Bridge Too Far (Blu-ray) (1977)

"Fantastic WW2 epic with a 1970's "all star" cast.  Brian McKay, eFilmCritic.com
"An all-star blockbuster!  Halliwell's Film Guide
"Recreates in stunning detail one of the most disastrous battles of World War II.  Hollywood Reporter
"...may well be the definitive World War II movie.  Judith Crist, Saturday Review
"A meticulous recreation of one of the most disastrous battles of WWII...  VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever

Editor's Note Richard Attenborough's ambitious, all-star adaptation (by William Goldman) of Cornelius Ryan's book, gives an account of the Battle of Arnhem. In 1944, the Allied powers attempt to expedite the end of the war with a costly operation to capture six bridges connecting Holland to Germany ended in Allied defeat. A multitude of notables star in Attenborough's epic.

	Anthony Hopkins
	Elliott Gould
	Gene Hackman
	James Caan
	Laurence Olivier
	Michael Caine
	Robert Redford
	Sean Connery
	Antony Gibbs - Editor
	Cornelius Ryan - Based On Novel By
	Geoffrey Unsworth - Cinematographer
	John Addison - Original Music By
	Joseph E. Levine, et. al. - Producer
	Richard Attenborough - Director
	Stuart Craig, et. al. - Art Director
	Terence Marsh - Production Designer
	William Goldman - Screenplay

Director Richard Attenborough's ambitious, all-star, adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's book, dealing with the true account of the Battle of Arnhem. In 1944, the Allied powers attempted to expedite the end of the war by planning an ambitious and costly operation (the capturing of six bridges connecting Holland to Germany) that ended up getting bungled by both the Allied and Axis powers. Total Film
"...The last cast-of-thousands, star-studded war movie ever made, Attenborough's three-hour epic deserves repeated viewing..." -- 4 Stars 06/01/2000 p.102

New York Times
"...Certainly equal to Darryl F. Zanuck's THE LONGEST DAY....One watches it not so much in admiration as in awe..." 06/16/1977 p.C20

Variety 9 of 10
Futility and frustration are the overriding emotional elements in A Bridge Too Far, Joseph E. Levine's sprawling Second World War production [from the novel by Cornelius Ryan] about a 1944 military operation botched by both Allied and German troops...Film opens with some vintage black and white newsreel footage in original frame ratio, setting up the falls. 1944, attempt to expedite the end of the Second World War by an enormous paratroop operation involving a series of bridges leading to Germany. The first part of the film introduces senior officers Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins and Edward Fox as the plans are outlined...Later, as operations begin, periodic appearances are made by cocky Robert Redford, wise-cracking Elliott Gould, stolid Ryan O'Neal and James Caan. On the other side of hostilities, Hardy Kruger, Maximilian Schell and Wolfgang Priess represent different levels of German military thinking about, and reaction to, the offbeat Allied strategy. In the middle Laurence Olivier and Liv Ullmann are two Dutch residents who attend to the wounded.

FilmCritic.com 6 of 10
There are star-studded projects, and then there's A Bridge Too Far, a World War II movie the likes of which would cost upwards of $300 million to make today. There are lots of bridges in the film, actually: The Allies aim to capture a series of them in German-occupied Holland as part of Operation Market-Garden, a byzantine plot that would theoretically cripple the German war machine in western Europe, where Germany is already on the run. However, Allied mistakes and an unexpected amount of German firepower nip the plan in the bud. The film is more a showcase for some searing acting -- and at three hours long, there's plenty of it -- than it is a classic war film. The battle scenes just don't come across as impressively as in other films of the era -- the fact that VW Beetles with plastic tank shells on them were used in lieu of some of the Panzers is just one sign that all the budget went to that exhaustive cast list. - Christopher Null