A Bridge Too Far (film)

In September 1944, Allied forces have won the Battle of Normandy. General Browning, with the approval of Field Marshal Montgomery, drafts a plan known as Operation Market Garden which will land 35,000 paratroopers and glider men from their airfields in England, behind enemy lines in the Netherlands over a 64 mile corridor with the ultimate goal of crossing the Rhine River at Arnhem. The single road linking a succession of bridges is narrow and exposed. Two American divisions land near Eindhoven, Grave and Nijmegen. A British division under Major-General Roy Urquhart, is to land near Arnhem, supported by a brigade of Polish paratroopers under General Stanisław Sosabowski. The land forces from XXX Armoured Corps are to pierce the front line in Belgium, cross the captured bridges and relieve the forces at Arnhem within two days. Major-General Urquhart's officers are surprised their landing zones are so far from their objectives. While consensus is that resistance will consist of inexperienced old men and Hitler Youth, reconnaissance photos show German tanks at Arnhem. General Browning dismisses the photos and ignores reports from the Dutch underground. Although the airborne drops surprise the enemy and meet little resistance, the Son bridge is demolished by the Germans just before it can be secured. At Arnhem, heavily armed jeeps either do not arrive or are destroyed in an ambush. The British division's radios don't function leaving Urquhart out of contact with Browning's headquarters. The progress of XXX Corps is slowed by German resistance, the narrowness of the road, and the need to construct a Bailey bridge to replace the bridge at Son. They are halted by fierce resistance at Nijmegen and soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division perform a daylight river crossing in rubber boats to capture the Nijmegen bridge but XXX Corps remains delayed while infantry secure the city. The Germans close in on the isolated British paratroopers occupying Arnhem near the bridge, and although Sosabowski's troops finally arrive after being delayed in England, they are too late to reinforce the British. After days of intense fighting against SS infantry and panzers the outgunned troops are either captured or forced to withdraw to Oosterbeek. Urquhart receives orders to retreat, while the other Allied commanders blame the various difficulties encountered for their failure to provide support. Urquhart escapes with less than a fifth of his original 10,000 troops while those who are too badly injured to flee stay behind to cover the withdrawal. At British headquarters, Urquhart confronts Browning about his personal sentiments regarding the operation and the latter contradicts his earlier optimism. Back in Oosterbeek Kate ter Horst, whose home has been converted into a makeshift hospital by the British, abandons its ruins. Passing through the front yard, now a graveyard for fallen troops, she and her children leave with an elderly doctor, pulling a few possessions in a cart, while wounded British troops sing "Abide with Me" as they await capture. ==Cast and roles==

Note: Characters ordered by rank British Americans Other Allies Germans Dutch civilians ==Production==

Air filming was done in the first weeks of September 1976, culminating in a series of air drops of a total of 1,000 men. Supplies were dropped from a number of Dakota aircraft. The Dakotas were gathered by the film company Joseph E. Levine Presents Incorporated. All aircraft were required to be CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) or FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) registered and licensed to carry passengers. An original deal for the purchase of 10 fell through when two airframes were rejected as passenger configured without the necessary jump doors. Eleven Dakotas were procured. Two ex-Portuguese Air Force, 6153 and 6171 (N9984Q and N9983Q), and two from Air Djibouti, operating from Djibouti in French Somaliland, F-OCKU and F-OCKX (N9985Q and N9986Q) were purchased by Joseph E. Levine. Three Danish Air Force K-685, K-687, and K-688, and four Finnish Air Force C-47s, DO-4, DO-7, DO-10 and DO-12, were loaned for the duration of the parachute filming. Aircraft 6171 doubled as the camera ship on most formations, with a camouflaged Piper Aztec, G-AWDI. A camera was mounted in the astrodome, one on the port upper mainplane surface, with a third camera on the outside of the forward port cabin window and a fourth under the aircraft centre section. In addition, centre escape hatches were removed to make additional camera ports available, provided that no troops were aboard during filming. A second Aztec, G-ASND, was a backup camera ship on some shots, but it was not camouflaged. An Alouette, G-BDWN, was also employed. After a mishap with G-AWDI, two locally hired Cessna 172s, PH-GVP and PH-ADF, were also used. Ten Horsa glider replicas were built, but a windstorm damaged almost all of them. Seven or eight were hastily repaired for the shoot. The replica gliders were tail-heavy and required a support post under the rear fuselage, with camera angles carefully chosen to avoid revealing this. Dakota 6153 was fitted with tow gear and Horsa replicas were towed at high speed, though none went airborne. A two-seat Blaník sailplane, provided by a member of the London Gliding Club, Dunstable, was towed aloft for the interior takeoff shots. on 18 May 1976. German vehicles are crossing the bridge. Four Harvards portrayed American and German fighters. Their original identities were PH-KLU, PH-BKT, B-64 and B-118, the former two aircraft loaned by the Royal Netherlands Air Force. These were flown by members of the Gilze Rijen Aero Club, which also provided an Auster III, PH-NGK, which depicted an Auster V, RT607, in wartime camouflage. Spitfire Mk. IX, MH434, depicting a photo reconnaissance variant, coded AC-S, was lent by the Hon. Patrick Lindsay, and was flown by aerobatic champion Neil Williams. Sufficient American tanks, jeeps, and trucks of World War II vintage were found because many of the vehicles were being discarded from European military (almost entirely reserve) units, especially from Greece and Turkey. The scenes set around the Arnhem bridge were shot in Deventer, where a similar bridge over the IJssel was still available. Although a replica of the original road bridge in Arnhem existed, by the mid-1970s modern urban development surrounded it, making it impossible to use as a setting for a 1940s city. A few scenes were shot in Zutphen, where the old municipality house and the main church can be seen. Additional scenes were filmed at Twickenham Studios. The Motion Picture Association of America initially gave the film an R rating for its use of the word "fuck" and depictions of war violence, but United Artists lobbied it to change it to a PG rating so that younger audiences could see the film. Cuts were also made to the film when released in the United Kingdom to avoid an AA rating from the British Board of Film Censors. ==Finance==

