David Lean's 1957 film centers on a group of British prisoners at a World War II Japanese POW camp in Burma, who are ordered to build a bridge. Despite the fact that the task is given to them by their enemy in the war, the group's lieutenant (Alec Guinness) urges them to build it well so as to honor their country.
According to Turner Classic Movies, when paratroopers jump out of a plane in one scene, the shot was captured by director of photography Jack Hilyard tying himself to the wing of the plane.
The script was originally credited to Pierre Boulle, the author of the novel on which the film was based (who didn't speak English) because the two actual scriptwriters, Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, were blacklisted at the time.
