A Bridge Too Far

Richard Attenborough's 1977 adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's book on the disastrous Operation Market-Garden is one of the last of the all-star, huge-scale World War II epics (after The Longest Day, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Battle of the Bulge and Midway, among many others), and arguably the best. As an old-fashioned war film brimming with excellent battle scenes and a star-studded cast, it succeeds in spades. Perhaps more pointedly though, it works as a fascinating study of a military failure - where bad planning, bad thinking and just plain bad luck contributed to one of the greatest Allied disasters of WWII. The movie has more than its share of huge-scale battle scenes, but no amount of heorics by our all-star cast can save the day.

September, 1944. The Allies have broken out of Normandy and liberated most of France; it seems that the war is at an end, with only problems in supply preventing a swift Allied victory. British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery advocates a plan to end the war with a daring coup de main: under the direction of General Browning (Dirk Bogarde), British and American airborne forces will land behind enemy lines and seize three bridges over the Rhine River, while the XXX Tank Corps under General Horrocks (Edward Fox) will launch a simultaneous ground attack - thereby trapping the German Army in Holland and ending the war. The plan quickly goes awry; elements of General Urquhart's (Sean Connery) 1st Airborne are scattered, with Colonel Frost's (Anthony Hopkins) battalion trapped in Arnhem; Horrocks' men meet heavier-than-expected resistance from elite SS troops commanded by Field Marshalls Von Runstedt (Wolfgang Preiss), Bittrich (Maximillian Schell) and Model (Walther Kohut); and American units led by General Gavin (Ryan O'Neal) and Colonel Stout (Elliot Gould) are forced to improvise river crossings after their bridges are destroyed by the Germans. Through fierce fighting and sheer will, the Allies claw within an inch of success - but ironically, the closer the Allies get to success, the more apparent the scope of their failure becomes.

Attenborough depictss Market-Garden showing a combination of overconfidence, poor planning, and just plain bad luck foiling Market-Garden. General Browning in particular comes off very badly, ignoring intelligence from a junior officer (Frank Grimes) indicating that German forces are much stronger than anticipated, and brushing aside the skepticism of Polish General Sosabowski (Gene Hackman). No one in the Allied command thinks the attack will be anything but a success; after the smashing victories of the last three months, who could blame them? The German Army is in retreat; the Allies flushed with victory; the Dutch prematurely celebrating liberation. It seems ludicrous to even imagine that failure could occur at this moment in time, even with such a hairbrained scheme as Monty's.

However, reality intervenes time and again; Browning and company can ignore or silence intelligence officers and skeptical generals, but wishful thinking cannot overcome reality. When German troops turn out to be crack SS Panzer units, everyone present realizes that things are going to be very difficult, expectations aside. Bad communication, bad weather, bad drop zones, bad roads and fierce German resistance all show that Montgomery's plan - difficult even in the best of circumstances - is simply leading to a monumental disaster. The fact that the attack comes within a hair's breadth of success makes failure all the more painful. Allied success would come a few months later, but only at the cost of hundreds of thousand more lives.

Attenborough handles the battle scenes with aplomb, making them both entertaining and gruesome; we're engrossed enough in the spectacle and characters to cheer for the Allies, even if we know the cavalry will not get through in time. Certainly the movie has enough excellent set pieces to keep it going - particularly the jaw-dropping parachute drops, American Sergeant Dohun's (James Caan) unlikely rescue of his badly-wounded Captain (Nicholas Campbell), and Major Gold's (Robert Redford) impromptu amphibious assault on the Nijmegen Bridge. Only a few mawkishly sentimental scenes towards the end (particularly the scene of wounded British soldiers singing on a hospital lawn) go a bit too far. The film can be enjoyed both ways: as a straight battle picture, and as a potent anti-war message.

British stars Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Edward Fox, Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Olivier give strong performances, each having enough time to register. A young Anthony Hopkins more or less steals the show; his restrained, down-to-Earth performance as Colonel Frost, trapped in Arnhem without hope of rescue, manages to standout even amongst such distinguished company. The American cast is less well-used; Robert Redford, James Caan, Gene Hackman and Elliot Gould have glorified cameos, though Redford and Caan at least have a scene or two to shine. Sadly the only American with much screen time is Ryan O'Neal - enough said I hope. Liv Ullman is fine in a small role, and German actors Hardy Kruger, Maximillian Schell, Walter Kohut and Wolfgang Preiss all do fine work.

A Bridge Too Far remains a high watermark for war films. Although it may not entirely succeed as an anti-war statement, it's an engrossing film regardless, and holds up better than most of its peers.