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A Bridge Too Far (15-Jun-1977)

Director: Richard Attenborough

Writer: William Goldman

Based on a book: A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan

Keywords: Action/Adventure, WWII

Allied troops perform the largest aerial drop in history, 35,000 parachuting behind German lines to seize key bridges, and hold them long enough for tank columns to arrive. Epic dramatization of Bernard Montgomery's doomed plan to end WWII by late 1944, Operation Market Garden. A panoply of stars, some of whom could surely have been left out, did not guarantee box office success. Though certainly with flaws, Attenborough direction is commendable on the most ambitious WWII film since The Longest Day (1962).

NameOccupationBirthDeathKnown for
Alun Armstrong
Actor
17-Jul-1946   Brian Lane on New Tricks
Dirk Bogarde
Actor
28-Mar-1921 8-May-1999 A Bridge Too Far
James Caan
Actor
26-Mar-1940   Vegas
Michael Caine
Actor
14-Mar-1933   Get Carter
Sean Connery
Actor
25-Aug-1930   James Bond
Ben Cross
Actor
16-Dec-1947   Chariots of Fire
Denholm Elliott
Actor
31-May-1922 6-Oct-1992 A Room with a View
Edward Fox
Actor
13-Apr-1937   Force 10 from Navarone
Elliott Gould
Actor
29-Aug-1938   Trapper John in M*A*S*H film
Gene Hackman
Actor
30-Jan-1930   The Conversation
Garrick Hagon
Actor
27-Sep-1939   Gavin Jones in The Adventurer
Arthur Hill
Actor
1-Aug-1922 26-Oct-2006 Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
Anthony Hopkins
Actor
31-Dec-1937   Hannibal Lecter
Hardy Krüger
Actor
12-Apr-1928   The Flight of the Phoenix
Stephen Moore
Actor
11-Dec-1937   Voice of Marvin the paranoid android
Ryan O'Neal
Actor
20-Apr-1941   Paper Moon
Laurence Olivier
Actor
22-May-1907 11-Jul-1989 Shakespearean actor
Wolfgang Preiss
Actor
27-Feb-1910 27-Nov-2002 A Bridge Too Far
John Ratzenberger
Actor
6-Apr-1947   Postman Cliff Clavin on Cheers
Robert Redford
Actor
18-Aug-1936   The Sundance Kid
Maximilian Schell
Actor
8-Dec-1930 1-Feb-2014 Judgment at Nuremberg
Liv Ullmann
Actor
16-Dec-1938   The Passion of Anna

REVIEWS

Review by chaz nordhaus (posted on 3-Jul-2008)

First of all the film reveals how the so called Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower was overly influenced by the British and their crazy ideas. Field Marshall Montgomery wanted all of the Allied resources to back him up and his foolish plan to end the war in 1944. So the movie begins with disturbing news, the planned area of the Airborne drops are full of German SS Panzer Divisions. But the British intelligence officers decide not to inform anyone in case the big show might be cancelled.(heaven forbid). So the Airborne troops take off, the British Airborne is dropped in Arnhem and they capture one end of the bridge over the Rhine. The 101st is dropped near Einhoven, close to the British tanks led by Monty himself. The 82nd is given a much harder job, to capture two bridges near Nijmegen, and keep the German Panzers inside Germany and not let them disrupt the invasion of Holland. The British tanks begin to move, only to be held up by a hand full of dedicated Germans with Panzerfausts. Now the folly of trying to pull off a blitzkrieg move in a flooded country like Holland with a one lane highway leading to Arnhem becomes apparent. Finally the British tanks make their way to Nijmegen, only to find the 82nd Airborne has not captured the key bridge, because they are under constant attack on their flanks from SS troops that were not supposed to be there. A Major Cook of the 504th Paratroop Reg. is ordered to cross the river by canvas boat with his battalion and capture the opposite side of the river. The men get into the flimsy craft and in the best scene of the movie row across the river under constant and accurate German fire. Only a handful of men make it across the River alive. But they manage to capture the bridge. The British tanks cross the bridge and then stop , its tea time old chap. Meanwhile up in Arnhem a few miles up the road the British Paratroops are getting their butts kicked. The German SS Panzer Divisions have arrived to stop them,so the whole operation is a failure, mainly because the British seem to be in no paticular hurry to end this bloody war.


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