The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) | Ep. 115

In 1957, David Lean took audiences to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma and somehow turned bridge building into one of cinema's great psychological dramas. The Bridge on the River Kwai became a massive hit, but behind the scenes was almost as chaotic as life in the jungle.

We're unpacking two stories about the WWII epic: The wild production tale - from Lean's obsessive filmmaking in the Sri Lankan jungle to the controversy over who really wrote the screenplay (Hollywood politics got messy). Second, we dig into the craft behind the sweeping war film - the massive practical bridge construction, Alec Guinness's iconic performance, and how Lean created visual poetry out of warfare (not for the last time, either).

Through segments like The Director, The Cast, and The Crew, we explore how a film about building a bridge became a meditation on honor, madness, and the absurdity of war - all while somehow making the "Colonel Bogey March" permanently stuck in your head.

Telling the story of Hollywood, one movie at a time.

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