Great cast: Sean Connery, Ryan O'Neal, Gene Hackman, Michael Byrne, Dirk Bogarde, Edward Fox, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, (as mentioned James Caan), Colin Farrell (must have missed him), Maximilian Schell, Liv Ullman, Laurence Olivier, Elliott Gould, Robert Redford, Denholm Elliott (Raiders of the lost Ark), and lots more recognized but their names escape me. Even the postman from Cheers.

No cgi. No drone shots.

Film Review: A Bridge Too Far 1-1-18

eleven C-47 aircraft and dropped 1000 parachutists, including paratroopers from the British and Dutch armies.

James Caan's 1911 scene must not be missed. Also Robert Redford's row across the river.

Re-watched it a couple of nights ago. Lot of big names, had fun spotting them all.

One of the poorly made war movies, imo, despite all the big names.

the scene with Redford and crew paddling across the river... I listened to an interview on SC public radio a few years ago of an older man who was in WWII... Redford was playing him... he was a 2nd lt and turned 21 that day... he said by the time they got across he was an old man...

the few (something like 20 of them) that made it across then headed up that side of the river to take out the defense of a bridge they came across a barn with 30 German soldiers sleeping in it. the reporter interviewing the man then asked him what they did.. .his answer was simple... they killed them all.

Earlier in the interview he explained about his company landing on a beach in Italy.... 120 men hit the beach... 30 seconds later there were 15 of them left.......

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Re-watched it a couple of nights ago. Lot of big names, had fun spotting them all.

The Longest Day did the same thing in 1962 with stars (and soon to be stars). That trick only works once.

Elliott Gould was particularly bad in ABTF.

I watched this not long ago on Amazon Prime. Haven't seen it in years, still a great war flick. One of the best about WWII. Lots of great actors in this one.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
the scene with Redford and crew paddling across the river... I listened to an interview on SC public radio a few years ago of an older man who was in WWII... Redford was playing him... he was a 2nd lt and turned 21 that day... he said by the time they got across he was an old man...

Redford played the real-life Julian Cook, commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 82nd Airborne.

Cook was 27 and a Major at the time of Operation Market Garden. His birthday was also in October, a couple weeks after Market Garden had ended.

The interview may have been with one of Cook's subordinate officers, who embellished the story by stating that Redford played him (instead of Cook). However, this part was also embellished too:

quote:

Earlier in the interview he explained about his company landing on a beach in Italy.... 120 men hit the beach... 30 seconds later there were 15 of them left.......

While the 504th PIR did participate in one beach assault in Italy, these landings were essentially unopposed (initially). The 504th was assigned to the invasion at Anzio, and were originally set for an airborne drop. However, after the problems encountered during the airborne assaults in Sicily, the 504th was reassigned to an amphibious landing by landing craft.

They and the other Allied forces landed with basically no opposition, and made a rapid initial advance. This was a result of the Germans having concentrated their forces well to the south of Anzio, leaving the nine-mile stretch of Anzio beach defended by only a single company, most of whom surrendered rapidly when faced with the might of tens of thousands of Allied landing forces.

Of the 36,000 Allied soldiers landed at Anzio on the first day of the landings, there were only 13 killed and 97 wounded. (Not 105 men from a single company wiped out in the first 30 seconds on the beach...)

But the 504th and other Allied forces eventually bogged down when the Germans corrected and heavily reinforced their defense around the Allied foothold in the days following, resulting in a a lengthy and costly stalemate around the Anzio beachhead.


Sounds like this guy was telling tall tales. (Or you misremembered that radio show.)

quote:

Originally posted by Blackmore:

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Re-watched it a couple of nights ago. Lot of big names, had fun spotting them all.

The Longest Day did the same thing in 1962 with stars (and soon to be stars). That trick only works once.

Elliott Gould was particularly bad in ABTF.

I agree. Sean Connery was fine, so was Anthony Hopkins. But there was no need for Robert Redford, Elliot Gould, and Ryan O'Neal.

Cliff Klaven, er...John Ratzenberger? Sure.

I saw it in the theater in 1977. I can tell you A Bridge Too Far was in theaters at the same time as The Deep because I and two of my friends saw both films on the same day. It was summertime and hot as Hell and we planned to spend the better part of the day in dark movie theaters. There was only one multiplex in my town at that time and these films weren't playing there, so we went to two separate theaters on the same day. I'd never done that before and haven't done it since, so it was quite memorable, especially since both films were highly entertaining. We saw A Bridge Too Far first and then The Deep.

Oooh, Jaqueline Bissett in a wet T shirt. I think I became a man that day.

