What 1957 David Lean film about a Japanese POW camp won Best Picture?

The 1957 David Lean film about a Japanese POW camp that won Best Picture was The Bridge on the River Kwai.

The film is an epic wartime drama adapted from Pierre Boulle’s 1952 novel The Bridge over the River Kwai. Its story is set during the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43, though both the novel and film significantly fictionalize the historical events.

David Lean directed Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson, a British officer whose pride in military discipline leads him to help construct a bridge for his Japanese captors. William Holden plays an escaped American prisoner, while Sessue Hayakawa portrays the camp commander. The film’s famous whistled march became one of cinema’s most recognizable musical motifs.

At the 30th Academy Awards, the film won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Score. A common mix-up is confusing it with Lean’s later epic Lawrence of Arabia, which won Best Picture several years afterward.