The Bridge on the River Kwai by the other prisoners. Julie Summers, in her book "The Colonel of Tamarkan", writes that Boulle, who had been a prisoner of war in Thailand, created the fictional Nicholson character as an amalgam of his memories of collaborating French officers. He strongly denied the claim that the book was anti-British, although many involved in the film itself (including Alec Guinness) felt otherwise. Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the railway construction and POW camps described in the novel/film, stated in a 1962 book, "Through the Valley of the Kwai": "In Pierre Boulle's book "The Bridge over the River Kwai" and the
The River Kwai March The River Kwai March "The "River Kwai" March" is a march composed by Malcolm Arnold in 1957. It was written as an orchestral counter-march to the "Colonel Bogey March", which is whistled by the soldiers entering the prisoner camp in the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and again near the end of the film when the bridge is formally dedicated. The Arnold march re-appears (without the "Colonel Bogey March") several times in the film and is repeated at the finale. The two marches have been recorded together by Mitch Miller as "March from the River Kwai - Colonel