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One of my all time favorites.

Captivating movie !

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Record breaking war movie, in sheer size of the production. Biggest production ever in movie history. "A Bridge Too Far" tells the true story about the invasion of Holland during WW II, which was bigger in size than D-day in France and which caused more casualties. Greatest cast of movie stars ever ensembled in any movie in the entire seventies, featuring an incredible number of 14 oscar winners: Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, James Caan, Anthony Hopkins, Dirk Bogarde, Liv Ullman etc. Acting performances are excellent. How could it have been otherwise, with such an unique cast of movie stars from the seventies. Everybody who was famous at the time played in it. Steve McQueen was the only star that refused to take part, because he wanted a bigger paycheck. Since this huge war movie production was already crumbling under a huge financial burden, Steve McQueen's paycheck demands were rejected.This war movie became the biggest grossing box office hit in Europe, but it didnt do well in America. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, but the film was completely ignored at Oscar time for daring to expose the fatal inadequacies of the Allied campaign. Almost 3 hours long, this movie is a slowburner though, but enticing from beginning to end. Never bored me for a minute. On the contrary, even though I have seen this movie dozens of times I still get excited by it. But I am from the older generation, therefore speed is NOT a necessity for me to enjoy a movie. Young people however may find it a bit long drawn, because there arent Star Wars explosions every 10 minutes. There isnt a happy ending. Therefore lots of people WONT like the ending. The ending is true to life though, because everything is as has happened during World War II. War aint fun, but this movie is still very charming and even very funny at some other moments though. Glorious and suspenseful too. Director Richard Attenborough made a movie that is enjoyable for the entire family, but he also clearly stated that he didnt want to make a movie that glorified the war. The ending of "A Bridge Too Far" is a big downer. You wont feel cheery at the end at all. And that is the explicit intention of the director. War isnt supposed to be an uplifting or feel good experience. Ofcourse not. But movies wont sell if they dont have a hapyy ending. This movie finds a good balance between entertainment and true to life depressing devastation. I must confess that I regularly watch it only for the first 2 and a half hours which are very glorious and suspenseful and even funny. But I do skip the downer part at the last 30 minutes, because I have already seen it so many times and just as everybody else I dont like downers at the end of a movie...Endnote: there is an excellent additional bonus DVD which features hours of real life war footage from World War II including a short documentary about the making of this biggest war movie of all time. The production of this movie was truly insane. But so is war...

This is one of my all-time favourite war epics. Its not just a movie it deserves the title 'Epic'.An all star cast that works very well together. Excellent production values. Where the heck did they get ALL that equipment from? Extraordinary. A script that never flags, is always consistent, relevant, to the point and yet very humorous where it matters. It bears repeated watching. I'd place it alongside classics like 'The Longest Day', without any problem. There are probably historical inaccuracies to do with chronologies or issues not mentioned below, but I'm not bothered by them. If I wanted abs. historical accuracy I'd watch a documentary, not a movie.I don't know if the following will be regarded as a spoiler so I'll put a warning just in case: There is to my mind only one problem with it, and this is no fault of the producers or the technical staff. It can't help being made in 1977. Unfortunately being filmed for the most part in urban settings, all those settings (architecture, clothing/hairstyles etc.) are contemporary to 1977, not to 1944. I've only just noticed it watching it now. It reminds of a similar problem with Anzio the movie with Robert Michum about the landings in Italy. The end scene of that film was entirely 1960s/70s. Spoilt the effect. But with 'A Bridge...', what could they do? It would have made an already vastly expensive undertaking costly beyond anyone's resources to have got everyone, all the Dutch civilians, to be kitted out in 1944 styles. And to build original looking sets for all the scenes. The expense would have been impossibly outrageous (before CG might have done the job). 1977 was probably the last time they could make an epic of WW2 with equipment available as originals or mock-ups. So, with that caveat, I give it a 9. It really deserves 10, but I think 9 says it all anyhow.

