The Bridge On The River Kwai
English composer Malcolm Arnold added a counter-march, The River Kwai March for the 1957 dramatic film The Bridge on the River Kwai, set during World War II. The lyrics were not used in the film, but British audiences fully understood the humour of "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" being whistled by prisoners of war. The melody is now so identified with the film that many people now incorrectly call it as "The River Kwai March". Arnold gave that name to a new march that he wrote for the movie. Since the film portrayed prisoners of war held under inhumane conditions by the Japanese, there was a diplomatic row in May 1980, when a military band played "Colonel Bogey" during a Canadian visit by Japanese prime minister Masayoshi Ōhira.
Read more about this topic: Colonel Bogey March
Famous quotes containing the words bridge and/or river:
“Crime seems to change character when it crosses a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs, though, it’s intimate and psychological—resistant to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“We approached the Indian Island through the narrow strait called “Cook.” He said, “I ‘xpect we take in some water there, river so high,—never see it so high at this season. Very rough water there, but short; swamp steamboat once. Don’t paddle till I tell you, then you paddle right along.” It was a very short rapid. When we were in the midst of it he shouted “paddle,” and we shot through without taking in a drop.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)