A Bridge Too Far

A Bridge Too Far is a big movie. Every male movie star of the second half of the 20^th century has at least a cameo. Redford. Olivier. Caan. Gould. Caine. Hackman. O’Neal. The talent is everywhere. Richard Attenborough directs. And oh my the money they must have spent to film this thing. The parachute drops. The gliders. The tanks. The destruction of Arnhem. However much money they spent, it is ALL on screen. And unlike so many big budget, big movies (nearly 3 hours before that was a thing), this one clicks on every level. It’s a sweeping, cinematic re-creation of one of the greatest military battle histories ever written (Cornelius Ryan’s book of the same name). You will thrill to John Addison’s score as XXX Corps crosses their first river at Eindhoven and even more when they roll across Nijmegen bridge. You will count rosary beads with Robert Redford rowing, unprotected across the Waal river. And you will writhe in frustration as the British 1st Airborne is slowly chewed up in the brutal battle for Arnhem. No gratuitous blood. No limbs flying into your face. But a wonderful, sweeping, heartfelt and bittersweet evocation of a great and ultimately unsuccessful battle and the men who fought it. (Amazon)