 a bridge too far is a 1977 epic war film based on the 1974 book of the same name by cornelius ryan, adapted by william goldman. it was produced by joseph e. levine and richard p. levine and directed by richard attenborough. the film tells the story of the failure of operation market garden during world war ii, the allied attempt to break through german lines and seize several bridges in the occupied netherlands, including one at arnhem, with the main objective of outflanking german defences in order to end the war by christmas of 1944. the name for the film comes from an unconfirmed comment attributed to british lieutenant-general frederick browning, deputy commander of the first allied airborne army, who told field marshal bernard montgomery, the operation's architect, before the operation: "i think we may be going a bridge too far." the ensemble cast includes dirk bogarde, ryan o'neal, james caan, michael caine, sean connery, edward fox, elliott gould, anthony hopkins, gene hackman, hardy krÃ¼ger, laurence olivier, robert redford, maximilian schell and liv ullmann. the music was scored by john addison, who had served in the british xxx corps during market garden. ==plot== ===introduction and planning=== the film begins with a montage of archival film footage narrated by a dutch w
1970s_action_films 1977_films American_epic_films American_films American_independent_films American_war_films British_epic_films British_films British_independent_films British_war_films English-language_films Films_directed_by_Richard_Attenborough Films_set_in_1944 Films_set_in_the_Netherlands Operation_Market_Garden Screenplays_by_William_Goldman United_Artists_films War_epic_films Western_Front_of_World_War_II_films World_War_II_films World_War_II_films_based_on_actual_events