Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
The story of Operation Market Garden—a failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of WWII to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in Holland allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.
A Bridge Too Far is an ambitious, sprawling ensemble war epic that benefits enormously from its all-star cast — Connery, Caine, Hackman, Hopkins, Redford and more all deliver committed performances that elevate the material. The plot faithfully recreates Operation Market Garden with admirable scope but suffers from the episodic fragmentation inherent in juggling so many storylines, leaving emotional investment thinly spread. Cinematography is competent and occasionally striking in its battle sequences but rarely transcends the functional. Novelty is moderate — the film distinguished itself at the time for its frankly defeatist, anti-heroic depiction of an Allied blunder, which was genuinely uncommon for the genre, but it otherwise follows the prestige war-epic template. The ending, by nature of historical fact, lands with a sobering and effective note of futile sacrifice, though the sheer length of the film dulls its impact somewhat.