David Lean in scale and more extensively released internationally. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) was based on a novel by Pierre Boulle recounting the story of British and American prisoners of war trying to survive in a Japanese prison camp during the Second World War. The film stars William Holden and Alec Guinness and became the highest-grossing film of 1957 in the United States. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Alec Guinness, who had battled with Lean to give more depth to his role as an obsessively correct British commander who is
The Bridge over the River Kwai the Thai authorities officially renamed the river. The Mae Klong is now called the Kwae Yai ('Big Kwae') for several miles north of the confluence with the Kwae Noi ('Little Kwae'), including the bit under the bridge. In 1962 Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, with Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller, released the record "The Bridge on the River Wye", a spoof of the film version of "Kwai" based around the 1957 "Goon Show" "An African Incident". It was intended to have the same name as the film, but shortly before its release, the film company threatened legal action if the