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Post by wmcclain on Mar 18, 2021 16:43:50 GMT
A Bridge Too Far (1977), directed by Richard Attenborough. First reviewAmbitious presentation of Operation Market Garden, the Allied attempt to win WW2 in 1944 by dropping 35,000 paratroopers in enemy territory. They would seize the bridges around three Dutch towns and hold them for an armored relief column coming up the single available road. What could go wrong? Quite a lot on both sides. It was a bold plan that failed. Large cast of many known actors, including Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford and Michael Caine. There is no one lead, and so many characters to follow that we spend little time on human interest side plots. It's mainly history. The actors fit their roles, although I think Gene Hackman looks out of place as a Polish general, and it's hard to take Elliot Gould seriously in anything. Redford needs a haircut. I find it pretty satisfying as a war history/adventure. It's sort of a sequel to The Longest Day, which was also adapted from a Cornelius Ryan book. The wikipedia article has details on the cast and the historical characters they play. We see gliders being rigged for towing but none actually in the air. Available on Blu-ray, often on sale. Second reviewAdditional notes, and I've added thumbnails from the Blu-ray. - It's still very impressive in its scale and historical detail, one of the great reenactments.
- I'd forgotten how bloody was the allied defeat.
- I could have used more maps or maybe just some instructive schematics. Keeping track of who is doing what and where is difficult.
- I'm going to read the book. Even if the bridges had been taken and held, how was the operation supposed to be supplied through that one little road?
- We are just getting used to the cavalcade of stars on display when new ones pop up to startle us: Robert Redford, Laurence Olivier, Liv Ullmann.
- Great details: the field artillery and half-tracks, emergency bridge building.
- Screenplay by William Goldman: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Hot Rock (1972), Marathon Man (1976), The Princess Bride (1987), The Ghost and the Darkness (1996).
- Photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth: A Night to Remember (1958), Becket (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Magic Christian (1969), Zardoz (1974), The Great Train Robbery (1978).
- Score by John Addison: School for Scoundrels (1960), Tom Jones (1963), Torn Curtain (1966), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), A Taste of Honey (1961).
Available on Blu-ray. This is an early mpeg2 encoding. The black levels are poor but given the soft nature of the source the image is surprisingly good in spots. 
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Post by politicidal on Mar 18, 2021 17:27:16 GMT
The production and battle scenes are indeed impressive. Some of the cast members leave an impression. But I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I did that other Cornelius Ryan epic The Longest Day. Perhaps it is because Operation Market Garden was a dismal failure and it leaves one feeling unsatisfied.
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Post by timshelboy on Mar 18, 2021 17:37:00 GMT
3/10 major disappointment but expectations were vast. Never revisited in 40 plus yrs. I was big on LONGEST DAY too and found this variant wanting. Some of the big names added little... Redford & O'Neal especially lacklustre.....Connery, Hopkins & Caine I thought had the fattest parts in terms of screen time...and maybe Caan of the Yanks... although Bogarde was the acting standout (my Dad had met the character he played - Browning? - and said he nailed the part). Yes , except for a couple of Altman posterity has not been generous to Gould.  |
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 18, 2021 17:46:32 GMT
It didn't leave an impression.
The Longest Day held in the memory more for who did what.
I remember Connery in that with his skirt but can't remember him at all in ABTF.
I remember Redford but he comes into late so...
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Post by bravomailer on Mar 18, 2021 18:20:35 GMT
I liked it. Wonderful cast, cinematography, and storytelling that conveys the complexity and overcomplexity of the operation. But it has minor flaws with the jaunty pep-rally music and Elliot Gould's hamminess.
7/10
I spoke at length with a 101st Airborne vet of Market Garden (and Bastogne) and when I asked him what he thought of the op, he rather crisply said, "We took our bridge." Didn't ask what he thought of ABTF but he did say he thought highly of Battleground (1949).
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Post by Isapop on Mar 18, 2021 19:05:08 GMT
Pretty plodding, never gathers momentum. All Attenborough's fault.
It's a good thing it had an all star cast; otherwise you'd never keep track of who anybody is.
Producer Joseph E. Levine was determined to get either Steve McQueen or Robert Redford in the picture. That was crucial. McQueen's demands were just out of bounds for Levine. (And McQueen's agent was telling Levine, "You can't get Redford.") Levine rejected McQueen's demands and, of course, got Redford. (All of this according to William Goldman.) It's funny though, Redford's part seems a better fit for McQueen.