Every time I watch it. The sound and film get off track near the end of the film. Disconcerting to see the actors mouth moving for a second or two and then hear the words

ABTF is one of my favorites from childhood. There was, indeed, some heavy-duty star-power in that one.

I actually have the theme music to the movie on my iPhone (performed by a Royal Marine band).

seeing that was one of the crucial experiences of my youth that instilled in me the dream to become a paratrooper when I grew up

serving in the 82nd ABN was inspirational in the sense that the units had a lot of combat lineage from WW2 and it was part of our everyday esprit de corps

the jump footage from the movie is well-done

participating in mass tactical drops years later was quite fulfilling if only in training

General Jim Gavin was a fine American

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Gavin

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I was living in Belgium when it came out. Enjoyed the movie very much.

In later years, used to watch it and then load a Microsoft game that pretty much had the same scenarios. Can't recall its name correctly but it was some company that MS bought and then ruined, as usual.

0-0

Slight thread drift, but totally related to Operation Market Garden.

When I returned from Viet Nam in 1967, I was assigned to the Recon Platoon of a Tank Battalion in the 2nd Armored Division. There were only 4 of us in the Recon Platoon as the Battalion was starting to reorganize coming out of Administrative Storage (in caretaker status). Our Platoon started staffing up with troops straight out of Scout training and it was our job to begin Small Unit Training with the new guys. One of the new guys was actually an OLD E-4 (Spec 4). His first name was Ivan (leaving out his last name) and we called him Pops (he was older than all of us).

As our training was coming to a close and the "new" guys were ready to ship to units heading to Viet Nam, we had our Annual General Inspection. On the day of our In Ranks Inspection, we were all lined up nice and pretty in our freshly starched Khaki uniforms. The Division Commander was doing his walk through of each platoon when he came to a screeching halt in front of Pop. "Soldier, why are you wearing two stars in your jump wings?" Sir, I jumped with the 82nd Airborne in Sicily and Holland during World War Two. The freaking General about passed out.

True Story. Ivan was in Operation Market Garden. And, he got shipped off to Viet Nam in one of the Infantry Battalions in the 2nd Armored Division.

Sorry for the long thread drift. I've been waiting for years to tell this story here.

quote:

Originally posted by 0-0:
In later years, used to watch it and then load a Microsoft game that pretty much had the same scenarios. Can't recall its name correctly but it was some company that MS bought and then ruined, as usual.

I played the hell out of the Close Combat games back in the day.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Slight thread drift, but totally related to Operation Market Garden.

When I returned from Viet Nam in 1967, I was assigned to the Recon Platoon of a Tank Battalion in the 2nd Armored Division. There were only 4 of us in the Recon Platoon as the Battalion was starting to reorganize coming out of Administrative Storage (in caretaker status). Our Platoon started staffing up with troops straight out of Scout training and it was our job to begin Small Unit Training with the new guys. One of the new guys was actually an OLD E-4 (Spec 4). His first name was Ivan (leaving out his last name) and we called him Pops (he was older than all of us).

As our training was coming to a close and the "new" guys were ready to ship to units heading to Viet Nam, we had our Annual General Inspection. On the day of our In Ranks Inspection, we were all lined up nice and pretty in our freshly starched Khaki uniforms. The Division Commander was doing his walk through of each platoon when he came to a screeching halt in front of Pop. "Soldier, why are you wearing two stars in your jump wings?" Sir, I jumped with the 82nd Airborne in Sicily and Holland during World War Two. The freaking General about passed out.

True Story. Ivan was in Operation Market Garden. And, he got shipped off to Viet Nam in one of the Infantry Battalions in the 2nd Armored Division.

Great story.

That is a great story.

Hackman's "accent", horrible.
Love the movie, watch it at least once a year.

Years ago I had a friend watch it and while he liked it, he said "but it was kind of pointless". When I explained to him yeah it was, especially since it was a true story, he took it in a new light.

I can remember giving my dad the book for fathers day when it had just come out. (either my mother bought it, or my father bought it and gave it to my mother for me to give to him for fathers day)

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
Hackman's "accent", horrible.
Love the movie, watch it at least once a year.

Years ago I had a friend watch it and while he liked it, he said "but it was kind of pointless". When I explained to him yeah it was, especially since it was a true story, he took it in a new light.

I can remember giving my dad the book for fathers day when it had just come out. (either my mother bought it, or my father bought it and gave it to my mother for me to give to him for fathers day)

General Robert Elliott "Roy" Urquhart who Sean Connery Plays in the movie was a "Leg".