A Major Production

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2019)

As a production this was a tremendous affair. The setting, the props, the special effects, the pyrotechnics were all grand. And the cast can hardly be rivaled: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence Olivier, Ryan O'Neal, James Caan, Robert Redford, and Gene Hackman. That was an all-star cast.
That leaves the story and the script. They were on par with every other part of the production. The plan formulated for the Allied forces was as grand as the movie itself. It was called Operation Market Garden. The plan was to drop 35,000 paratroopers behind enemy lines, take control of several bridges in Holland, and have ground troops fight to join up with the airmen in Arnhem, Holland. It was big, bold, and risky and you had to doubt the sanity of the general who was pushing it. Was it his ego or his desire to win that made him force through a plan with too many omens to ignore.