In order to keep costs down, all the star-name actors agreed to participate on a "favoured-nation" basis (i.e. they would all receive the same weekly fee), which in this case was $250,000 per week (the 2012 equivalent of $1,008,250 or £642,000). Shooting of the American-led assault on the Bridge at Nijmegen was dubbed the "Million-Dollar Hour". Because of heavy traffic, the crew had permission to film on the bridge only between eight and nine o'clock on 3 October 1976. Failure to complete the scene would have necessitated rescheduling at a cost—including Redford's overtime—of at least a million dollars. For this reason, Attenborough insisted that all actors playing corpses keep their eyes closed. the film went on to become the sixth-most popular movie at the 1977 US box office. ==Reception==

The film received a mixed critical response. Critics agreed that the film was impressively staged and historically accurate, although many found it too long and too repetitive. On Rotten Tomatoes, 59% of 32 critics gave the film a positive review. Its critics consensus reads: "A Bridge Too Far is a war movie too long, although top-notch talent on both sides of the camera keeps the end result consistently watchable." According to Metacritic, the film received "generally favorable" reviews based on a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 from 13 critics. Vincent Canby of The New York Times said further, "The movie is massive, shapeless, often unexpectedly moving, confusing, sad, vivid and very, very long." James Caan and Anthony Hopkins were cited by many critics for the excellence of their performances in a film with hundreds of speaking roles and cameos by many of the period's top actors. Generals Urquhart and Horrocks acted as military advisers to the film, adding to its historical accuracy. However, some reviewers suggested that the film contains historical inaccuracies and needs to be viewed as a 'Hollywood' interpretation of events. Robin Neillands commented, "A countless number of veterans have urged me to ignore most of the story in the film A Bridge Too Far". Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote "A picture of conventional length on this subject might have scored some conventional ironies. But why did anyone think that a film about a failed WWII operation, without any novelty of information or deepening of history or even differently spectacular action, should run five minutes less than three hours? A Film Too Long". Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four, describing it as Gene Siskel gave the film two-and-a-half out of four and wrote, John Pym of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "by the end of this extravagant film, we have a fair idea of the who-did-what logistics of a costly military operation. The root problem with A Bridge Too Far, however, is that the top-heavy complement of stars never allows for any focus of attention." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "an unusually conscientious and impressive war epic" that justified its high budget... A "making-of" documentary included in a special edition DVD of A Bridge Too Far says that, at the time of its release, "the film was shunned by American critics and completely ignored at Oscar time for daring to expose the fatal inadequacies of the Allied campaign". Accolades ==Promotion==

To promote the film, scriptwriter William Goldman wrote a book titled Story of A Bridge Too Far as a favour to Joseph E. Levine. • "A Bridge Too Far: The Story in Pictures" – 150 sequential photographs from the film with Goldman's captions. • "Stars and Heroes" – some of the movie's actors and the men they play tell Goldman their thoughts on the film and the battle. ==Notes==