Burma veterans gather at Odeon (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Burma veterans gather at Odeon

Members of the Salisbury branch of the Burma Star Ass. and members of Wiltshire Royal British Legion at the cinema to launch the new Projections - Classics season.LAST night, Salisbury's Odeon cinema screened the first film in its short season of classics.

The Bridge On The River Kwai was filmed in 1957, its story based on a true incident during the Burma campaign of World War II, involving the building of two bridges in Burma by allied prisoners-of-war.

To launch the classics film season, members of the Wiltshire branches of the Royal British Legion, including members of the Burma Star Association, were invited to the cinema in New Canal on Wednesday last week.

Among the association members in attendance was branch president Major Cyril Gordon and branch chairman Brian Bennett, who served with the Royal Corps of Signals in the Burma campaign.

"I have seen the film several times and it is very good," Mr Bennett said.

"I served in the Japanese Arakan offensive in 1944 and then went down to Rangoon after the Battle of Imphal in March 1944."

Vice-chairman of the Salisbury branch of the Royal British Legion Colonel Peter Douglas was in the audience.

"I thought it was a very good film when I first saw it and that was shortly after it came out," he said.

Odeon Classics is the brainchild of marketing manager Tim Harding, who has timed the launch of the season to coincide with Sunday's Oscar ceremony.

"Every film we are showing is an Oscar past winner of the prestigious best picture award," he said.

"They will all be sweeping epics in the same mould as The Bridge On The River Kwai, which I believe hasn't been shown in a mainstream cinema for more than 30 years."