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Rating: 6/10 (4 April 2006)

War inherently is a cinematic subject, particularly 20th century warfare. Filmmakers find resonance between the subject and the craft because of the similar constructions: armed forces and plans, which mirror actors and scripts. Explosions, gore and death are expected, so the actual drama usually hinges on leveraging tension, or an ironic outcome.
'Market-Garden' was one of the war's biggest ironies -- an overwhelming invading force that was halted mostly by fate and accidents favoring the last-ditch opposition in the West. So in that sense, the movie 'captures' the irony.
The story itself seems jumpy and disconnected; on the other hand, you could give each day of this 9-day battle its own feature. So squeezing something comprehensible into 3 hours is impressive. This is why the ensemble approach is necessary -- we need recognizable faces to anchor the thing.
Mostly it's a downer...an alien observer would think the Allies lost the war. But it is refreshing today to see actual planes, actual parachutes, and actual hand-held footage -- the actual material of that war and the *filming* of that war -- in contrast to computer generated verisimilitude.