A Bridge Too Far is a detailed account of a failed Allied mission dreamed up by British Field General Bernard Montgomery called Operation Market Garden that hoped to end WWII by Christmas. Ryan was one of the first writers that I recall chronicling World War II battles that now has become a cottage industry with hundreds of World War II books filling book store shelves today including Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers and Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation. Ryan wrote one of the first accounts of D-Day in his 1959 book The Longest Day which was adapted into the epic WWII film THE LONGEST DAY (1962) starring an All-Star cast including John Wayne, Richard Burton, Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Red Buttons, and Rod Steiger. Which brings me back to A Bridge Too Far. After having read the book, I was thrilled to discover that British actor Richard Attenborough (who plays a British POW leader in THE GREAT ESCAPE) was directing the film version of A BRIDGE TOO FAR in 1977 with an All-Star, Who's Who cast of the biggest British and American stars of the 1960s and 1970s.
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| From Left to Right: Gene Hackman, Ryan O'Neal, Michael Caine, Edward Fox, and Dirk Borgarde |
A genre that became popular and lucrative in the 1970s were blockbuster films with All-Star casts, mixing screen legends from the Golden Age with current box office stars and rising up and coming talent (today, every Wes Anderson film has an All-Star cast). George Seaton's AIRPORT (1970) reinvigorated the trend followed by Ronald Neame's THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972). THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE had Academy Award winner Gene Hackman (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) mixed with veterans Ernest Borgnine, Shelly Winters, Red Buttons, and newcomer Carol Lynley. John Guillermin's THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) may be the greatest All-Star film with mega stars Steve McQueen and Paul Newman together in a film for the first time along with William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, and O.J. Simpson. For A BRIDGE TOO FAR, producer Joseph E. Levine snagged one of the biggest stars of the 70s with Robert Redford (THE WAY WE WERE) and followed up with more heavy hitters including Ryan O'Neal (WHAT'S UP, DOC?), Sean Connery (THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING), Michael Caine (GET CARTER), Gene Hackman (THE CONVERSATION), James Caan (THE GODFATHER), Edward Fox (DAY OF THE JACKAL), Elliott Gould (THE LONG GOODBYE), Dirk Borgarde (THE NIGHT PORTER), Liv Ullmann (CRIES AND WHISPERS) and Shakespeare legend Laurence Olivier (HAMLET).
With a screenplay by Academy Award winning screenwriter William Goldman (ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN) based on the non-fiction book A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan and directed by Richard Attenborough (GANDHI), A BRIDGE TOO FAR begins in September 1944 with the Germans on the run after D-Day, retreating back to Germany through the Netherlands. Hoping to end World War II by Christmas, Field Marshal Montgomery convinces Allied Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower to greenlight Operation Market Garden, a mission to drop 35,000 men 300 miles behind enemy lines from England into the Netherlands, seize several key bridges, and secure them until Allied ground forces can hook up with the paratroopers. Overseeing Market Garden is Lieutenant General Frederick "Boy" Browning (Dirk Borgarde). Browning unveils Market Garden to Scotsman Major General Roy Urquhart (Sean Connery), American Brigadier General James Gavin (Ryan O'Neal) and Major General Maxwell Taylor (Paul Maxwell), and Polish Major General Stanislaw Sosabowski (Gene Hackman). Taylor's 101st Airborne will secure the bridge in Eindhoven; Gavin's 82nd Airborne will take Nijmegen Bridge; and Urquhart followed by Sosabowski a day later are responsible for the bridge in Arnhem. Reconnaissance photos and information from the Dutch underground indicate that there may be two battle tested German Panzer divisions led by Lieutenant General Bittrich (Maximillian Schell) lingering in the Netherlands than originally suspected. Browning dismisses the photos from his Intelligence Officer Major Fuller (Frank Grimes) as just a few tanks.