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Post by timshelboy on Mar 18, 2021 19:22:22 GMT
Pretty plodding, never gathers momentum. All Attenborough's fault. It's a good thing it had an all star cast; otherwise you'd never keep track of who anybody is. Producer Joseph E. Levine was determined to get either Steve McQueen or Robert Redford in the picture. That was crucial. McQueen's demands were just out of bounds for Levine. (And McQueen's agent was telling Levine, "You can't get Redford.") Levine rejected McQueen's demands and, of course, got Redford. (All of this according to William Goldman.) It's funny though, Redford's part seems a better fit for McQueen. Wasn't there some ill will/bad press about Redford getting a million to appear while everyone else was on a flat $200k or whatever because it was ART and Dickie was over the moon about it all etc... think object of wrath more producers for paying him that than him for accepting the offer - oh and from memory Audrey was first offered the Ullmann role - no detail on what the financial offer was (assume Givenchy nurse outfits  ) Any Audrey fanboys can help?
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Post by OldAussie on Mar 18, 2021 20:33:29 GMT
Am I the only one who loves this movie?
Wonderful companion piece to The Longest Day.
Generally the Brit actors get more meat than the Yanks but it's the Brits who end up with the disaster - yes, the Yanks took their bridges.
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Post by Isapop on Mar 18, 2021 20:57:01 GMT
Am I the only one who loves this movie? Not at all. Since the film was released in 1977, the people who love this movie has grown to seven. And with you, now it makes eight. Before you know it, the number of A Bridge Too Far lovers will threaten to move into double digits.
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Post by Isapop on Mar 18, 2021 21:11:06 GMT
Pretty plodding, never gathers momentum. All Attenborough's fault. It's a good thing it had an all star cast; otherwise you'd never keep track of who anybody is. Producer Joseph E. Levine was determined to get either Steve McQueen or Robert Redford in the picture. That was crucial. McQueen's demands were just out of bounds for Levine. (And McQueen's agent was telling Levine, "You can't get Redford.") Levine rejected McQueen's demands and, of course, got Redford. (All of this according to William Goldman.) It's funny though, Redford's part seems a better fit for McQueen. Wasn't there some ill will/bad press about Redford getting a million to appear while everyone else was on a flat $200k or whatever because it was ART and Dickie was over the moon about it all etc... think object of wrath more producers for paying him that than him for accepting the offer - oh and from memory Audrey was first offered the Ullmann role - no detail on what the financial offer was (assume Givenchy nurse outfits ) Any Audrey fanboys can help? Connery renegotiated his contract after he found out that the American stars were all being paid more than the British stars.
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Post by timshelboy on Mar 18, 2021 22:00:05 GMT
salary dish from imdb1
All of the lead actors agreed to participate on a '"favored-nation" basis (they would all receive the same weekly fee), which, in this case, was $250,000 per week (the 1977 equivalent of $1,008,250, or £642,000). Except Robert Redford who received $2m.
Audrey's asking price too high (unspecified) and prosspect of location filming too traumatic.
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Post by bravomailer on Mar 18, 2021 23:14:53 GMT
salary dish from imdb1 All of the lead actors agreed to participate on a '"favored-nation" basis (they would all receive the same weekly fee), which, in this case, was $250,000 per week (the 1977 equivalent of $1,008,250, or £642,000). Except Robert Redford who received $2m. Audrey's asking price too high (unspecified) and prosspect of location filming too traumatic. More form IMDb: "[Audrey] Hepburn, who was half English and half Dutch, had been sent from England, to The Netherlands, which was neutral, when war broke out, but her mother's home town of Arnhem was overrun by the Germans, and she was trapped there for the duration. During Operation Market Garden, the fifteen-year-old Hepburn ran errands and messages for the Allies fighting in the town, and so, as Kate Ter Horst, would have met herself in the movie."
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Mar 19, 2021 2:11:33 GMT
A Movie Too Long?
I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned Edward Fox's great performance. I've read a lot about Brian Horrocks and Fox nailed his character perfectly. Horrocks is what is known as a "Soldier's General". And he was very capable.
Counterbalanced by the silly casting of Gene Hackman as Polish General Stanslaw Sosabowski. Sorry, but I thought his accent was up there with Teddy KGB from Rounders.
Great score.
I went to the theater and ween ABTF when I was 13 and was amazed that an actor actually used an f bomb in a movie. First time I heard that (not the actual word but on a screen).
