By summer 1943 on the Asian mainland , Japanese troops had overrun much of the southeast Asia . They had conquered what is now Malasya and Burma . The British defenders and their allied had retreated north and west into India . The bridge of the River Kwai was placed on the so-called ¨Burma road¨ stretched north from the Burmese , Rangoon , into southern China . It combined a railroad with a winding track through the high mountains near the Chinese border . There had many valuable natural resources , including large large oil fields , and Japan's victory in 1942 cut off the only land route into China from outside. The mountain and jungle of Burma were some of the most demanding environments for fighting in the whole war . Burma and Thailand was strategically valuable , however , it guarded the supply routes to China where were a million Japanese troops, but in such a huge country even that number could not win a decisive victory over the Allied . The film's opening prologue states : "Planes from the 493rd Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps bombed and destroyed the bridges on the River Kwai in Japanese-occupied Thailand. This film is based on the true events which happened during that period" . In Thailand working for building a bridge over the River Kwai were a group of war prisoners , mostly Australian and Brits , Maj. Benford (Edward Fox , though Anthony Andrews was earmarked for this role) , Cmdr Hunt (Nick Tate) , Seaman Miller (Timothy Bottoms) , among others , under rigid orders of the camp of concentration's commandant Tanaka (George Takei) . Cruel conditions in the concentration camp make life very difficult and the climate also had a significant impact on the prisoners . Meantime , the bridge is bombing by an American aircraft piloted by lieutenant Crawford (Chris Penn , recently deceased) , but he's gunned down , being picked up by the Meo ,an indigenous tribe . The Meo have created a resistance group commanded by British colonel Grayson (Demholm Elliott) . Then , the convicts find many dangers and risks , as they are transported by rail and , later on , they shipped by sea to serve as slave workers . As they pass throughout several places and cities , Nonh Penh , Saigon , until embark on a freighter , but an Allied submarine sight the ship...
The film is allegedly the following to classic 'Bridge on the river Kwai' by David Lean with William Holden , Alec Guinnes , Jack Hawkins , but this Return to Kwai is not based on the novel written by Pierre Boulle and starts where the original terminated with the blowing-up of the famous bridge . However , not being an official sequel to 1957 original film , it was made in short budget about thirty years after ; in fact , it wasn't even released in the United States theatres because of legal reasons , and in Europe premiered in cinemas with limited success . It does supposedly follow-on from true facts as depicted in that film , though the roles , historical events , happenings and incidents in both films are essentially different . It displays a functional cinematography by Arthur Wooster . And evocative as well as original musical score by Lalo Schifrin but without the unforgettable melodies from the successful first adaptation . The motion picture results to be an inferior version and made in a television style , being based on true events written by Clay and Joan Blair . The picture was middlingly directed by Andrew V. McLagen , Victor McLagen's son.