Overseeing the ground assault are Lieutenant General Horrocks (Edward Fox). Horrocks addresses the British XXX (30) Corp at his headquarters on the Dutch/Belgian border which will be led by Lieutenant Colonel Joe Vandeleur (Michael Caine) and Lieutenant Colonel Johnny Frost (Anthony Hopkins) with the 1st Airborne. Horrocks and Vandeleur will be managing the roads and supply lines in the Netherlands. Before the operation begins, there are concerns about radios working, finding landing zones for the troops close enough to the bridges, and if the mission has enough transport aircraft. The American and English troops board their planes and the first wave of paratroopers drop into the Netherlands. Brig. Gen. Gavin lands hard and tweaks his back. Lt. Col. Frost connects with his men and they head for Arnhem. Lt. Gen. Bittrich watches the paratroopers landing all over the countryside. He orders Major General Ludwig (Hardy Kruger) to take his men to Nijmegen and hold the bridge. Bittrich will deal with the Allies in Arnhem. Maj. Gen. Urquhart receives the first bit of bad news upon landing. The jeeps to take him to Arnhem haven't arrived and the radios to communicate with Browning back at Dutch headquarters are not working.
Lt. Col. Vandeleur and his XXX Corp quickly run into German tanks. A firefight ensues. Vandeleur prevails for the moment. The road becomes clogged with burning vehicles. Lt. Gen. Bittrich requests to German Field Marshal Walter Model (Walter Kohut) to blow up the bridges at Arnhem and Nijmegen. Model denies his request. At the Son River, American Colonel Bobby Stout (Elliott Gould) with the 101st Airborne are halted when that bridge is blown up by the Germans. Colonel Vandeleur and his men are cheered like liberators by the Dutch people passing through Eindhoven. Col. Stout finds Vandeleur and asks for their "Bailey Bridges", portable truss bridges to build so Vandeleur can cross the Son. Vandeleur agrees. Lt. Col. Frost and his men reach the Arnhem bridge. They confiscate some homes near the bridge with good vantage points. Maj. Gen. Urquhart sneaks into a town to try and connect with other Allied troops. He's forced to hide in an attic when a German patrol shows up. Polish Maj. Gen. Sosabowski and his troops are delayed by fog in England. American Staff Sergeant Eddie Dohun (James Caan) with the 101st Airborne locates his superior Captain Glass (Nicholas Campbell) lying dead in the field. Dohun had promised Glass he'd not be killed. Dohun carries Glass to his jeep and races through German lines to an American medical tent where he orders a U.S. Army Surgeon (Arthur Hill) by gunpoint to inspect Glass. The surgeon is surprised to discover Glass is not dead. He removes a bullet from Glass's skull and saves him.
Col. Stout and the 101st work all night to build the temporary Bailey Bridge. Lt. Col. Vandeleur and his XXX tanks finally move forward across the Son River. They're only 36 hours behind schedule. Lt. Col. Frost and his men are pinned down at the Arnhem bridge by Lt. Gen. Bittrich and his Panzers. The Germans ask Frost to surrender. The Brits politely decline. Maj. Gen. Urquhart manages to escape back to the Dutch Allied headquarters where he learns his troops are short on supplies, ammunition and Maj. Gen. Sosabowski still hasn't arrived with his Polish paratroopers. Maj. Gen. Ludwig watches Nijmegen Bridge, ready to blow it if the Allies try to go across. Brig. Gen. Gavin asks Lt. Gen. Horrocks for boats and tank support for his 82nd Airborne. Horrocks grants Gavin's request. Gavin assigns Major Julian Cook (Robert Redford) and his regiment to cross the Waal River under supporting fire and take Nijmegen Bridge from the Germans. It's a suicide mission in broad daylight that Cook and his men accomplish with many casualties. Ludwig orders the bridge blown. The explosives fail to detonate. Allied tanks roar into Nijmegen. In Arnhem, Dr. Spaander (Laurence Olivier) asks family friend Kate Ter Horst (Liv Ullmann) if the Brits can use her house for a temporary hospital. She agrees. Spaander arranges with Bittrich a brief truce to evacuate casualties before the fighting resumes. With most of his men wounded or dead, Frost surrenders to Bittrich. Sosabowski finally parachutes into the Netherlands, right into German gunfire waiting at the landing zones. Horrocks orders all troops to pull back. Urquhart and his men sneak across a river at night back to the Dutch Allied headquarters. The next day, Lt. Gen. Browning reflects to Urquhart that he always thought the operation tried to go "a bridge too far." Even though 90 percent of Operation Market Garden was considered a success, more men were killed in Operation Market Garden than the D-Day invasion. The Allies did not enter Germany...yet.
