Fantastic

Rating: 9/10 (22 May 2004)

A Bridge Too Far was a fantastic effort by Richard Attenborough to display the difficulties in running a complex military operation, and what happens when things don't go as planned. Operation: Market Garden was a definite Allied defeat, and is accurately portrayed as such in the movie. The movie has what is quite possibly the single greatest cast ever assembled. With names like Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford, and Gene Hackman, among others, A Bridge Too Far was able to accomplish the goal of making a movie displaying the aspects we normally don't get to see in the genre of War films, World War 2 films in particular. No dramatic rescues or love stories added here. Though it has a few historical inaccuracies, the movie's quality does not suffer from it. The one downfall, as cited in an earlier review, is the situational confusion that ends up confusing the viewer. It is nigh impossible to be certain where characters are at any given time during the film. That aside, A Bridge Too Far brilliantly brings to light a rarely illustrated element of war, defeat, and is excellent in doing so.