Part 2 - A Bridge Too Far (1977) First Time Reaction & Review
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- čas přidán 8. 07. 2024
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First time reaction and brief review of the movie "A Bridge Too Far". Future Reaction Polls + Early Access + Exclusive Content. Available on Patreon: / alexachipman
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:14 Reaction
19:17 Review
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#firsttimereaction #firsttimewatching #moviereaction #wwii - Zábava
5 members of the cast served during the war. Notably Dirk Bogard (General Browning) - He served with the Second British Army as an air photographic interpreter - He may have selected targets for some of the bombing runs depicted in this film. Paul Maxwell (US General Maxwell Talor) & Arthur Hill (the US Doctor) were both in the Canadian milittary. Hardy Kruger was drafted in the SS at age 16. He played SS General Ludwig. The director Richard Attenborough was in the RAF film unit. He went on several bombing missions over Germany to film them.
And Dickie Attenborough was, explicitly, making an _anti-war_ film. Those who have experienced it, never want it to happen again.
The Dutch still remember this as Arhem day.
Their is or was a march every year - done it twice in military/ police uniform - the Dutch out in force feeding and giving us drinks and flowers.
Even allowed company of youug German soldiers to march as long as they sang British songs - Tipperary etc
Second time as an English police officer in uniform they loved us allowing them to fill our helmets with water and watch them put them back on.
It was, so hot and on the roads no cover from the sun
Ended up with so many flowers - it was, delifuful
Love Dutch ladies ❤😂
the whole bit with the Sargent and the Doctor actually happened
The Arnhem bridge over the Rhine is now called the John Frost Bridge, named after then Lt.Colonel (later Major General) John Frost , played by Anthony Hopkins in this movie.
one inaccuracy in the portrayal is Hopkins running... Frost walked. Normal practice for British officers was NOT to run in such circumstances because it upset the mens morale
One of the great things about this film is that when it was made many of the actual participants in the events were still alive and worked as consultants.
Cameo alert - the Lt. in Robert Redford's boat who gets killed is John Ratzenberger - Cliff Clavin from Cheers. Lt. Rafferty, the M.P. who counts to ten quickly is Garrick Hagon, Biggs in the original Star Wars.
The final scene of the wounded Paras singing in dirge-like despair isn't historical; it serves the theme of the film, but wasn't true to life. The soon-to-be-world-famous-actress Audrey Hepburn lived through the Battle of Arnhem Bridge; her family lived in Arnhem and during the war moved to the next village of Velp, where they spent the battle. In later decades, she dismissed talk of Hollywood and film stardom, but could talk for hours about what she'd seen of war and of the heroism of the Dutch people -- and of the Allied soldiers who twice liberated her hometown. After their defeat, the teenaged girl saw the paratroopers being marched into captivity. They weren't dispirited. On the contrary, they marched with their heads up high, even when the men were badly wounded. The following quote is from Robert Matzen's "Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II" (Pittsburgh: GoodKnight Books, 2019):
"As each day passed, more and more British soldiers could be seen, small and large groups of prisoners, each looking worse than the last. All the young, battle-scorched faces were visible as the defeated paratroopers shuffled through, many wearing red berets, their hobnailed boots clomping along on the sidewalks and cobblestone streets. These young men made a great show of bravado, group by group, as they passed by, as if captivity were a mere inconvenience, as if they knew they were better soldiers than the men guarding them, but this time the fates had not smiled.
The bravado was due in part to a surprising source: their guards. 'It is striking,' wrote Max Hastings, a British historian who studied the history of the SS, 'that when the survivors of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem found themselves in the hands of the SS, they expected to be shot. Instead, they were treated with the respect due heroes." This is likely the only recorded time the infamous Waffen-SS, Hitler's pets, treated an enemy according to the rules of war. Even in abject defeat, the British Paras weren't broken.