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Post by hi224 on Mar 19, 2021 9:58:09 GMT
A Bridge Too Far (1977), directed by Richard Attenborough. First reviewAmbitious presentation of Operation Market Garden, the Allied attempt to win WW2 in 1944 by dropping 35,000 paratroopers in enemy territory. They would seize the bridges around three Dutch towns and hold them for an armored relief column coming up the single available road. What could go wrong? Quite a lot on both sides. It was a bold plan that failed. Large cast of many known actors, including Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford and Michael Caine. There is no one lead, and so many characters to follow that we spend little time on human interest side plots. It's mainly history. The actors fit their roles, although I think Gene Hackman looks out of place as a Polish general, and it's hard to take Elliot Gould seriously in anything. Redford needs a haircut. I find it pretty satisfying as a war history/adventure. It's sort of a sequel to The Longest Day, which was also adapted from a Cornelius Ryan book. The wikipedia article has details on the cast and the historical characters they play. We see gliders being rigged for towing but none actually in the air. Available on Blu-ray, often on sale. Second reviewAdditional notes, and I've added thumbnails from the Blu-ray. - It's still very impressive in its scale and historical detail, one of the great reenactments.
- I'd forgotten how bloody was the allied defeat.
- I could have used more maps or maybe just some instructive schematics. Keeping track of who is doing what and where is difficult.
- I'm going to read the book. Even if the bridges had been taken and held, how was the operation supposed to be supplied through that one little road?
- We are just getting used to the cavalcade of stars on display when new ones pop up to startle us: Robert Redford, Laurence Olivier, Liv Ullmann.
- Great details: the field artillery and half-tracks, emergency bridge building.
- Screenplay by William Goldman: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Hot Rock (1972), Marathon Man (1976), The Princess Bride (1987), The Ghost and the Darkness (1996).
- Photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth: A Night to Remember (1958), Becket (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Magic Christian (1969), Zardoz (1974), The Great Train Robbery (1978).
- Score by John Addison: School for Scoundrels (1960), Tom Jones (1963), Torn Curtain (1966), The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), A Taste of Honey (1961).
Available on Blu-ray. This is an early mpeg2 encoding. The black levels are poor but given the soft nature of the source the image is surprisingly good in spots. Love your reviews. |
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Post by hi224 on Mar 19, 2021 10:01:56 GMT
A Movie Too Long? I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned Edward Fox's great performance. I've read a lot about Brian Horrocks and Fox nailed his character perfectly. Horrocks is what is known as a "Soldier's General". And he was very capable. Counterbalanced by the silly casting of Gene Hackman as Polish General Stanslaw Sosabowski. Sorry, but I thought his accent was up there with Teddy KGB from Rounders. Great score. I went to the theater and ween ABTF when I was 13 and was amazed that an actor actually used an f bomb in a movie. First time I heard that (not the actual word but on a screen). No offense but thought you were younger. |
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Post by Stammerhead on Mar 19, 2021 12:12:22 GMT
I loved it when it came out but it has slipped in my estimation over the years mainly due to the misty photography, the over jaunty music (although that does suit the over optimistic feel at the start) and the awkward editing during the (otherwise impressive) action scenes.
I’m glad someone mentioned Edward Fox who lit the screen up and happily this cast didn’t feature any contemporary pop stars (points to Fabian and Paul Anka in The Longest Day).
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Mar 19, 2021 14:18:15 GMT
A Movie Too Long? I'm kind of surprised no one mentioned Edward Fox's great performance. I've read a lot about Brian Horrocks and Fox nailed his character perfectly. Horrocks is what is known as a "Soldier's General". And he was very capable. Counterbalanced by the silly casting of Gene Hackman as Polish General Stanslaw Sosabowski. Sorry, but I thought his accent was up there with Teddy KGB from Rounders. Great score. I went to the theater and ween ABTF when I was 13 and was amazed that an actor actually used an f bomb in a movie. First time I heard that (not the actual word but on a screen). No offense but thought you were younger. I think young thoughts. I was 13 in 1977, going on 14
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Post by teleadm on Mar 19, 2021 18:45:29 GMT
Great review.
I think it's a good movie! My main trouble was and is I never get a full picture of were they were in The Netherlands as to were each unit was fighting. Who was in front, second wave and so forth.
Among the heavyweight actors, there was also Ryan O'Neal, who at the time was a bankable name. but his participation seems to have been forgotten, not gonna defend him, he just looked so lightweight and out of place
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Mar 19, 2021 19:43:20 GMT
One of my all time favorite war movies along with "The Longest Day". It's fantastic.
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Post by hi224 on Mar 19, 2021 19:53:25 GMT
Great review. I think it's a good movie! My main trouble was and is I never get a full picture of were they were in The Netherlands as to were each unit was fighting. Who was in front, second wave and so forth. Among the heavyweight actors, there was also Ryan O'Neal, who at the time was a bankable name. but his participation seems to have been forgotten, not gonna defend him, he just looked so lightweight and out of place even his counterpart complained.
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