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Poster for The Bridge on the River Kwai
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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Re-Release Trailer

The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957)
Released
1957 · FILM

The Bridge on the River Kwai

A principled British colonel in a WWII Thai POW camp must choose between obedience and rebellion as he confronts a merciless Japanese commandant forcing his men to construct a lethal bridge, jeopardizing their survival and honor.

“It spans a whole new world of entertainment!”

Directed by
David Lean
Written by
Pierre Boulle, Carl Foreman
Rated
MPA · PG
Runtime
162 min
AdventureDramaWar
Streaming on
  • Paramount+

Synopsis

The classic story concerns English prisoners of war in Burma who were compelled to construct a bridge for the benefit of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers plot to destroy the structure, while Colonel Nicholson serves as the commander overseeing the bridge.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Director of Photography
Writers
Director

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 32

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Peter TaylorShot by Jack HildyardScored by Malcolm Arnold

Box Office

1957 · Box office

💰 Box-office hit — grossed 16× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$44.9M

Budget$2.8M
Worldwide gross$44.9M
break-even (2.5×)

Full synopsis

Also known as

  • Die Brücke am Kwaide
  • Bridge On The River Kwaien
  • El puente sobre el río Kwaies
  • Le pont de la rivière Kwaïfr
  • Il ponte sul fiume Kwaiit

Community tags

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