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A Bridge Too Far

A Bridge Too Far

List Price: $14.95
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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Yawn....
Review: I think having all those stars actually took away from it. It just tried too hard, this movie. And I wanted to like it. I really did. I really wanted to proudly display it among my other war movies.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A mediocre film and a shoddy DVD
Review: To give the film its due, the cast is awe-inspring: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins (young, at that), Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, James Caan, Laurence Olivier, Elliott Gould, and Denholm Elliott head a cast seemingly of thousands. However, once one gets past seeing this assemblage "all in the same room" so to speak, there is nothing else to be impressed with and many things with which to be annoyed.

The film centers on the enormous WWII airborne operation to take a corridor of bridges leading to Arnhem. Most of the named stars are the commanders of units in the operation and many of the same commanders served as military consultants to the film. Normally I would applaud such authenticity, but it is this film's Achilles' heel. From the first minutes, we see these commanders protesting the insane plot hatched by the top brass, including Montgomery. It is impossible to suspend one's belief so far to assume that Monty, etc., were as supremely stupid as the film suggests, and after nearly three hours of this treatment, the ending is tediously inevitable.

The DVD version sets an even lower standard. This epic has lengthy scenes in German and Dutch, but when listening to the English language version, no subtitles appear for these scenes. One must turn on English subtitles for the whole movie--an annoying distraction--and even then the subtitles disappear in some crucial sections of foreign dialogue! The subtitles also appear partly over the picture, which is inexcusable in a widescreen edition. The video is a poor, pixelated transfer, crying out for a remastering. Finally, the DVD has no extra features, other than the theatrical trailer.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent depiction of Market-Garden but weak in parts
Review: "A Bridge Too Far" is the movie adaptation from the book of the same name. It tells the story of the planning and execution of Operation Market-Garden a combined airborne-ground operation to seize bridges over the Lower Rhine in Holland. The producers took great pains to ensure that authentic equipment and vehicles were used (some items were previously in museums in Belgium and Holland). Additionally, participants in the battles at Nijmegen, Arnhem and Oosterbeek were used as advisors during filming. The result is a fairly accurate look at the operation from both the Allied and German perspectives.

The use by the author, Cornelius Ryan, of personal accounts interlaced with conventional history was groundbreaking in its time. However, when adapted to movies these accounts gain more importance than they historically should have, due to "Hollywood's" use of box-office names to fill those roles. Overall, the movie is weak where the book is weak: Neither really goes to the source of failures in the operation: a badly constructed plan. The real problem of the distant drop zones at Arnhem was the loss of that "thunderclap surprise" that the Browning character briefs to his division commanders. In addition, Browning did not choose to pass on the latest intelligence concerning 2SS Panzer Corps in the area. Neither of these decisions are highlighted in the book or movie treatments. It was obvious during planning that there would be communications problems; this was not the surprise the movie depicts. The problem of tug and glider transport, hinted at in a few scenes, is not explored. For example, gliders/airlift aircraft were used up getting Browning's HQ deployed which did not have a real combat role (typically airborne forces come under the command of the ground forces commander once link-up is made). Having said all that, it is still a good depiction of the fighting and a good way to learn about Market-Garden, see the movie, read the book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Literally filmed on location
Review: Cornelius Ryan's nonfiction saga is masterfully told in the film adaptation. MARKET GARDEN, hoped to be one of the death blows to the German Reich, was daring and ambitious, but failed to bounce the Rhine and bring the war to conclusion. Locations in the Netherlands included the actual Nijmegen Bridge, drop zones outside of Oosterbeek (which is next to Arnhem), the Deventer Bridge closely doubling as the bridge at Arnhem, and many scenes filmed at the Dutch Infantry training center at nearby Harskamp. Producer Joseph E. Levine and Director Richard Attenborough drew equipment from numerous nations, including quite a few museum relics, to create this film. What they did not have, special effects and props departments created in order to create a realistic and mostly historically accurate rendition of this September 1944 battle in Holland. Where the film deviates from the book is that the movie tends to paint the Allied planners as blind to the possible flaws in the operation and German Field Marshal Model is portrayed as a cowardly fool. In reality, Model's immediate actions, though based on incorrect assumptions, greatly contributed to the containment of the Airhead north of the Neder Rijn. A BRIDGE TO FAR ranks highly with films like THE LONGEST DAY and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN in terms of intensity and historical accuracy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great classic war movie.
Review: This is one of the greatest movies ever made. It goes along with the book throughout the whole movie and is as as good as any war movie available, and it has more historical background than most. If I could give a 4 1/2 stars I would have.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good film but bad picture quality for DVD.
Review: The film was great as far as historical reference, but the picture quality for DVD users quite bad. For DVD a lot of white dots and it looks as though the film was not remastered first. MGM should have remastered the film taking all the fuzz out first before making it digital. Audio quality-great.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: They don't get better than this
Review: An all star cast, great acting, REAL German actors instead of Americans butchering the German language pretending to be German, historically accurate, no goofy romance subplots, ground assaults, airborne assaults, the Dutch resistance, and no "all Germans are evil Nazis bent on killing everyone" propaganda.

What more can you ask for?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Superb.
Review: Sensational tale of one of the epic battles of WWII, and one of the finest stories of courage and sacrifice in wartime ever filmed, it is up there on my list of favorites right beside "The Triumph and the Glory" and "The Bridges of Toko-Ri", and "Sands of Iwo Jima". Great cast, great screenplay.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Centerpiece of My DVD Collection
Review: Quite simply the best war movie ever. It was the 'Saving Private Ryan' of its time, although not nearly as gory. However, it showed the invasion of Holland without any fictional dramatization. It is also the most impressive cast that I have ever seen in a movie. Get it. You'll be glad you did.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the great War movies ever made!
Review: This movie isn't like usual war movie just showing war, this brings you into the planing of the battle, from both sides, and really shows you what is was like to be in Holland in 1944. Its a great film.


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