A Bridge Too Far

Rating:
Summary: A war movie for non-military movie fans
Review: You have to hand it to director Richard Attenborough--it's not every man who could turn one of World War II's more spectacular failures into one of Hollywood's best war movies. Where Operation Market Garden failed was its planners' refusal to look at the campaign from all sides--to consider controllable factors like Nazi troop movements as well as uncontrollable factors like the weather. What makes "A Bridge Too Far" succeed is its use of point of view--it shows the war from the perspective of the Allied commanders and soldiers, the Nazi command outpost and its megalomaniacal brigadier general (Maximilian Schell), and a father and his teenage son who were spies for the Dutch resistance. This balance of viewpoints builds up a sense of suspense, even though you know how the campaign is going to end.

In addition to the major triumphs and disasters of the campaign, the film brings victory and failure down to a personal level. In one of most striking scenes, parachutes drop down in a surreal ballet that ends with the first-person perspective of a soldier hitting the ground with a thud that knocks the breath out of him. It's the careful attention to details like this that have made "A Bridge Too Far" a war movie that even those who aren't military buffs can appreciate.

Rating:
Summary: ..."They always said we'd go a bridge too far."
Review: I've seen a lot of war movies, and this is one of the best. The film is about Operation Market Garden, an operation meant to bring a swift end to WW2, but turned out to be a huge military blunder. It's just as good as the book, and it's full of great stars and excellent acting. Filmed on location, this film has everything. Infantry, Tanks (Although the German ones are mock-ups), and plenty of Paratroopers. It's accurate (although not as realistic as it should be), and it sticks to the book well. I highly recommend this film to anyone who has read the book, or just enjoys a good war movie.

Rating:
Summary: superb
Review: This movie was terrific, although I agree with the reviewers who say you should read the book to fully appreciate it. Books will always be more thorough and complete than movies.

One thing that was not captured at all in the movie version was the harrowing crossing of the Rhine by the British paratroopers fleeing Arnhem.

Also, the movie creates the impression that Browning (the British commander) supports Market-Garden without reservation. He utters the famous "bridge too far" line to Urquhart at the end, and this appears to be more than a little disingenuous,coming after the fact.

In the book, we learn that, in fact, Browning tells Montgomery "we may be going a bridge too far" at the initial briefing for Market-Garden.

However, I am terrible with identifying celebrities and hope that someone can tell me what characters were played by Dirk Borge and Lawrence Olivier? Also, who played Maxwell Taylor (commander of US 101st Airborne) and Gen. Gavin (commander of US 82nd Airborne)? Both actors looked familiar, but I could not place them.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Rating:
Summary: Gut-wrenching, vivid portrayal one of WWII's great battles.
Review: I clearly remember, as an 8-year-old in England, the optimism of the time and the word, on everyone's lips, that after five years of privation "the war will be over by Christmas". And with a bit of luck, Operation Market Garden might have done just that. I also remember the air of dread and apprehension when the news of the catastrophe started to come in - many of the British Airborne slaughtered at Arnhem bridge were from my area in Lancashire county and almost every family in my village lost a son or father, or knew someone who had. The name "Arnhem" for years after was spoken of in the same way that an earlier generation had spoken of Ypres and the Somme.

I often wonder, after reading Leonard Maltin's reviews, whether he and I have seen the same films. How anyone can call this true-to-life, accurate representation of Cornelius Ryan's book "lifeless" and "overproduced" is beyond me. I found it to be one of the most realistic and emotionally-draining examples of warfare I have ever seen - certainly more so than the film version of Ryan's "Longest Day", which seems to appear on TV every couple of months complete with draft-dodging John Wayne's fake heroics.

One of the strongest parts of the screenplay and direction is how the Dutch civilians and allied soldiers alike started with the optimistic idea that the Germans were beaten and on the run, and gradually came to realise that the exact opposite was happening.

My only criticism is that the film is about 20 minutes too long; most of this could have been avoided by leaving the superfluous James Caan bit on the cutting-room floor (but it was probably in his contract that his bit had to stay!)

Top acting: Sean Connery as Gen. Urquhart (whom he uncannily resembled), Edward Fox (Gen. Horrocks), and Anthony Hopkins as Col. John Frost - mystifyingly: this, I think one of his best roles, is never mentioned in Hopkins's biographies. Rotten acting: Michael Cain (what's new?) and Gene Hackman, who never seemed to know what his accent was supposed to be. I agree with an earlier reviewer - how could this true, tragic but inspiring story have been a box-office bomb while "Saving Private Ryan" was a mega-hit?