What makes A BRIDGE TOO FAR unique among war films is that it's about a military failure. The good guys (the Allies) don't win. As screenwriter William Goldman says in one of the DVDs special features, A BRIDGE TOO FAR shows that "war sucks." Unlike most World War II films like THE LONGEST DAY or Robert Aldrich's THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), the mission or in this case Operation Market Garden fails. Real life characters like Lt. Col. Frost (Anthony Hopkins) and his 1st Airborne fail to take Arnhem Bridge and ultimately, either die or are taken as prisoners of war (like Frost). Maj. Gen. Urquhart (Sean Connery) never connects with Frost, his troops hampered by lack of ammunition and radios that won't work. Urquhart spends a quarter of the film hiding in a house attic from the Germans, useless in the grand scheme of the mission. Even when a plan does work like Brig. Gen. Gavin's (Ryan O'Neal) sending Maj. Julian Cook (Robert Redford) and his Regiment in broad daylight across a river to take Nijmegen Bridge, dodging bullets and mortars, the result of their heroism is a bureaucratic British officer telling Cook he has orders not to move forward. A BRIDGE TOO FAR is an anti-war film with good intentions turning into a quagmire of futility.
A BRIDGE TOO FAR spotlights both Allied and German leaders making crucial mistakes before and during the battle. Although he's not a character in the film (shown at the beginning in actual black and white newsreel footage), British Field Marshal Montgomery deserves the blame for conceiving a rushed, ill-prepared plan in Operation Market Garden. Montgomery and American General George Patton both had huge egos and wanted to be the first to reach Berlin. Montgomery somehow prevailed in convincing Eisenhower of his plan. In the film, Lt. Gen. Browning (Dirk Borgarde) controversially is shown to be the scapegoat, dismissing intelligence from Dutch Resistance and photographs from a British Spitfire that there were more German troops and Panzer divisions around the landing zones than Browning was communicating to his commanders. When the Germans begin to see paratroopers falling from the skies, they assume it's Patton in charge. Patton's the better general. They can't comprehend Eisenhower put his trust and faith in Montgomery. Oh, but Eisenhower did. German command makes mistakes too. A German soldier comes across the full plans for Operation Market Garden inside a crashed American glider. The plans are given to Field Marshal Model (Walter Kohut) who immediately declares they're fake much to Lt. Gen. Bittrich's (Maximillian Schell) surprise. Operation Market Garden may have been a total disaster had Model realized what he had in his hands.
Besides focusing on just big battles and war strategy in A BRIDGE TOO FAR, director Attenborough and screenwriter Goldman (from Ryan's book) also highlight personal stories of heroism during the fighting such as James Caan's Staff Sgt. Dohun driving his presumed dead captain from the battlefield through shifting enemy lines to an American hospital tent where Dohun forces a U.S. military surgeon (Arthur Hill) at gunpoint to inspect his superior. The surgeon discovers the captain is still alive and removes a bullet from his skull, saving him. Movie critics cried it was made up. It's a true story from Ryan's book. A BRIDGE TOO FAR shows the plight of innocent Dutch civilians caught up in the battle. Liv Ullmann's Kate Ter Horst sacrifices her home to the British as a makeshift hospital. The house is torn apart by German shelling. Dr. Spaander (Laurence Olivier), a local Arnhem physician becomes a emergency room doctor, trying to save British soldiers. Spaander even negotiates a brief truce with German Lt. Gen. Bittrich to evacuate British wounded from Arnhem Bridge. In one of the film's most poignant scenes, a Dutch teenager (Eric Van't Wout) who has helped his Dutch Underground father (Siem Vroom) monitor the German retreat and count the number of German troops is killed in town by German gunfire. The father picks up his son's body and lays him on top of other dead Dutch civilians as human obstacles to block oncoming German tanks. War is hell!
For most of the big stars in A BRIDGE TOO FAR, it's a chance to play real people who were unable to win a real battle like in a John Wayne or Audie Murphy movie. Sean Connery's Maj. Urquhart is against type for the actor. Except for one moment where he shoots a passing German through a kitchen window, Connery is anything but James Bond, stuck hiding in a Dutch family's attic from the Germans when his reconnaissance mission goes awry. When Urquhart escapes and makes it back to camp, he learns his team is lacking supplies, ammunition, jeeps, and radios that can't communicate with Lt. Col. Frost who's pinned down on Arnhem Bridge. Urquhart is a heroic figure yet impotent to make a difference due to circumstances beyond his control. Connery has the distinction of the only actor in A BRIDGE TOO FAR to also appear 15 years earlier in the film adaption of Cornelius Ryan's THE LONGEST DAY in 1962, one of Connery's first feature films. Connery played Private Flanagan in that film. At least Connery was promoted to a Major General for A BRIDGE TOO FAR.
