A Bridge Too Far (1977)

A Bridge Too Far and Lessons Too Close

I am no movie critic. The criteria I use to judge a movie is Do I like it? The response for this movie is YES. If you want descriptions of camera angles or photographic woners/failures then don't waste your time on this review.

Let me explain why this is a good movie and why I give it only four stars. Pros: Hollywood doesn't intrude too much, in fact hardly at all. Thankfully John Wayne is not here defeating the Germans single-handed. This work, like the book, is fair in its characterizations of the forces involved and their humanity. It certainly showed the character flaws of some of our great men. Generals who are so involved in stealing glory from each other that a half-baked plan with poor preparation is put into effect so Montgomery can get to Berlin before Patton. One thing hard to believe today is that a war thirsty leader would disregard intelligence because it doesn't fit his plan for making a battle. Of course nothing like that would happen now, but it did then. I found the long movie very interesting and even humorous at one point. An officer asks his aide if his golf clubs are packed for the invasion. Being assured that this is certainly done, the officer inquires after his dinner jacket. Who needs to worry if the radios work when you have the necessary social amenities. The con: I had trouble keeping track always where we were and who was fighting. Maybe the length of the movie was too much for my attention deficit resulting from commercial television. Anyway this is a small fault.

This movie is one of my favorite anti-war movies. It proves that war is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and blood, and accomplishing nothing.
August 2, 2008

Excellent.

I watched this movie after watching Gallipoli last night. Both pictures involve the stupidity of politics in fighting a war and not necessarily good military strategy and planning (think Iraq). What seems to be missing here and was stated at the beginning of the field was the distrust between Patton and Montgomery. Ike gave in to this operation not because he wanted it (he didn't) but because he was pressured from the higher echelon to placate Montgomery. This was all Montgomery's botched idea (although no one seems to have questioned it and if they did they could only obey it). In Gallipoli, after the massacre at Suvla Bay, Churchill quit the government. It was a massive failure and a great massacre. So, we haven't progressed one inch since these disasters. July 26, 2008

A Classic WWII Movie

While sections of the Band of Brothers do a better job of showing a small part of Operation Market Garden, no film does a better job of showing the entire picture. With an all star cast, this is a great movie. May 29, 2008

Good Classic Movie

The title says it all. Acting was good and good battle sceens. I would recommand this for any WW 2 movie collection. March 11, 2008

A Bridge Too Far

A Bridge Too Far is a classic war movie that illustrates both the arrogance of the British army and the inability of the German army to grasp reality. Caught in the middle were thousands of regular America and British troops who paid the dear price.

This movie is reasonably well-acted, though at times many of the characters appear to be going through the motions. The true drama comes out in the end when the British finally realize the futility of their operation. There are many fine performances, namely Sean Connery and Dirk Bogaard. Gene Hackman is most unfortunately miscast as a Polish officer, but aside from this, most play their roles admirably.

Operation Market Garden's failure falls squarely on one person not portrayed in the film, Bernard Montgomery, an idiot of Herculean proportions. While the subsequent failure of the mission did not greatly impact the war's outcome, the horrific waste of lives could have easily been avoided. February 10, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...