Record breaking war movie. True story about the invasion of Holland, which was bigger in size than D-day in France. Featuring a staggering 14 oscar winners.

Rating: 9/10 (20 June 2018)

Record breaking war movie, in sheer size of the production. Biggest production ever in movie history. "A Bridge Too Far" tells the true story about the invasion of Holland during WW II, which was bigger in size than D-day in France and which caused more casualties.
Greatest cast of movie stars ever ensembled in any movie in the entire seventies, featuring an incredible number of 14 oscar winners: Sean Connery, Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, James Caan, Anthony Hopkins, Dirk Bogarde, Liv Ullman etc. Acting performances are excellent. How could it have been otherwise, with such an unique cast of movie stars from the seventies. Everybody who was famous at the time played in it. Steve McQueen was the only star that refused to take part, because he wanted a bigger paycheck. Since this huge war movie production was already crumbling under a huge financial burden, Steve McQueen's paycheck demands were rejected.
This war movie became the biggest grossing box office hit in Europe, but it didnt do well in America. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, but the film was completely ignored at Oscar time for daring to expose the fatal inadequacies of the Allied campaign.
Almost 3 hours long, but enticing from beginning to end. Never bored me for a minute. On the contrary, even though I have seen this movie dozens of times I still get excited by it. Young people however may find it a bit long drawn at moments, because there arent lots of funny "Star Wars" like explosions every 10 minutes.
Beware: there isnt a happy ending. Director Richard Attenborough made a movie that is enjoyable for the entire family, BUT he also clearly stated that he didnt want to make a movie that glorified the war. The ending of "A Bridge Too Far" is a big downer. You wont feel cheery at the end at all. Therefore lots of people WONT like the ending and downrate this movie on Imdb because of it. The ending (last half hour) is true to life though, because everything is being portrayed as has happened during World War II. War aint fun, but this movie is still very glorious, uplifting and even quite funny at some other moments. Really suspenseful too, even though I already know exactly how everything will play out.
Endnote: there is an excellent additional bonus DVD which features hours of real life war footage from World War II including a short documentary about the making of this biggest war movie of all time. The production of this movie was truly insane. But so is war...