Terrific score, okay movie, lousy plan

Rating: 6/10 (13 September 2003)

It is a film that might have benefited from a Jayson Blair rewrite: Just as Anthony Hopkins as Colonel Frost and his Red Devils are about to collapse against the might of two SS armored divisions, suddenly a rumble sounds across the Arnhem Bridge as the tanks of XXX Corps dash through. Out of the turret of the lead Sherman pops Tom Hanks as Capt. Miller, asking if Frostie needs a hand with these pesky Krauts.
Of course, that's not how "A Bridge Too Far" ends, and it's that historical accuracy that cost the film at the box office, that and "Star Wars." It's a film that hangs around in the public consciousness mostly because of its metaphorical title, and as the curtain-dropper for the argument whether Montgomery or Patton was the better commander. But its downbeat nature, and sometimes scattershot narrative, keeps one from embracing it too closely.
That said, its one of the best war movies ever made for about an hour or so. Then the paratroops start to fight for the bridges and the fog of war slips in. Where is XXX Corps? Why is 1st Airbourne split apart? Is James Caan with the 101st or 82nd? What was the real story with the bridge at Nijmegen? These are individually small caveats, but they mount up.
Sir Richard Attenborough is often an annoyingly pedantic director, but he's great here despite overselling the Colonel Blimp angle with the British high command. The opening scene, with the Dutch family quivering under a candlelit nimbus straight out of Vermeer as the news of German retreat fills them with an almost unbelieving hope, is sublime setup for all to follow, and the battle scenes around Arnhem have a realness to them that's both painful and rousing.
The acting is hit and miss. The Brits have it decidedly better, with a store of great performances. I started out liking Edward Fox best as the plummy and affable General Horrocks, sort of a UK Patton without the killgore attitude. Then I took to Dirk Bogarde's General Browning, who is made the heavy probably because Monty was still alive when the film was being filmed, but carries a real human pathos beneath the smug bluster. Now I really like Hopkins' Frost, especially that wordless scene near the end when Maximillian Schell offers him a chocolate. A masterpiece of underacting from Hannibal the Cannibal, but he's that good all the way through.
Who isn't so good is Hackman as the Polish general (strange he is made such a whiner in the script), Olivier's tentative Dutch doctor, and especially Liv Ullmann. Her prayer for the soldiers to have a few moments to die in peace comes across as icky and false, as does her near-tears delivery throughout. Ryan O'Neal seems the first general made entirely of wood, and is outshone by the no-name playing the other U.S. airborne commander.
The second half of the film, drenched in blood and chaos, falls beneath the standard set at the beginning probably because it rubs our nose too much in all that went wrong. Historical accuracy without nimble storytelling can be off-putting, as is the case here. It's never a bad movie, and the river crossing at Nijmegen is crisp and intense, but like the Allied advance itself, ABTF kind of pulls up short without an adequate reason why.
Incredible score, though. That was something I used to hum in my head for days after seeing it in my youth, and it really carries across the sense of joyous expectation that informed the Allies at the mission's outset. Pay attention to how its cleverly reconfigured during the drop and the Bailey Bridge building; it tells the story as well as anything on the screen.