shows the bridge collapsing while under construction . While this was being built one worker was injured.

An Indian company undertook the contract to build the main bridge . The sub contract was given to a local firm . The villages in the vicinity who worked on the project earned nearly seven times more than what they were paid a day for tapping rubber trees.

However when the day came for the big blow up, the police chased the villagers away from the vicinity . The people could not comprehend why the bridge that was built at a massive cost ,was to be destroyed along with the train. As they watched from a safe distance. They saw the Japanese troop train passing the bridge twice , nothing happened. As it approached the middle of the bridge for the third time , a thundering explosion shook the area and broke the bridge in to two. The steam locomotive was the first to hit the water followed by the rest of the train.

The villagers were allowed to go to the spot only after an hour after the blast. The carriages which were in the water almost formed a bridge spanning the river . Young boys walked on the half sunk carriages , picking up khaki uniform dummies made of rubber. The dummies were Japanese soldiers being transported by train to the battle front in Burma.

The entire film was shot on location in Sri Lanka and the Mount Lavinia Hotel was among the places where filming was done. This country figured in the story itself , which was linked to actual events in World War II. [During the war the Mount Lavinia Hotel was a place of rest and recuperation for Allied troops and Kandy was the headquarters of the Supreme Commander South-East Asia , Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten.]

Writer-Producer Carl Foreman optioned French Novelist Pierre Boulle’s little known original novel “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and wrote a script which he sold to producer Sam Spiegel. Next Calder Willingham altered it and finally Michael Wilson put it into shape. Screen writer Robert Bolt also had a hand in it during the shooting here.

The story centers on a group of British Prisoners of War who built a bridge for the Japanese Army to move their troops across the river Kwai to the Burma front. One of the prisoners escape and returns to blow up the bridge on the very day it is opened for traffic.