Review of Bridge Too Far, A (Special Edition)

Introduction

After D-Day in 1944 the two key allied generals, Patton and Montgomery, were both vying for the vital supplies needed in order to push into Germany. Both rivals wanted to be the first into the Nazi homeland and defeat the Germans. Montgomery then came up with an audacious plan that, if successful, would put his army into the heart of the German industrial heartland. Operation Market-Garden was a plan to mass the largest airborne operation in history and capture seven key bridges through Holland that would allow XXX Corps to springboard into the Ruhr.

So Montgomery got one over on Patton and then proceeded to oversee one of the costliest battles of World War II. Over the 9 days of the battle, 17,000 allied troops were killed, wounded or reported missing against approximately 3,000 German soldiers. Of this total, 13,000 of those were British and nearly 4,000 were American. It is also estimated that as many as 10,000 Dutch civilians lost their lives. More lives were lost on this operation then on D-Day itself.

In 1977 Joseph E. Levine decided to come out of retirement and finance one of the most expensive films of the time using his own money. Levine chose Richard Attenborough to direct based upon the latter`s Oh! What A Lovely War, and then proceeded to bring in as many star names as he could. He didn`t manage to get Steve McQueen, but he did get the likes of Robert Redford, Ryan O`Neill, Gene Hackman, Elliott Gould and James Caan. On the Brit side, we have Dirk Bogarde (who served at Arnhem), Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Laurence Olivier and Anthony Hopkins.

Video

There is some degradation on the film, some of it quite obvious. On the whole though it looks quite good and the use of muted colour is impressive. The big drop scenes still look spectacular thanks to a lot of different camera angles and good editing.

Audio

Although presented in 5.1, there doesn`t appear to be a lot of sound using the rear channels. John Addison produced the score for this, but it doesn`t vary very much and jumps in occassionally to drown out whatever-else is happening at the time.

Features

Disc 1 has an audio commentary and also a very good trivia track which fleshes out both general history of that time and also provides more pertinent detail on whatever is happening within the film. Someone did their homework for this feature.

Disc 2 is where the features really kick in, although I`m slightly disappointed that there aren`t more as there is definately the space for a bit more.

"A Distant Battle: Memories Of Operation Market Garden" is a fairly short featurette with veterans providing their prespectives on the whole thing. The disappointing thing with this is that it focuses fully on US servicemen, all of them wearing the Screaming Eagle of the 101st. The vets are good and their stories are interesting, but it would have nice to hear something from the Brit survivors of that battle. As with all vets telling about their experiences, you can see the pain as they recount their tales and it is easy to feel empathy with these men for the sacrifices they and their comrades made.

"Richard Attenborough: A Filmmaker Remembers" is an interview featurette with the director about his experiences and difficulties on filming this picture. Some of the reminisces are funny (particularly the Hopkins/Frost disagreements on running across a road under fire), but Attenborough makes it clear that he was always aware he was committing a tragedy to film.

"A Bridge Too Far: Heroes From The Sky" is a good documentary on both the battle and the film. Lots of reminisces from some of the people around this story, including the story of how Levine made a promise to author Cornelius Ryan that he would make a film of his book that would make him proud (although Ryan actually passed away before this could happen). Most amazing of all is the fact that Levine essentially financed the film entirely from his own money as Hollywood thought he was past it and mad to come out of retirement to produce this film. Although he managed to get in a lot of star names, it would appear that he had to outlay $10 million prior to the commencement of filming to ensure they would appear. It is also interesting to note that there were no surviving Horsa gliders and that the production crew manufactured 12 working gliders (although they never flew) for a cost of $35,000. A lot of good detail that fills in a lot of the background of what happened during production.

You also get a photo gallery and an original trailer.

Conclusion

I`ve always had a bit of a soft spot for this film, and it is probably my favourite war movie. Part of this is down to the fact that members of my Dad`s tank regiment were extras in this production and partly a schoolboy fascination with the Para`s. My enthusiasm for this film has never dimmed and it was a joy to watch it again.

The one thing that really lifts this head and shoulders above all it`s contemporaries is that this film doesn`t glorify war, and is actually more of an anti-war film. This is clear enough in that it is based on one of the costliest defeats suffered by the Allies in World War II and doesn`t show any false heroics. The battle scenes are intense and as in any real battle, the casualities are almost random. Despite the fact you are essentially watching a piece of entertainment, you get a real sense of the loss and devastion caused by such a close quarters battle. A sense of frustration seeps through this film as well, with the Brits at Arnhem cut off for 9 days rather than the 2 promised by the grand plan, and the US Paratroops bitter at the cost of their bridge assault only to see the armoured column of XXX Corps stop to wait for their infantry before proceeding towards Arnhem.

The plot of this film essentially follows the various commanders involved, with only James Caan really bucking the trend as a gun-toting Sergeant. Good performances permeate this film, with especially good performances from Redford and Connery. Best performance of the film though is undoubtedly Anthony Hopkins as the commander of the doomed para`s, John Frost, portraying the modesty and stiff upper lip of the Englishman in battle. An under-stated but commanding performance.

Along with it`s current companion, Battle Of Britain, this is a must buy for anyone with an interest in good war films.