Cheap A Bridge Too Far (DVD) (Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Ryan O'Neal) Price

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Customer Reviews of A Bridge Too Far

A Bridge from Classic to Modern War Film
A Bridge Too Far was one of the last epic WWII films. It cannot help but be linked to The Longest Day because they are both from Cornelius Ryan's books. <
>One of the differences in style from the previous film is the type of stars used for the main characters. Whereas Longest Day used many long-established stars, many who had been around for decades, the stars of Bridge are almost exclusively of contemporary vintage such as Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Ryan O'Neal, Elliot Gould, Anthony Hopkins, etc. Even Connery and Caine, who reached stardom in the Sixties are only in their mid-forties at this time. Unfortunately, and this is my only complaint, Attenborough chose to go with the trendy "Great Gatsby" style glow with the cinematography. The humor put into Longest Day is almost totally absent from Bridge and further contributes to its modern realism. Speaking of realism, those familiar with the writing of Panzer commander Hans Von Luck will appreciate the effort and money spent on the war action. It is spectacular. The artillery shelling is fearsome, the airborne assault is awesome, and the boat attacks are hellish. <
>Mr. Attenborough impressively helms this massive story, keeping track of the big picture while drawing in the the viewer with short, poignant individual exploits. The most memorable of these lasts only a few seconds as the Dutch father turns to see his son, who has been so brave and helpful, has been killed by a stray bullet. The horror of war in that moment is more real than the entire three hours of movies like Apocalypse Now. Shortly after that, the camera fills the frame with a monstrous German tank, firing mercilessly straight toward you. <
>Of the star-studded cast, Connery, Caan, and Hopkins shine the most. James Caan gets one of the best scenes in the movie: a wild jeep ride through German lines to save a buddy. If Steve McQueen had been in the movie, this would have been his role, but Caan does it quite well enough. Sean Connery was reportedly miffed that Redford got more than he did for much less screen time. Sean has a point, he's outstanding and convincing in his role, while Redford is pretty much playing Redford. Anthony Hopkins, whose star was rising at this point, puts another notch in his career as the Tommy paratrooper Colonel who's sent to do the impossible. Much of Gene Hackman's performance of the Polish general is presenting a frustrated man who fully realizes the FUBAR scenario that he must participate in. On the minus side,Ryan O'Neal seems too youthful to be a general and Michael Caine has so little to do one wonders if there isn't quite a bit of extra footage laying around somewhere. Not that the film needs it, but it would be a nice DVD treat. <
>A Bridge Too Far is a great film. It's a pity Attenborough couldn't have assembled a similar cast and crew and gone on to make the definitive film version of Battle of the Bulge. That would have supplied the one thing lacking from Bridge-a victory. <
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A Classic Epic of the Second World War
This film adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's "A Bridge Too Far" strives to capture the enourmity of the heroic attempt by an Allied Airborne Army to reach the Rhine River and flank German defenses in Holland in the Fall of 1944. Ryan's book dealt with Operation Market-Garden at every level, from the foxhole to the Allied and German General Staffs. The movie features dozens of superb performances, including many cameos by strong actors in a nearly three hour movie, but is less coherent than the book. <
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>Operation Market-Garden was the brain-child of British Field Marshal Montgomery, but the push to execute the high risk operation in the face of conflicting intelligence reporting came from an Airborne Army (led in the movie by Dirk Bogarde) that was a little too eager to get in the fight. The American 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions (the latter led in the movie by Ryan O'Neal), the British 1st Airborne Division (commanded in the movie by a superbly cast Sean Connery), and a Polish Parachute Brigade (led in the movie by Gene Hackman) were to lay down a carpet of troops through Holland to the Rhine River. British Thirty Corps (led in the movie by a scene-stealing Edward Fox, supported by Michael Caine) was supposed to batter its way up the narrow road opened by the airborne troops to the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem. Anthony Hopkins puts in a magnificently laconic performance as commander of the one unit that does reach Arnhem. <
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>The German side is well represented by Maximilian Schell and Hardy Kruger as the respective Army and Division commanders responsible for the defense of Arnhem. Their initial surprise and confusion are quickly replaced by decisive action as the Germans forcefull moved to stave off the Allied attack short of success. <
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>This hughly entertaining movie captures the individual heroism that underlies even an ultimately unsuccessful battle and the confusion that can undermine even the best of intentions by general officers. It is highly recommended to fans of the war epic genre and to the general viewer seeking an educational look at the battle.

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Purchase of DVD
The service from Amazon was excellent. We received the item within days. The movie is one of my favorite WWII movies so I think it is very good.