Launched in September 1944, Operation Market Garden was meant to be the battle that would be the beginning of the end of the Second World War in Europe. An ambitious plan to drop 35,000 paratroopers behind German lines in Holland before being linked up with by British ground forces, to say that things didn't go to plan would be an understatement. Based on Cornelius Ryan's 1974 bestseller, this 1977 film present a epic portrait of the incredible highs and lows of the operation.Ryan's previous book The Longest Day had been turned into a film in 1962 and it is difficult as a viewer not to make comparisons between the two. Both are large scale films with large all-star casts (with the two films even sharing at least two cast members in different roles Sean Connery and Wolfgang Preiss), action sequences, large budgets and an emphasis on telling a dramatic story while sticking pretty closely to actual events. As with The Longest Day, all of these elements serve the film well. Given the sheer number of characters that the film presents, the all-star cast is something of a bonus to the film. While having recognizable actors playing roles can be distracting at times, this film is a case of where that casting actually helps rather than hinders. Having actors like Connery, James Caan, Michael Caine, Edward Fox, Gene Hackman, Anothony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier and Robert Redford allows the viewer to have someone to latch onto and remember who that character is and where they are during the film's nearly three hour running time. Even better, all of them turn in solid performances that add to the film's mosaic like portrait of events though each gets a moment to shine from Fox's briefing scene as British Lt. Gen. Brian Horrocks, Connery as British First Airborne leader Major General Roy Urquhart, Hopkins as paratrooper Lt. Colonel John Frost who leads British troops clinging onto a vital bridge and Hackman as Polish paratrooper leader Sosabowski who serves as something of a voice of oft-ignored reason. Even in smaller roles are well cast including Frank Grimes's Major Fuller, Jeremy Kemp and Denholm Elliott as excruciatingly bureaucratic RAF officers and Arthur Hill as an American Army surgeon. It's a solid cast to say the least.The film's production values are strong and come across at their best in the film's many battle sequences. The recreation of the largest paratrooper operation of the Second World War is no easy feat today, let alone in the pre-CGI era. Yet the film pulls it off magnificently thanks to a combination of effects, costumes and making what was likely a handful of surviving pieces of equipment (including transport planes and armored vehicles) which brings it to life splendidly. There's also some strong camera work as well from legendary cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth as well as some incredible point of view shots of paratroopers jumping during the film's two biggest sequences. The use of location filming which often returns to the actual places helps with the film's verisimilitude as well. The editing is strong as well, especially in the battle sequences which create the air of chaos and confusion to give the viewer an idea of the "fog of war" first hand. Combined together with the direction of Richard Attenborough, the film is a triumph to watch from a technical point of view as much as it is acting wise.Screenwriter William Goldman deserves significant praise for being able to take the 670 book and create a workable screenplay that, like the book, tells the story of Market Garden from all sides. Having recently read Ryan's book, it was surprising to see how much of the events and dialogue in the film came from the book and were well presented in the film. Indeed, many of the sequences that might seem corny and unbelievable such as the sequence where Caan's Sergeant Eddie Dohun rescuing his captain and forcing an Army doctor to look at him, Connery's Major General Urquhart becoming trapped behind German lines and many of the frustrations experienced on both sides can be directly traced to the original source material. Like The Longest Day before it (which Ryan adapted), this film allows the viewer a chance to get the feeling of history unfolding throughout.Yet it does more than just play as a highlight reel of Ryan's book. Perhaps even more impressive, Goldman's script (and the film itself) captures the tone and message of the book. That brave and good men acted courageously and against great odds but for what purpose many were left to wonder. The film's final minutes portrays this beautifully with little dialogue and a haunting final scene. It's something that further sets the film apart from many others in the war film genre. Which isn't to say the film isn't without flaws. Goldman's screenplay is rather unfair to British Market Garden commander Browning (play by Dirk Bogarde) who becomes something of a stand-in for British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery who always stays off screen which might explain the odd quality to both the writing of Browning and Bogarde's performance. There is also the score from composer John Addison which is sporadic but full of a heroic tone that oddly seems out of place with the tone and events depicted by the film. Both are fairly minor quibbles though given the film as a whole.A Bridge Too Far is far from your typical war film. That is in large part due to its combination of all-star cast, strong production values and attention to historic events. It's a faithful adaptation of a book that captures its sweeping vision and rich details. Despite some flaws, it's a film that nonetheless stands as an example of both its genre and good filmmaking in general. It also shows the power of film to bring history to life without being patronizing, overly dramatic or dull. That's something rare in its own right.

