Movie Review: A Bridge Too Far (1977)
For those who do not know, Operation Market Garden was one of the last major offensive operations of the Western Allies of World War II during 1944. The plan of attack was to drop a carpet of airborne soldiers, 101st Airborne Division, 82nd Airborne Division, and 1st British Airborne Division, from closest to furthest from the start lines respectively, and then roll through with British XXX Corps. The airborne divisions were supposed to capture and then hold the bridges in their respective areas, allowing the armoured regiments of XXX Corps to carry on through to Arnhem where the 1st British Division would be holding that city’s bridge over the Rhine River. Then, once the Rhine was crossed, the Germans’ situation on the western front would have been rendered untenable and they would have been rolled up, and the war in Europe would have been finished in 1944.
In my not particularly knowledgeable opinion, movies like A Bridge Too Far are simply not made anymore. I would put this in a category, with The Longest Day, of these big, sprawling, epic films, with big, sprawling, well known casts. And not just famous cast members, but famous cast members in roles that are almost just cameos. Today, such a movie would bankrupt itself just paying for the salaries for a random cross section of the top 20 actors in the world today.
I wonder perhaps if it also has to do with the nature of the subject that A Bridge Too Far depicts. In 1977 many of the real people who had taken part in Operation Market Garden, especially senior officers, were available as consultants and several people involved in the filming had also been participants. And World War Two itself, was a seminal event in the lives of the people that made this film, as even the non-participants would have lived through it as well.
For whatever reason, this movie was made, and they didn’t have the crutch of CGI effects to fall back on. Every tank, infantryman and plane had to be on camera, if only as a mock-up. All of this gave A Bridge Too Far one of its better scenes where Edward Fox, in a great performance as XXX Corps commander Brian Horrocks, drives his lead tank commander (Michael Caine) to his regiment. All the while passing tanks, trucks, half-tracks, universal carriers, and the hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles that are supposed to make up XXX Corps. Then the planes of the airborne drops start going over. A big scene that is simply not done today by rendering the sheer scale of the enterprise being undertaken. Even the admirable “Band of Brothers,” doesn’t realize the scale of Market Garden.
The cast, even with their short appearances, still deserve a lot of credit, especially Anthony Hopkins for being so painfully English as a parachute battalion commander, Ryan O’Neal (when he was a star) as General Gavin, and Robert Redford’s scenes on the Nijmegan bridge. Robert Redford comes late in the film, but he gets an important part in a great scene. Though I will say it was a little odd seeing Gene Hackman playing a Polish general. This big cast however, while a great asset, was probably the film’s biggest weakness.
Lots of well known actors, who get very little time, and too often these actors have scenes squeezed in that contribute nothing to the plot. James Caan’s scenes with a painfully young Nicholas Campbell (of “Da Vinci’s Inquest” fame) could have been entirely omitted without affecting the course of the film. Very little character seeps through the mad rush to see a little bit of everything that made Operation Market Garden tick, and finally failed, all the while delivering a plot that is amazingly slight.
Overall the best moments in A Bridge Too Far are the epic moments and character moments, from Brian Horrocks jump starting the attack, or finding out why that British officer is carrying an umbrella (and it was not raining). Less stellar moments were when the filmmakers were trying to give the 20/20 hindsight answers to why Operation Market Garden failed, or following dead-end subplots that didn’t really tells us how the battle was progressing, all the while using great actors in mostly cameos.
Two and half stars out of four.