Bridge Too Far, A

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The 1977 film "A Bridge Too Far" from director Richard Attenborough tells the failed story of a World War II military operation. Called Operation Market-Garden, the combined American-British effort to secure bridges along the Rhine River was a decisive victory for the German army. Led by a British director, Attenborough, the film´s depiction of complete failure on the Allied forces behalf seems an unlikely choice for a war film, but the director and the producing Levine brothers managed to secure a very notable cast that included many leading actors from both sides of the ´Pond´ and the filmmakers strove to tell the story of Operation Market-Garden with as much honesty and insight as possible.

In 1944, Dwight Eisenhower was in charge of the Allied forces. Competing strategists General George Patton and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery had two completely different plans on how they thought they could win the war against the Axis forces, led by the Germans. The combined effort supplied 35,000 troopers being airdropped from bases in the United Kingdom. The forces are dropped behind enemy lines in the Netherlands. Information is supplied to the Allied commanders through various sources, including the Dutch resistance. The massive airdrop is intended to allow the infantry to secure the various targets and hold them from German recapture until armor can arrive to facilitate the defense of the strategic forces.

The film derives its title from the statement concerning the Arnhem Bridge and that it is ´too far´ from the Allied forces to be successfully captured. A number of variables combined against the American and British troopers to spell defeat for the Operation Market Garden. Much of the problems were related to incompetence among the Allied commanders. Intel was ignored that suggested the Germans had massed forces in Holland. A singular road existed to provide transportation for the Allied armor and a key bridge to move the armor was destroyed by the Germans and a makeshift crossing had to be erected to provide transportation. Airdrops of supplies to the British troops were landing in German controlled territory and no radio contact allowed for the supplies to be correctly dropped to the British.

A strong cast provides the humanity that is defeated and lost in the battle for Arnhem. Michael Caine portrays Lieutenant Colonel Vandeleur, who is tasked with moving the British tanks to a position to back the paratroopers as they move against Arnhem. Sean Connery is Major General Roy Urquhart and he parachute drops with his forces behind enemy lines and must evade death or capture by the Germans and must fight his way to safety after losing countless men. Elliot Gould is Colonel Robert Sink, a United States Army colonel who is tasked to control a river crossing that is key to the Allied armor´s movement. Gene Hackman is a Polish Major General, Stanislaw Sosabowski, and does not feel the mission will be a success. Anthony Hopkins is a British Colonel and Ryan O´Neal is an Army Brigadier General.

Other familiar faces lend their time to the Attenborough directed film. James Caan portrays a veteran Staff Sergeant, Eddie Dohun. Dohun is a hardened soldier and saves his Captain through questionable means. Robert Redford is Major Julian Cook, an American major who has to lead a large number of Army soldiers across a river on a daring daylight raid in small boats to help capture both sides of a bridge while under heavy German fire. Legendary actor Laurence Olivier is Dutch Doctor Jan Spaander and puts his life in line and uses his talents to save wounded American and British soldiers. "Indiana Jones" alum Denholm Elliott and Michael Byrne have roles in the film as well as familiar German actor Maximilian Schell. Beloved actor John Ratzenberger has a ´blink and you may miss it´ cameo.

The primary problem with "A Bridge Too Far" is that it attempts at showing as much of the battle fronts as possible. Three full airborne forces landed behind enemy lines and a large stretch of land was host to the Allied invaders as they attempted to take the German controlled bridges. There was a lot of conflict and a number of bridges. Many lives were lost and failure was a common occurrence. Attenborough takes the approach of trying to show every failure and offer explanation as to how every one of the twenty five thousand casualties suffered their demise. Instead of focusing on the U.K. 1st Airborne Division or the American 82nd or 101st Airborne divisions, Attenborough tried to cram as much of the failed offensive as possible.

The result of trying to be so ambitious is that "A Bridge Too Far" feels far longer than its actual 176 minute running time. The film is a combination of small to medium sized conflicts that last for just a few minutes and never captures the true horror of warfare. Granted, the film lacked the special effects of "Saving Private Ryan," but the innumerable deaths shown in the film never provide any human drama. Some of the actors deliver a good final death throw, but so many of the deaths lack any drama whatsoever. When the film isn´t stringing along its action scenes, there are long discussions amongst the ensemble cast to serve as exposition on the troop strengths, movements and strategy that is important to the story, but there is simply too much information to throw at the audience and "A Bridge Too Far" definitely crosses the line of how much information can be digested by an audience.

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