Arnhem and Velp were liberated a second time in April 1945 by the Canadian 1st Armored Division. Audrey Hepburn recalled it was the smell of real cigarette smoke that alerted her family, hiding in a cellar from the firefight above, that a new, unrecognized army had arrived and driven out the Germans.
The Robert Redford river assault was much more harrowing in reality, because they went in waves, which meant going back to the other side to pick up more men.
Terrifying!
And in real life they never actually took the Nijmegen road bridge. They got across the river and then inland to the railway viaduct about 1km north of the road bridge at Lent.
It was actually four tanks of the Grenadier Guards, lead by Sgt Peter Robinson who raced across the bridge and took it, around dusk. He then met the 82nd men at Lent. Contrary to the myth there were not lots of tanks and tank men sitting around drinking tea and doing nothing after crossing the bridge. Only five tanks got across the bridge that night (Captain Carrington followed in the 5th tanks a bit later) and two of these were damaged in the fight, and their orders were to take the bridge and prevent the Germans taking in back that night. They couldn't disobey orders and blindly swan off to Arnhem leaving the bridge unprotected.
The film makes it look like they were just sitting there in broad daylight drinking tea.
The British officer with the umbrella, who refused the German surender demand at Arnhem was based on Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter, who fought in the Second World War and was famed for wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella into battle as a means of identification because he had trouble remembering passwords and felt that anyone who saw him with it would think that "only a bloody fool of an Englishman" would carry an umbrella into battle. He disabled a German armoured car with his umbrella, incapacitating the driver by shoving the umbrella through the car's observational slit and poking the driver in the eye. Digby later noticed the chaplain pinned down by enemy fire while trying to cross the street to get to injured soldiers. Digby got to him and said "Don't worry about the bullets, I've got an umbrella". He then escorted the chaplain across the street under his umbrella. When he returned to the front line, one of his fellow officers said about his umbrella that "that thing won't do you any good", to which Digby replied "Oh my goodness Pat, but what if it rains?"
That is amazing!
@@alexachipman He also survived the battle, managed to contact the Dutch resistance, was given a fake ID, and spent a lot of time cycling round under the Germans noses. I'm not sure how long it was, but I believe it was measured in weeks. He spent his time gathering other survivors, plus one or two escaping allied POWs. He eventually re-crossed the Rhine to the allied side with 135 men, after the war he bought a farm in Kenya, and pioneered the idea of photographic safaris. How do I know so much about him? He was born in the small Shropshire village where my sister was postmistress many years later. Kate Ter Horst, who gave up her home for use as a hospital, was forever after known as "The Angel of Arnhem". Many of the troops she helped to nurse would regularly visit her. Sadly she was killed in the 70s by a drunk driver outside her home, but I don't think it was a TAXI. Btw, if you've ever seen Jurassic Park, this film was directed by John Hammond, owner of said park, AKA Sir Richard Attenborough.
The movie was a pet project of veteran producer Joseph Levine who came out of retirement at the age of 77 and produced it with his own money. Once casting Robert Redford who was the #1 star in both domestic and foreign markets he was able to put the movie in the black before shooting started by selling off the foreign rights to the film.
The composer, John Addison, participated in Operation Market Garden. He was in the British XXX Tank Corps.
One of my favourite films. Brilliant film making by the late great Richard Attenborough. And one hell of a cast.
"We regret we can't accommodate your surrender" ;-)
Alexa, your comments are eerily word for word that went through my head when I saw the film first time. YES! It was spectacular on the big screen! May I suggest two more films from my childhood. The Battle of Britain (1969) and The Bridge At Remagen (1969). The BBC documentary World at War narrated by Sir Lawrence Olivier, who is in the film. In the episode of Operation Market Garden. Actual films of German troops shooting at helpless paratroopers in the air were identical to the film. A bloodied school were wounded paratroopers were treated before being evacuated left a message on the chalkboard. “We’ll be back!”
Sorry but I love trivia:
The actor playing the MP at the medical station is Garrick Hagon, still wearing his Biggs Darklighter moustache.
