<Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $30.6 million (initial release) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British - American epic war film directed by David Lean and starring William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Alec Guinness, and featuring Sessue Hayakawa . Based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai (1952) by Pierre Boulle, the film is a work of fiction, but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942--1943 for its historical setting . The movie was filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The bridge in the film was near Kitulgala . </P> <P> Carl Foreman was the initial screenwriter, but Lean replaced him with Michael Wilson . Both writers had to work in secret, as they were on the Hollywood blacklist and had fled to England in order to continue working . As a result, Boulle, who did not speak English, was credited and received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay; many years later, Foreman and Wilson posthumously received the Academy Award . </P> <P> The film was widely praised, winning seven Academy Awards (including Best Picture) at the 30th Academy Awards . In 1997, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress . It has been included on the American Film Institute's list of best American films ever made . In 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Bridge on the River Kwai the 11th greatest British film of the 20th Century . </P>

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