The one actor who does have a heroic set piece in A BRIDGE TOO FAR is Robert Redford who plays Maj. Julian Cook of the 82nd Airborne. Cook and his regiment manage to pull off a perilous mission, rowing pontoon boats across the strong Waal River in broad daylight and heavy gunfire, overtaking the Germans defending Nijmegen Bridge so the British XXX Corps tanks can cross. It is Redford's John Wayne instant but it's temporary. A stuffy British officer tells Cook that he has orders for the tanks to wait and not proceed further down the road. Cook's men risked their lives (and many died) only to be told to wait (and eventually retreat). Producer Levin and director Attenborough went after Steve McQueen originally for the role of Cook. Attenborough and McQueen were friends having worked on THE GREAT ESCAPE and Robert Wise's THE SAND PEBBLES (1966) together. But McQueen balked at A BRIDGE TOO FAR. Redford was paid two million dollars for three weeks of work which was unheard of in 1977. His presence in A BRIDGE TOO FAR makes this war film that much better.
In CRAZYFILMGUY'S humble opinion, A BRIDGE TOO FAR has some of the best acting ever in a war film. Besides Connery and Redford, a few other excellent performances to point out include Anthony Hopkins as Lt. Col. Johnny Frost (who was alive when the film was made and served as an advisor on the film). Hopkins gives a nuanced, subtle performance as Frost who desperately wants to complete his mission only to see it come up short, surrounded by comrades either wounded or dying. Hopkins internalizes Frost's emotions. Like almost everyone's performance in A BRIDGE TOO FAR, there's no screaming or histrionics. Watching Frost's dust covered face as he accepts chocolate from the German Bittrich before surrendering is heart wrenching. Director Attenborough and screenwriter Goldman must have noticed Hopkins excellent acting as they cast Hopkins in their next film together MAGIC (1978) with Ann Margaret about a ventriloquist and his creepy, life-like dummy.
I knew Dirk Bogarde was recognized as one of Britain's best actors like Richard Burton or James Mason but had only seen one of his early films years ago. As Lt. Gen. Browning in A BRIDGE TOO FAR, Bogarde is the unofficial villain of the film (besides the German S.S. Army). Like Hopkins, Connery, Hackman, O'Neal, and Michael Caine, Borgarde's performance as Browning is quiet, understated, and often tinged with irony or sarcasm. Browning rationalizes the obstacles and shortcomings of Operation Market Garden, choosing to ignore the hard truths. Browning even tries to quietly have his Intelligence Officer Fuller, who has cast doubts about Market Garden, placed on R&R by a military psychiatrist (Gerald Sim). Browning puts his trust in men like Urquhart, Gavin, and Horrocks to complete the mission. As competent leaders as they were, they can't get Market Garden over the finish line. Bogarde started out in the 1950s appearing in British crime films like Basil Dearden's THE BLUE LAMP (1950) before becoming an art house sensation in the 1960s in films like Joseph Losey's THE SERVANT (1963), John Schlesinger's DARLING (1965) with Julie Christie, and Luchino Visconti's THE DAMNED (1969).
Some big stars were willing to take smaller roles in A BRIDGE TOO FAR, knowing they had a few juicy scenes to act in this ensemble epic but they weren't required to carry the movie. One example is James Caan (THIEF) as Staff Sergeant Dohun who risked his life and the possibility of going to military prison when he forces a U.S. Army surgeon by gunpoint to look at his presumed dead friend who turns out to still be alive. Caan plays the part with a calmness not always associated with the actor. Caan's scenes with the great character actor Arthur Hill as the surgeon are some of the film's best. The great Laurence Olivier only has three or four scenes as Dr. Spaander in A BRIDGE TOO FAR. His character (along with Liv Ullmann) represent the bravery and humanity of the Dutch people stuck in a bloody war zone. Olivier had just appeared as a Nazi forced out of hiding in John Schlesinger's MARATHON MAN (1976) and was fighting cancer at the time of A BRIDGE TOO FAR. He was told he didn't have much time left. Miraculously, Olivier rebounded from his health scare and lived 12 more years with fine roles as modern day Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman in Franklin J. Schaffner's THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978) with Gregory Peck as Dr. Josef Mengele and as Dr. Van Helsing in John Badham's DRACULA (1979).
