...feels far too long and just tries to cover too much ground...
The film is flawed in its ambition and this echoes a similar sentiment that I had while watching "Battle of Britain." However, it is an epic undertaking and the scale of warfare and the number of soldiers involved is successfully conveyed by the picture. Some of the battle scenes are incredibly well done, while some of the bridge-taking sequences feel claustrophobic and far too limited to a small portion of the surface area of the bridge. The cast is immense and Attenborough at least succeeded in making a large and grand production that may have unintentionally conveyed just how confusing and complicated warfare may be with its heavy-handed storytelling.
Even with its faults, "A Bridge Too Far" never feels below average and the things it does well, it does very well. The movie contains some truly remarkable combat sequences and this is one of the few films that truly show how effective artillery can be at providing support for ground troops and armor. The picture even shows the usage of glider craft and how they delivered the Jeeps and other equipment necessary to achieving victory. The airdrop of thousands of soldiers is a spectacle, although I felt the ´paratrooper cam´ felt too gimmicky. The cast is all very talented and I felt that Connery, Caan and Redford were especially notable in their performances. "A Bridge Too Far" is an overblown picture that is far too ambitious. There is enough story for a trilogy and the heavy dialogue becomes tiresome and no amount of solid battle scenes can revive a tired audience by the time the final hour rolls along.
Video:
"A Bridge Too Far" is provided on Blu-ray in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film is mastered with the MPEG-2 codec with a transfer rate of 18 megabits per second and has plenty of room on its dual-layer 50 GB platter. Unfortunately, I had watched "Battle of Britain" just prior to this picture and was absolutely stunned at how well that forty year old picture looked. After seeing that transfer, "A Bridge Too Far" felt a little underwhelming, but the Blu-ray transfer is still quite good considering this film is over three decades old. "A Bridge Too Far" has fog as a major plot device and also utilizes some soft camera work. This results in a level of detail that is only marginally better on Blu-ray that the film was on DVD. Sometimes, you just cannot squeeze any more detail out of the source materials and this film is a prime example of that. Coloring is good and show natural hues and skin tones. Film grain is present throughout the film and is only bothersome for a couple minutes of the long running length. The source print is solid and black levels are a little weak, but generally good. While I wasn´t blown away by this film on Blu-ray, it was an improvement over the previous DVD release.
Audio:
The soundtrack for "A Bridge Too Far" fares a little better than the visual splendor of the transfer. The film is provided with an English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio mix and an English 4.0 Dolby Surround track. This film also suffers from having to be directly compared to "Battle of Britain," which achieved a perfect score in sound reproduction. "A Bridge Too Far" is another film that sounds quite good with a DTS HD mix and generally, there were a good number of sounds coming from each of the six channels. However, "A Bridge Too Far" feels far more produced and forced in its directional effects. The rears feel artificially amped up and sound does not move quite as naturally as it did in the comparative (and ten year older) "Battle of Britain." Bass response was quite heavy and helped make the artillery sound incredible. Dialogue was good and intelligible. There were a handful of lines that seemed drowned out by explosions, but I was quite pleased at how clear everything sounded. This is a picture that sounds like it was ´stretched´ to fit six channels, but it sounds better than most older conversions to multi-channel surround sound. French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono are included as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, Cantonese and Korean.
Extras:
None.
Closing:
It has been a couple of years since I last watched "A Bridge Too Far" and I had trouble remembering much from the film. That is never a good sign. "A Bridge Too Far" has its merits, but the picture feels far too long and just tries to cover too much ground and convey too much information to its audience to be ultimately entertaining. The ensemble cast is impressive, as are the explosions and numerous combat sequences. I´m very pleased that Fox is releasing these old war films on the Blu-ray format and while "A Bridge Too Far" is a decent catalog release in quality, the picture quality and sound mix shows their age and the transfer is not nearly as impressive as the decade older film "Battle of Britain" was. This picture does inhabit a dual-layer BD disc, but no features are included to make the price a little easier to swallow. If you love war movies, this will be a good release, but I have to recommend "Patton" or "The Longest Day" out of the five releases from Fox.
Even with its faults, "A Bridge Too Far" never feels below average and the things it does well, it does very well. The movie contains some truly remarkable combat sequences and this is one of the few films that truly show how effective artillery can be at providing support for ground troops and armor. The picture even shows the usage of glider craft and how they delivered the Jeeps and other equipment necessary to achieving victory. The airdrop of thousands of soldiers is a spectacle, although I felt the ´paratrooper cam´ felt too gimmicky. The cast is all very talented and I felt that Connery, Caan and Redford were especially notable in their performances. "A Bridge Too Far" is an overblown picture that is far too ambitious. There is enough story for a trilogy and the heavy dialogue becomes tiresome and no amount of solid battle scenes can revive a tired audience by the time the final hour rolls along.
Video:
"A Bridge Too Far" is provided on Blu-ray in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film is mastered with the MPEG-2 codec with a transfer rate of 18 megabits per second and has plenty of room on its dual-layer 50 GB platter. Unfortunately, I had watched "Battle of Britain" just prior to this picture and was absolutely stunned at how well that forty year old picture looked. After seeing that transfer, "A Bridge Too Far" felt a little underwhelming, but the Blu-ray transfer is still quite good considering this film is over three decades old. "A Bridge Too Far" has fog as a major plot device and also utilizes some soft camera work. This results in a level of detail that is only marginally better on Blu-ray that the film was on DVD. Sometimes, you just cannot squeeze any more detail out of the source materials and this film is a prime example of that. Coloring is good and show natural hues and skin tones. Film grain is present throughout the film and is only bothersome for a couple minutes of the long running length. The source print is solid and black levels are a little weak, but generally good. While I wasn´t blown away by this film on Blu-ray, it was an improvement over the previous DVD release.
Audio:
The soundtrack for "A Bridge Too Far" fares a little better than the visual splendor of the transfer. The film is provided with an English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio mix and an English 4.0 Dolby Surround track. This film also suffers from having to be directly compared to "Battle of Britain," which achieved a perfect score in sound reproduction. "A Bridge Too Far" is another film that sounds quite good with a DTS HD mix and generally, there were a good number of sounds coming from each of the six channels. However, "A Bridge Too Far" feels far more produced and forced in its directional effects. The rears feel artificially amped up and sound does not move quite as naturally as it did in the comparative (and ten year older) "Battle of Britain." Bass response was quite heavy and helped make the artillery sound incredible. Dialogue was good and intelligible. There were a handful of lines that seemed drowned out by explosions, but I was quite pleased at how clear everything sounded. This is a picture that sounds like it was ´stretched´ to fit six channels, but it sounds better than most older conversions to multi-channel surround sound. French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono are included as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, Cantonese and Korean.
Extras:
None.
Closing:
It has been a couple of years since I last watched "A Bridge Too Far" and I had trouble remembering much from the film. That is never a good sign. "A Bridge Too Far" has its merits, but the picture feels far too long and just tries to cover too much ground and convey too much information to its audience to be ultimately entertaining. The ensemble cast is impressive, as are the explosions and numerous combat sequences. I´m very pleased that Fox is releasing these old war films on the Blu-ray format and while "A Bridge Too Far" is a decent catalog release in quality, the picture quality and sound mix shows their age and the transfer is not nearly as impressive as the decade older film "Battle of Britain" was. This picture does inhabit a dual-layer BD disc, but no features are included to make the price a little easier to swallow. If you love war movies, this will be a good release, but I have to recommend "Patton" or "The Longest Day" out of the five releases from Fox.
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[release]23488[/release]