Star-studded and a bit overlong...but still well done.

Rating: 7/10 (18 June 2016)

"A Bridge Too Far" reminds me of one of those Irwin Allen mega-epics of the 1970s. Like "The Towering Inferno" or "Earthquake", "A Bridge Too Far" is jam-packed full of celebrities and celebrity cameos...something that usually does not work very well. Similar films, such as "Midway", seemed to spend ALL the budget on stars and there was little left for anything else...such as a decent script or the limited and appropriate use of stock footage. So is this another overblown epic or is it worth seeing? After all, 90% of the budget must have been to pay these stars! Fortunately, while I was not in love with the film, I didn't hate it...and that makes it a whole lot better than the movies I just mentioned (particularly "Midway"...what a terrible film).
The film is a very long (too long if you ask me) recreation of Operation Market Garden, a failed attempt by Allied troops to dislodge the Germans and take bridges in Holland. Again and again, you see troops being tossed into various fronts...with mostly expected results since you know ultimately the Germans won this battle and pushed off the offensive. It's competently made and the director used some creativity to make the battles seem more realistic (such as the use of fake Sherman tanks...as discussed in the IMDb trivia). My only reservations are the film's length, the odd casting of Gene Hackman (what WAS his accent?!) and the way the film seems to go out of its way to portray General Browning as a complete horse's butt...and I am not sure if this is reasonable or not. According to at least some folks, the General wasn't actually incompetent.