ORIGINAL: crsutton
ORIGINAL: Chickenboy
In this case, they would have been right...ORIGINAL: crsutton
Yes, that is how William Holden found himself stuck in a British POW camp in the movie version of "The Bridge Over the River Kwai." American studio heads were convinced the movie had to have an American in order to sell.
I think William Holden (and his character) were integral to the plot and the development of that fine movie. The camp also had Aussies and other nationals in it and would have been diminished in its scope, scale and impact had it been an (unrealistic) All-British exclusive camp and plot.
Well, it was not horrible but he was not in the novel and that seemed to work out just fine.
Did the novel have the acting genius of Sir Alec Guiness as a major character? I'd say this is an instance of the movie perhaps being *better* than the book.
