Vitals

Alec Guinness as Lt. Col. L. Nicholson, duty-bound British Army officer and POW

Between Burma and Thailand, Spring 1943

Film: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Release Date: October 2, 1957
Director: David Lean
Wardrobe Credit: John Wilson-Apperson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of the most acclaimed war epics of all time, The Bridge on the River Kwai was directed by David Lean and adapted from the 1952 novel by French author Pierre Boulle, a former POW who infused the story with a mix of firsthand insight and satirical commentary. The film became the highest-grossing release of 1957 and won six of its seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Alec Guinness, who died 25 years ago tomorrow on August 5, 2000.

In this fictionalized account of the construction of a railway bridge along the Burma-Siam route during World War II, Guinness portrayed dignified career officer Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson of the British Army, whom we meet as he leads his whistling troops into a Japanese prison camp deep in the arid Thai jungle.

Initially unable to fathom the potential horrors of life in a Japanese POW camp under the mistaken belief that the Geneva Conventions would shield him from hardship, Nicholson intends to take a gentlemanly approach to his imprisonment—even dissuading his officers from forming an escape committee, despite cynical American fellow prisoner “Commander” Shears (William Holden) reminding him that it is considered an officer’s “duty” to do so after being captured. (Which anyone who has seen The Great Escape also surely knows!)

“Of course, it’s normally the duty of a captured soldier to attempt escape,” Nicholson shares, “but my men and I are involved in a curious legal point in which you are unaware. In Singapore, we were ordered to surrender by Command Headquarters—ordered, mind you. Therefore, in our case, escape might well be an infraction of military law.”

Nicholson shows little of the considerable surprise he must have felt upon the camp’s commander Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) taking the Geneva Conventions from Nicholson’s hands and literally slapping him in the face with them. The colonel remains stoic through the experience, even when Saito has a machine gun wheeled up to threaten him—the execution order only quelled at the last minute when sick bay officer Lieutenant Jennings runs out to confront Saito. “I’ll say this for the old man, he’s got guts,” Jennings later comments of Nicholson… though he (and we) ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Under the terms of their imprisonment, the Saito orders Nicholson and his men—why, even his officers!—to work constructing the eponymous bridge that would connect Bangkok to Rangoon, a project for which the colonel grows increasingly obsessed with finishing to his idea of proud British standards, even if it is in service to the enemy:

One day the war will be over, and I hope the people who use this bridge in years to come will remember how it was built and who built it…

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What’d He Wear?

Colonel Nicholson spends the entirety of The Bridge on the River Kwai wearing his own tattered-and-patched British Army bush jacket and trousers, completed with boots, gaiters, belt, and cap. “This is working kit—it’s the fashion out here,” Shears explains of his tattered shorts to Nicholson, who had offered to get him some “decent clothing.”

Nicholson’s headgear is the standard British Army No. 2 peaked service dress cap, consisting of a brown woolen crown and visor and a brown leather chinstrap—secured on each end with bronzed metal buttons. Nicholson occasionally appends the cap with a swath of rough leather that hangs from under the rear cover as a makeshift safari flap to protect his neck from the sun.

During World War II, British Army personnel serving in tropical and desert theaters—such as North Africa, the Mediterranean, India, and Southeast Asia—were authorized to wear khaki drill (KD) service dress, made from lightweight yet durable cotton designed for heat, humidity, and rugged terrain. As many officers privately purchased their own uniform items, subtle variations in color, cut, and detail were common, though most followed the same general safari-informed pattern.

Unlike the more structured service dress tunic worn with a shirt and tie, the KD uniform centered on a sandy tan-hued bush jacket, typically with five front buttons extending to the mid-chest so the shirt-style collar could be worn open at the neck. Placket styles varied between traditional and plain (French) plackets, the latter seen on Nicholson’s jacket. Two box-pleated chest pockets closed with a single button under scalloped flaps, while larger patch pockets over the hips—standard on officer tunics but not those for enlisted men—were topped with rectangular flaps; Nicholson’s hip pockets also close through a single button, though this detail varied by tailor.

Shoulders were fitted with epaulets for rank insignia, and the set-in sleeves finished with single-button cuffs, often left unfastened and rolled up to the elbows in hot weather. A horizontal yoke spans the upper back, with deep pleats behind each shoulder to allow greater range of movement—these continuing as additional pleats below the waist and flanking the center vent.

