A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Films about World War II often celebrate the many ways in which the Allies banded together to give Hitler’s war machine a right good kick in the bollocks and saved the world for freedom, democracy and all that stuff country singers love singing about.
However, World War II was not an unending run one military master-stroke after another, in fact, a good deal of them were right balls ups and none more so than the ambitious but disastrous Operation Market Garden and it is this operation that is the focus of Richard Attenborough’s star-studded epic A Bridge Too Far.
The film follows the ill-fated Allied plan dubbed Operation Market Garden, a plan to capture and hold a number of strategically vital bridges in occupied Holland in the hope that it would open a path across the Rhine and allow for an Allied invasion of Germany. Following a wide number of Allied soldiers and their commanders, the film shows how the ambitious operation eventually devolved into disaster as the Germans managed to successfully halt the Allied advance.
To say that this film is star-studded would be an understatement because this is the very definition of an all-star cast. Featuring appearances from *deep breath* Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman (with a dodgy Polish accent), Hardy Kruger, Elliot Gould, James Caan, Robert Redford, Ryan O’Neal, Anthony Hopkins and Laurence Oliver to name just a few of the faces that appear in the film. To describe and critique all of the cast’s performances would take an age, but needless to say that they all deliver fine turns, even Hackman with his awkward, inconsistent and frankly terrible attempt at Polish accent. I guess MST3K was right, Gene Hackman is good in everything.
The performance that really stood out to me, however, is the “Jackal” himself, the excellent Edward Fox as Lt. Gen Horrocks, a wonderfully, almost stereotypically posh and proper British commander, one who talks to his men about the operation as being a “story you’ll tell your grandchildren, and mightily bored they’ll be”.
The man is just a joy to watch and his entire scene describing the operation is delivered with a wonderful sense authority and grandeur, particularly when compares the operation to “one of those American Western films” while referring to the Germans as “naturally they’re the bad guys”. Fox is amazing plain and simple, and the film is worth watching, certainly for me, for his entertaining performance alone.
On top of some stellar acting performances, the film is often genuinely funny with it being filled with some great comic moments, such as when Anthony Hopkins’ Col Frost is confronted with a white flag waving German soldier suggesting that the British troops surrender the bridge they are defending. Instead of telling his men to lay down their arms and surrender, Frost instead orders a subordinate to reject a German call to surrender in the most British way possible, commanding the soldier to “tell him to go to hell”, which to which the soldier translates to “We haven’t the proper facilities to take you all prisoner. Sorry. We’d like to but we can’t accept your surrender.”
Or when Sean Connery’s Major Gen. Urquhart, hiding out making plans with his men, makes eyes with a German soldier peering at him through the window of a house and the two sort share a quick awkward look before Connery shoots at him. It’s just a weird little moment that for whatever reason always makes me laugh.
This film could have been your usual serious war drama, but these moments of humour, whether you feel they are appropriate or not, add some much-needed brevity to proceedings, especially when the tide of battle really begins to turn against the Allies.
The film’s set pieces are incredible, especially when the Operation gets underway with hundreds upon hundreds of airborne troops being parachuted into Holland, all recreated with stunt performers in a truly impressive sight to behold. Whereas on the battle front, we are treated to a great siege sequence that runs throughout much of the film’s battle as Hopkins and his men attempt to hold off a German onslaught from the comfort of a group of houses that they have occupied, with Hopkins being very polite when he says to an occupant “I’m awfully sorry we’re going to have to commandeer your house”.
We also have a tank battle that culminates in the gigantic barrage of shells flying and aircraft strafing and bombing German positions, all accomplished using the vintage military equipment. It’s a sequence that puts to shame most modern-day war films that would likely achieve the same sequence with CGI.
A Bridge Too Far is without a doubt one of the greatest war films ever made and I cannot recommend it enough. Packed to the gills with a truly star-studded cast, great set pieces and battles and topped off with several moments of comedy that serve to lighten the mood, Richard Attenborough has crafted a true epic that you would have to be an idiot not to at least give a look at.
