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:
“Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.”
—Paul Simon (b. 1949)
“There are books so alive that you’re always afraid that while you weren’t reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away. No one has stepped twice into the same river. But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?”
—Marina Tsvetaeva (1892–1941)