A Comparison Between the Movie and Book Version of the Bridge over the River Kwai Essay

And I m afraid we re in for a rather stormy passage (Boulle 36). Is the book better than the movie? In many cases, yes, and this is one such case. The book version of The Bridge Over the River Kwai, by Pierre Boulle, is far superior to that of the filmed version, produced by Sam Spiegel. Between the excess, unintelligible scenes, to the poor characterization and casting, to the faulty description of events, the film of Boulle s masterpiece is hardly worthy of his credit, for it is not what he would have intended it to be. The sequence if scenes, characterization, and explanation of happenings in The Bridge Over the River Kwai are much more effective in Boulle s printed version, as opposed to the film version, directed by Spiegel.The printed edition of The Bridge Over the River Kwai takes place almost entirely in the jungle by the River Kwai, the site of the bridge, or in the headquarters of Force 316. The movie has many added scenes, including one in which Shears is on the beach with a nurse, trying to court her back to his room. Boulle never included a female character in his book, for one was not needed. Such interjections are not necessary. The book did not include such frivolous pieces of scenery or characters to add on the time needed for a film. Such plot differences helped to deteriorate the strength of what is a war movie. Shears also escaped from the prisoner of war camp in the movie. According to the original writing, Shears never escaped, in fact, he was ever even in the slave camp. Colonel Green called for Major Shears, an ex-cavalry officer who had been transferred to Force 316 at the time that special unit had been formed (64).Along with Shears never have being in a prisoner of war camp, he was also never a fraud. When the Houston sunk, I made...