Once Nicholson works out a more diplomatic working relationship with Saito, he evidently receives the resources to clean and mend his uniform, restored with the proper buttons and rank insignia. (While the patchwork fixes on this tunic are also present on the distressed uniform tunic he wore into camp, the tears and fraying on his initial tunic appeared too drastic to have been merely mended into the refreshed tunic he wears over the second half of the film.)

As a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, Nicholson’s rank insignia consists of a crown and “pip”, the latter a colloquial term for the four-pointed Bath star—a simplified variation of the star of the Knight Grand Cross Military Division of the Order of the Bath, present on all field and junior officer rank insignia except for major (which is solely a crown).

Commonwealth officers were expected to purchase their own Sam Browne belts, worn over the waist of a KD uniform bush jacket just as they would with a service tunic. Consisting of a waist-belt and detachable diagonal cross-strap that extends over the right shoulder to balance the weight of attached gear, the belt was named for British Indian Army General Sir Samuel J. Browne, who invented this particular system to draw his sword one-handed after losing his left arm during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Sam Browne belt became an icon of the British officer class, conjuring images of polished boots, service dress tunics, and measured authority.

The belt itself is a 2¼”-wide strap of high-quality brown leather (or black for rifle regiments), with brass or nickel hardware including the double-prong roller buckle on the front of the waist and D-rings intended for attaching equipment like pistol holster, ammunition pouches, sword frog, or binocular case—though the imprisoned Nicholson doesn’t have any of the items and wears his dark-brown leather waist-belt on its own.

Though Bermuda shorts were widely worn with the KD uniform, especially by enlisted men, officers often opted for long trousers—either for sun protection or professionalism. These were always made from the same lightweight khaki cotton drill as the matching bush tunic and again varied in style based on the officer’s personal preferences. Nicholson’s trousers have side pockets and a long rise to Alec Guinness’ natural waist, where they’re presumably rigged with internal brace buttons; as the prospect for suspenders was lost somewhere on his road to Burma, he—like several other men under his command—hold the trousers up with a makeshift rope belt.

Nicholson often follows the tradition of tucking his plain-hemmed trouser bottoms into the khaki canvas gaiters buckled over the tops of his boots. His russet-brown leather cap-toe ankle boots feature a single monk strap pulled through a brass-finished buckle, differing from the British Army’s usual lace-up designs like “ammo boots” or the crepe-soled desert boots popularized in tropical combat zones.

Suspended on a cord around his neck, Nicholson wears the compressed fiber identity disc issued by the British Army to all personnel through this era. These were hand-stamped on one side with the serviceman’s last name and first initial, rank (if an officer), abbreviated religious affiliation, and Army number.

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What to Imbibe

Following Nicholson’s first release from the torturous solitary confinement, Saito invites him to dine with him on English corned beef and Scotch, specifically Johnnie Walker Red Label blended whisky. “I prefer it to sake,” Saito explains as he pours them each a dram, neat.

Given his recent ordeal and the state of his stomach, Nicholson understandably foregoes his glass, at least until Saito details his motives for forcing Nicholson’s officers into manual labor.

Saito: Do you know what will happen to me if the bridge is not ready in time?
Nicholson: I haven’t the foggiest.
Saito: I’ll have to kill myself. What would you do if you are me?
Nicholson: I suppose if I were you, I’d have to kill myself. Cheers!

While Scotch and a cigar sound like a perfect combination for many, the starved colonel also refuses Saito’s offer of a post-prandial Corona.

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Lt. Col. Nicholson’s Uniform

When Nicholson arrives at Saito’s camp, his uniform pieces have been totally stripped of insignia; while he does eventually retrieve Lieutenant Colonel rank badges for his epaulets, the lack of these initially allow his khaki tunic, trousers, and boots to inspire a civilian’s safari-informed workwear without stealing valor.

• Khaki drill (KD) cotton twill British Army officer’s tropical uniform:
  • Five-button bush shirt-jacket with two box-pleated chest pockets with scalloped single-button flaps, two patch hip pockets with rectangular single-button flaps, shoulder epaulets, single-button cuffs, and pleated bi-swing back with single vent
  • Flat-front trousers with internal brace buttons, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark-brown leather Sam Browne waist belt with brass double-prong buckle and D-rings
• Russet-brown leather cap-toe single-strap ankle boots
• Brown canvas gaiters
• Brown wool British Army officer’s service dress peaked cap with brown leather chinstrap

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

What have I done?