The soldier who brings Sean Connery his cups of tea is played by an actor called Colin Farrell. TAXI for Penguin!
John Addinsell, the composer of all the music for this film, was a member of the British airborne forces at Arnhem bridge. No doubt that was a strong influence on his music, considering the subject of the film.
*John Addison. He was in the 23rd Hussars, an armoured regiment (Stuart and Sherman tanks) and part of 11th Armoured Division that liberated Antwerp on 4 September, and during MARKET GARDEN led the advance of VIII Corps on the right flank of the XXX Corps advance to Arnhem. Not in the Airborne forces at all.
definitely check out
ZULU 1964 introducing Michael Caine in a lead role.
Actually events with real people.
Fun Fact not only were the Zulu actually Zulu but the actor playing the Zulu King is actually his direct descendant!
Nice, that’s an excellent film.
Taxi: John Frost and his battalion holding the north end was the most epic part of the film.
Another great reaction! I've always been fascinated by the Arnhem story (it's more or less the British version of The Alamo, a heroic failure in that the "cavalry" doesn't arrive in time). I've got whole books and lengthy magazine articles on Market Garden. I could, and probably will!, go through the hugely talented cast and behind-the-scenes people, particularly director Richard Attenborough (a "name" director) and his first assistant director David Tomblin who seems to have been the man of the match. Tomblin (who served in the Royal Marines) produced The Prisoner 10 years earlier (Bridge... was shot in 1976 and released in '77) and wrote and directed some episodes, and wrote and directed a few of the far out UFO episodes, eventually moving into films full time. He became one of the most sought-after first assistant directors in movies. The end credits are led by Chief Technical Adviser Kathryn Morgan Ryan: She was the widow of Cornelius Ryan who wrote the book A Bridge Too Far from which Goldman and Attenborough developed the film, a very nice gesture on Attenborough's part, I always thought. I recommend Battle of Britain (film, 1969). Oh, and Taxi! (I think the implication is that it's the British who shot her, not the Germans, as it's preceded by a scowl from the machine gunner at the top of the house when he looks down on her as she's getting ready to go out.). Liv Ullman plays Kate ter Horst who opens her house to the wounded; Ms ter Horst was later labelled "the Angel of Arnhem" for her help and got generous-sized obituaries in the UK press after her death many years later. One more thing - I'm sure this is the only Connery film where he actually says "Mosht shertainly". You mentioned the cinematography; it was by Geoffrey Unsworth who did 2001 10 years earlier and won two Academy Awards in his career (albeit not for 2001 or Bridge...).
Frederick Browning (played by Dirk Bogarde in the film) was married to British author Daphne du Maurier.
After the release of the film A Bridge Too Far, based on a book by Cornelius Ryan, in which her late husband was portrayed in a less than flattering light, Daphn du Maurier was incensed & wrote to the national newspapers, decrying what she considered unforgivable treatment.
@@dukeemzworth3005The real life Roy Urquhart also told her he was very angry at the way Browning was treated.
I've seen this at the cinema on a number of occasions. At the cinema there was an intermission just after the Grave bridge was blown.
The boats they used for the river assault were actually designed for the Baylie bridge operation. They were never intended to be used for a combat assault. It was just all they had.
I did see this movie in the theater back in the day, and like you, was very impressed by its scope and scale. I didn't know anything about Operation Market Garden (Kudos to you, BTW, by identifying it so quickly!) but I was very familiar with Cornelius Ryan's other book, "The Longest Day", and the movie from the 60's. I knew and recognized his vignette style as he built his books around recollections of actual participants by interviewing them extensively. Many of the vignettes stood out so much (Robert Redford's scene, the hats airdrop, etc.) that those were the things I most remembered when I picked up the DVD and rewatched it ~1998-2000. When I first saw it, I kept waiting for the tide to turn somehow; I could not believe that an Allied operation had been that much of a debacle. And then to hear Dirk Bogarde at the end wrap it all up by saying, "As you know, I always thought we tried to go A Bridge Too Far"; wow!, just wow. Brilliant film; the book is highly recommended. Thank you. I don't understand the TAXI thing, but here it is. My best to you.
