Death in color..

Rating: 5/10 (5 June 2016)

When the allies dropped four airborne units(one a Polish brigade) into Holland near the end of 1944, only to have one of them defeated by unexpected resistance from German units and cheering crowds of Dutch, nobody took in account that they would make a movie about it some decades later. Perhaps if they had known, then their decisions would have been different, not that war gets to be more or less tolerable either way.
Cornelius Ryan provided the source material for the movie and if you want to try your hand on a book that holds the middle ground between a historical narrative and something readable 'A bridge too far' is certainly recommended. Ryan wrote several more books about the war, the Longest Day being also made into a movie some years prior to this one, but the one about Berlin never got made. Perhaps times had changed or that book was too much about German women raped by dudes from Siberia, I can't tell. We have Der Untergang as a substitute nowadays.
Mentioning the Longest Day reminds me of a question that has plagued me for a while now, which is: how and why did Sean Connery get to be promoted from Corporal in the infantry to Major-General of an airborne unit? This minor question is at the heart of the movie and it never gets explained. You might think I am pulling your leg, but after having seen this movie just now, this question actually is just a subquestion of the bigger one which goes: where are the people in this movie?
The movie plays out like a documentary filled with a fair share of Monthy Python stereo types, but without the intended silliness, and otherwise bland Americans. But maybe I am mistaken about intentions? The movie seems more like a race about who makes the least dumb mistakes and the Germans won, but only by a margin. Or perhaps we can say the Poles and Americans would have won, had they not been on the same team as the British.
This movie is noticeable different from that other Ryan movie where mistakes where made, but John Wayne was there to safe the day. Here no amount of upper lip stiffness, jolly ho hum and cigar gnawing can turn the impending defeat in anything else but one. And the funny bit: the Germans do not even have to lift a finger, just talk among the high brass a bit.For war is the business of high ranking officers who get mentioned in books and movies, the rest fulfill their duties by killing or getting killed.
While the star studded cast executes their moves, the only people who remotely resemble people are the Dutch, but again, only by a margin. The most silly is possibly James Fox who gets this amazing scene in which he drives past the troops under his command Jolly greeting those who are about to die. Dickie old boy, how is the leg? Still twitching, sir. Brave lad! Next scene sees Dickie's tank being brewed by a German 75 mm Pak, despite 25 pounders bombarding their position. Which makes one wonder why them Germans are only bombarded by airplanes after they shot to pieces the advance squad or why the English didn't use something heavier. But I am no general.
Some scenes later it is the Brits turn again to do something dumb by executing a frontal attack on a pillbox under the cover of broad daylight. Let's try that at night next time Hannibal Lector says. That is called learning on the job, for you. Pity it took some dead soldiers to learn that lesson, but I am sure he is used to dead bodies. The Germans some scenes later outdo the Brits by sending an armored recon unit across the enemy held side of the bridge which results in amazing carnage that has inspired painters. There is nothing so gripping as burning wrecks and dead bodies to inspire artists.
By this time one wonders what kind of movie this is supposed to be? If someone said it is an anti- war movie, than I might believe them forthwith. But we will never find out I suppose and the only thing one can say is that compared to that earlier Ryan movie it has far less people in it, but then, this one is in color, so who is complaining?