Under-appreciated Movie

Rating: 8/10 (12 September 2006)

"A Bridge Too Far" is a very fine film record of a spectacular Allied gamble and failure which was calculated to end World War II much earlier than it did end. Sadly, it failed, and the Soviets were the first into Berlin, setting the stage for the Cold War. As a film, it has a fine international cast, too numerous to mention. One thing that stands out is how much better the British stars (Michael Caine, Sean Connery, James Fox especially) are than the Americans (Elliott Gould and Ryan O"Neal especially). The movie sets the stage for the tragedy to come by intercutting the British, American, German military planning and deployments with scenes of Belgian civilians, both passive and resistance. The air and ground assaults are masterfully presented, as are the desperate battles in and around Arnhem to hold on in the Allied case, or to dislodge and capture the paratroopers on the German side. A good film in the tradition of "The Longest Day".