"A Bridge Too Far" is one of the best war movies ever made. It's based on a 1974 historical novel by Cornelius Ryan who also wrote "The Longest Day" in 1959. Ryan was highly regarded for the detail of research for his books. He strove for accuracy and authenticity. Ryan was born in Dublin in 1920 and became a British war correspondent for The Daily Telegraph in 1941. He went on 14 bombing missions with the U.S. Army Air Forces. On D-Day (June 6, 1944), he flew over the Normandy beaches in a bomber. Then, after returning to England, he went to Normandy on a patrol boat the same day. He later covered Lt. Gen. George Patton's Third Army, and then reported on the war in the Pacific. Ryan's "The Longest Day" sold millions of copies and was the basis for the 1962 movie by the same name. He wrote the screenplay for that blockbuster film that won two Oscars. In an item in Time Magazine of Dec. 9, 1974, Ryan was quoted: "What I write about is not war but the courage of man." There can be no doubt about that in his two books that were made into two of the best historical war films of all time. Besides the logistics, planning, and background details and facts, Ryan incorporates the characters and personalities of individual men in his stories. He covers Allied and Axis forces alike, from generals to sergeants to privates."A Bridge Too Far" is about Operation Market Garden. It has gritty, tough, scenes of men in battle on both sides. Much time is devoted to the fighting of the British 1st Airborne Division in the Battle of Arnhem. The advance airborne battalion under Lt. Col. John D. Frost (played superbly by Anthony Hopkins) captures one end of the Arnhem bridge and then holds out for nine days. All this with ammunition running out and no resupply or reinforcements, while the Germans throw heavy artillery, tanks and mechanized infantry attacks at them. Elsewhere, the rest of the division commanded by Major General Roy Urquhart (played superbly by Sean Connery) is divided, cut off and surrounded by German forces. Operation Market Garden failed because the Allies did not capture the Rhine bridge at Arnhem and had to retreat. It was planned to spearhead a drive to capture the Ruhr Valley and shut down Germany's war production plants. The American 101st and 82nd Airborne divisions did secure river crossings at Eindhoven and Nijmegen, respectively. But the British XXX Corps met with strong German opposition and slowed to a crawl on the ground. It failed to reach the British paratroopers 64 miles away in just two days as planned. So, the whole operation bogged down, with only the ground gained to Nijmegen. "A Bridge Too Far," covers the entire Operation Market Garden. For the first time, the public got a look at the foibles and errors in planning this major wartime operation. The film shows the questions raised by various commands and officers at the time. The major foul- ups were many, and the outcome was disastrous for the British and Polish paratroopers. Just over 2,000 of the 10,000 plus British and Polish force were able to escape when ordered to retreat. The rest were killed, wounded or captured. Not a single radio worked for the British Airborne forces, so they couldn't communicate among their units or with headquarters. How could they go into combat without tested and working equipment? The film shows how. The planners put the landing zone for the Brits eight miles from their target bridge. So a surprise strike and quick capture of the bridge wasn't to be. But the Germans would have time to cut off units and surround them. There weren't enough aircraft for all the forces to strike together the first day. So, units were dropped over three days. Again, there was no surprise or catching the Germans off guard. Instead, they had time to surround the British landing zone. The top brass dismissed aerial photography that showed hidden German tanks. The operation leaders didn't believe or trust the underground reports they received. Yet the Dutch had been reliable for four years. And, when unit commanders expressed concerns, the top brass dismissed them. There were many signs of military incompetence at various levels in this film, but mostly at the top. "A Bridge Too Far" is an independent film made by Joseph Levine and Directed by acclaimed English actor and director, Richard Attenborough. The production team and crew read like a British telephone directory. The cast includes 20 big name American and British actors of the day. Numerous Allied commanders from Market Garden, now retired, served as consultants during the making of the film. Besides Urquhart and Frost, already mentioned, these included Maj. Gen. Brian Horrocks (played superbly by Edward Fox), Brig. Gen. James Gavin (37 years old at the time, and played very well by Ryan O'Neal), and Brigadier Joe Vandeleur (played superbly by Michael Caine). The movie was filmed at several locations in The Netherlands. There are some small equipment goofs, but the military equipment and armament are very impressive. The special effects are "dynamite." The filming of the C-47 "Dakota" transport planes and the towed gliders is wonderful. The parachute jump is one of the best and most impressive I've seen on film (I am a former paratrooper). And the musical score for the film is excellent. This movie didn't receive a single Academy Award nomination in 1974. And it was a year that had very few good films. So, Hollywood blew it by ignoring this great movie. The film did win three BAFTA awards with four more nominations. "A Bridge Too Far" will likely be held as one of the great historical war movies of all time.