At first glance, Richard Attenborough would not jump out as the director to make a David Lean epic like A BRIDGE TOO FAR. Attenborough had only directed a couple of film prior including a World War I musical comedy OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAR (1969) starring a host of British actors including Dirk Borgarde, Maggie Smith, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, and Laurence Olivier. Attenborough had appeared in John Sturges THE GREAT ESCAPE which has similar characteristics to A BRIDGE TOO FAR with multiple characters and a sprawling story that must have stuck with him. With A BRIDGE TOO FAR, Attenborough proved to be adept handling large crowd scenes, big battles, and juggling numerous characters, and storylines. It didn't hurt that Attenborough had an excellent producer in Joseph E. Levine who let him do his directing and top talent in all production aspects including Director of Photography Geoffrey Unsworth (2001: A SPACE ODYSEEY), Film Editor Anthony Gibbs (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF), and Production Designer (DR. ZHIVAGO). Attenborough's experience with a big production like A BRIDGE TOO FAR helped immensely with his pet project GANDHI in 1982 which garned him Academy Awards in 1982 for Best Picture and Best Director. Attenborough became famous to a new generation of fans when Steven Spielberg cast him as multi-millionaire John Hammond in JURASSIC PARK (1993).
What I love about A BRIDGE TOO FAR are the pairings and groupings of one of the greatest array of movie stars to ever appear in a film. In some cases, this was the only film where these actors and actresses appeared on film together.
Dirk Borgarde/Sean Connery/Gene Hackman/Ryan O'Neal
Sean Connery/Gene Hackman
Dirk Borgarde/Sean Connery
Michael Caine/Edward Fox
Michael Caine/Elliott Gould
Hardy Kruger/Maximillian Schell
Dirk Borgarde/Edward Fox/Ryan O'Neal
Ryan O'Neal/Robert Redford
Ryan O'Neal/Michael Caine
Laurence Olivier/Liv Ullmann
Sean Connery/Laurence Olivier
Dirk Borgarde/Michael Caine/Edward Fox/Gene Hackman/Ryan O'Neal
Hardy Kruger/Laurence Olivier/Maximillian Schell
Some final trivia and tidbits about A BRIDGE TOO FAR. As I mentioned, film critics did not believe some of actual events shown in the film happened like the James Caan scene. Another critique they had was that Ryan O'Neal was far too young to play Maj. Gen. James Gavin. In fact, Gavin was the youngest American ever to become a Major General at the age of 37. O'Neal was 36 when A BRIDGE TOO FAR was released. Some of the A BRIDGE TOO FAR stars had appeared in previous war films. Elliott Gould burst onto movie screens as eccentric Army Surgeon "Trapper" John McIntyre in Robert Altman's black comedy MASH (1970) set in the Korean War. Robert Redford's first feature film was WAR HUNT (1962) also set in the Korean War with John Saxon and future director and Redford friend Sydney Pollack. And Michael Caine made his cinematic debut in Cy Enfield's ZULU (1964) set in South Africa in 1879 where 150 British troops held off 4000 Zulu warriors at an outpost called Rorke's Drift. Composer John Addison (TOM JONES) was actually a tank commander in Operation Market Garden. Addison was on the fringes of the action yet his experience inspired him when writing the score for A BRIDGE TOO FAR.
In the summer of 1977, the film that most teenagers my age (including a 13 year old CRAZYFILMGUY) remember was George's Lucas's Sci-Fi fantasy STAR WARS. I have a feeling there was a smaller group of teenagers like myself who also remember A BRIDGE TOO FAR which was released just a few weeks after STAR WARS on June 15th, 1977. I introduced my son to the STAR WARS universe in 1999 when STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE came out and he never looked back. My son became interested in war history when he was a teenager so I showed him A BRIDGE TOO FAR on DVD. To this day, it's his favorite war movie. A BRIDGE TOO FAR is an anti-war film. It does not glorify war. What Richard Attenborough and his production team accomplish is a realistic depiction of war using real tanks, planes, a massive recreation of the parachute drop into the Netherlands, actual Dutch locations where the battles took place and the bridges exitst, and a look at the emotional and psychological damage war took on the every day citizens of the Netherlands. A BRIDGE TOO FAR is gritty and no doubt the blueprint for more recent realistic WWII films like Steven Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) with Tom Hanks and a cast of up and coming young actors and David Ayer's tank film FURY (2014) starring Brad Pitt.