I have traveled in Holland, and the Dutch people were, and remain, eternally grateful to the allies - especially the British - for their sacrifice to liberate their homeland. Now the French on the other hand.....

Rating:
Summary: The best war movie ever
Review: I liked the movie because it had a lot of action sequences and I like movies with paratroopers.Matt

Rating:
Summary: A most unexpected movie ( very good indeed )
Review: I first saw this movie a few years back . I found for one thing that it was well made , in the sense that it deals with the acurate feeling that one might feel at war in those days . lots of tanks , armor , infantry . In short it looked like the real thing and alot of well known people . I have seen many war movies and one thing that sticks out in this one , is the the excellent acting job of all these actors. At the begining , you take part in a breafing , let me tell you , it s a good one , the real thing ! okay the allies got their butts kicked in this movie but , what a good feeling taking part in a different style of filming . Bernie

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Film -- Historically Accurate.
Review: In my opinion, the best war movie ever made -- a notch better than "Saving Private Ryan," which contains certain historical inaccuracies. "A Bridge Too Far" masterfully adapts Cornelius Ryan's meticulously-researched book of the same title. More importantly, with the exception of the German tanks and armored personnel carriers depicted in the failed attempt to capture the northern end of the Arnhem bridge, the uniforms, machine guns, rifles, tanks, landscape, etc. depicted in the film are accurate -- unlike the vast majority of war films that cut corners, film off location, fail to research key facts, etc. The "second Omaha Beach" crossing of the Waal River by the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division -- filmed on loaction -- is the most riveting scene in the movie. Also spectacular is the reenactment of the dropping of hundreds of paratroopers over Holland from C-47 Dakotas. The only negative is that the movie can be quite confusing to one who is not familiar with the intricacies of Operation Market Garden. I urge anyone considering viewing the film to first read "Arnhem 1944" by Martin Middlebrook or Cornelius Ryan's above-mentioned book. Some research will help put this complicated military operation into perspective. After you've seen the movie, and if you have the time, money and inclination, take a battlefield tour of Nijmegen and Arnhem (both just an hour-or-so drive from Amsterdam) so you can truly appreciate the sacrifices made by the British, American, and Polish paratroopers depicted in the film nearly 55 years ago.

Rating:
Summary: Could have been good.....
Review: If one hadn't first read the very good book, this movie would have been incoherent. Example: the Brits attempting to march (fight) to Arnhem (and we don't even see this major development --the turning point, really -- of the actual battle) seemingly meet no resistance after the drop. Yet later in the film, we see a building with scores of wounded Brits. How did they come to this pass? I guess they just did, one doesn't know why. Overacting and pretty boy actors like Robert Redford ruined the creation of the "atmosphere" and "character" of the times. Battle scenes were mostly trite, standard Hollywood issue -- completely unrealistic. And who was this German "Ludwig"? My impression was there was a coherent whole, but the coherence was abandoned on the cutting room floor. Apparently one reason being so that "anecdotes" like the Jame Caan death threat to the surgeon could be included. This was an interesting aside in the book, but out of place in a historical movie which has so little time to depict the bigger picture. I could go on and on, for example, the Brit intelligence Major who was worried about Panzer units near Arnhem, he so looked like he was going cry I was waiting for someone to give him a hanky! What hamhanded directing! This movie was a major disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Bad sound can not spoil this classic
Review: A Bridge to Far is one of my favorite films of all time. The scope of this movie is so large it can almost be called the Titanic of the 70s due to its length and huge budget for the times. It is so rare to find a film full of so many stars and still pay attention to detail, plot and characters. Truely an under rated classic. The only problem with this film is the sound. When released on video the sound was not done well with the quality and volume being very uneven. You go from having to turn up the volume to hear the dialog and then down when the music starts off. It was my hope when this film was released on DVD that this problem was going to be fixed. Alas it looks like they simply took the sound track strait from the VHS video strait to the DVD. Pitty although I still recommend this classic strongly.

Rating:
Summary: A Battle On A Grand Scale
Review: This is one of my favorite war movies. An all star international cast that tells the story of Operation Market Garden. A must see in the widescreen mode if you can find it. Although Gene Hackman does overdo it a bit.