Review of A Bridge Too Far (1977) by Ola G — 01 Mar 2018

Operation Market Garden envisions 35,000 men being flown 300 miles from air bases in England and dropped behind enemy lines in the Netherlands. Two divisions of U.S. paratroopers, the 82nd and 101st Airborne, are responsible for securing the road and bridges as far as Nijmegen. A British division, the 1st Airborne, under Major-General Roy Urquhart (Sean Connery), is to land near Arnhem and hold both sides of the bridge there, backed by a brigade of Polish paratroopers under General Stanis?aw Sosabowski (Gene Hackman). XXX Armoured Corps are to push up the road over the bridges captured by the American paratroopers and reach Arnhem two days after the drop. The British are to land using gliders near Arnhem. When General Urquhart briefs his officers, some of them are surprised they are going to attempt a landing so far from the bridge. The consensus among the British top brass is that resistance will consist entirely of "Hitler Youth or old men on bicycles". Although reconnaissance photos show German tanks at Arnhem, General Browning (Dirk Bogarde) dismisses them and also ignores reports from the Dutch underground. He does not want to be the one to tell Field Marshal Montgomery of any doubts since many previous airborne operations had been cancelled. Though British officers note that the portable radios are not likely to work for the long distance from the drop zone to the Arnhem Bridge, they choose not to convey their concerns up a chain of command intent on silencing all doubt. Speed is the vital factor. Arnhem's is the crucial bridge, the last means of escape for the German forces in the Netherlands and an excellent route to Germany for Allied forces. The road to it, however, is only a single highway linking the various key bridges - trucks and tanks have to squeeze to the shoulder to pass. The road is also elevated, causing anything moving on the road to stand out. Faulty intelligence, allied high command hubris and stubborn German resistance ensures that Arnhem is a bridge too far...

The film tells the story of the failure of Operation Market Garden during World War II. The operation was intended to allow the Allies to break through German lines and seize several bridges in the occupied Netherlands, including one at Arnhem, with the main objective of outflanking German defences in order to end the war by Christmas of 1944. The name for the film comes from an unconfirmed comment attributed to British Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Airborne Army, who told Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, the operation's architect, before the operation: "I think we may be going a bridge too far", in reference to the intention of seizing the Arnhem bridgehead over the Rhine river. The film received generally positive reviews from critics. A "making-of" documentary included in a special edition DVD of A Bridge Too Far claims that, at the time of its release, "the film was shunned by American critics and completely ignored at Oscar time for daring to expose the fatal inadequacies of the Allied campaign." Critics agreed that the film was impressively staged and historically accurate, although many found it too long and too repetitive. James Caan and Anthony Hopkins were cited by many critics for the excellence of their performances, in a film filled with hundreds of speaking roles and cameos by many of the period's top actors.

"A Bridge Too Far" is an epic WWII war movie directed by Richard Attenborough with a great ensemble cast including actors such as James Caan, Michael Caine, Edward Fox, Elliott Goul, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O'Neal, Robert Redford etc. I do love that some of these big names have very little screen time as well and I don´t think that any of them outstage each other. I love how the different characters and stories are intertwined creating an intense vibe. The editing is a bit strange sometimes, but nothing that creates a problem for the film. However, the cinematography is very fine and the story itself feels authentic with battle scenes of a very realistic nature.