There are far better modern books. A Bridge Too Far is historically inaccurate in many ways.
Alexa, your reactions line up with mine. The scene when the survivors are singing Abide in Me always chokes me up.
Market-Garden resulted from a combination of an outbreak of the same "Victory Disease" that crippled the Japanese at Midway, and the fact the rapid advance across France had not only stalled the Allied advance due to their having outrun their logistical support, but also led to the cancellation of every pre-planned airborne assault. Denied every opportunity to justify their existance, a sense of desparation afflicted Airborne commanders, and supply problems catalyzed skyrocketing levels of in-fighting between US and UK army commanders about their relative priorities of getting re-supplied. As a result, a general suspension of good judgement throughout the totality of Allied command ensued. The rest is history.
Market Garden was no more of a failure than the Americans campaigns in the Hurtgen Forest, Lorraine, Operation Queen and Alsace.
Makes a good 'story', much like newspaper journalist Cornelius Ryan's book, but it's not history.
In the 1970’s movies like this one , had Sensor Round sound effects in the theater.
When I saw this film in a theater in my home town I was upset on how short it was with all the scenes at the Arnhem bridge missing in the film! The film ended triumphantly with the explosives on the Nijmegen bridge not exploding, Hardy Kruger saying there’s nothing to stop them from reaching Arnhem. The End. WHAT?
It wasn’t until I moved to Canada that I saw the complete film. The theaters in my hometown in the Philippines wanted to make money. The film was too long, so they cut it shorter so they could have more showings per day. It did not have a happy ending, which was bad for word of mouth and repeat business. So they gave it a happy ending with the capture of Nijmegen Bridge. That was a crime. After seeing the complete film, I have the film on VHS, Laser Disc, and DVD. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have to call a TAXI.
Yeah that was a silly moment. In fact by the time British tanks were across the Nijmegen bridge the Germans had already strengthened in Arnhem with Tiger tanks and Stug III assault guns and had an anti tank gun defence at Ressen. XXX Corps got ambushed by this anti tank gun defence when they moved towards Arnhem. The lead British tanks got annihilated and blocked the road.
Random thought-- the moral of the movie is to never carry out a complex campaign in a short period of time. This movie does a nice job of showing it. Afterall "for want of a radio crystal, a proper river assault boat and a bit of rehearsal ....... the campaign was lost". Equally random question- have you ever attended a world war 2 reenactment? I was at one where they had volunteer doctors and nurses from a local hospital recreate a battlefield operation using period equipment. Most interesting.
Many many times; I used to be a WWI reenactor and we often did timelines together with WWII.
At the time this was the most expensive film ever made and it shows in the best ways possible. Fitting that the director Richard Attenborough also played John Hammond in Jurassic park "Spared no expense".
Several of the firearms used for this movie next appeared in Star Wars.
The line about not having the facilities to accept the German's surrender was originally meant for Anthony Hopkins character. However, the man his character was based on Lieutenant Colonel Frost was a technical advisor on the film and refused to let that happen because he didn't want to be seen as embellishing his own heroism.
TAXI
Gene Hackman's Dutch accent is hilarious.
The way he say Germans 😂, but his character is Polish.
He a supposed to be Polish as he the Colonel of the Polish Airborne Brigade
Great reaction. You seemed genuinely taken with it. Im sure it really would look incredible on the big screen, yes. I'd go and watch in on the big screen too despite my many problems with the film.
Michael Caine was in the Korean War. He was really in the shit a couple of times ( see autobiography). Dirk Bogarde ( British Genreal Browning, in charge) was in this battle in WWII. Sir Richard Attenborough was the director.
There is a book on the German side of the battle: It Never Snows in September,
the original soldier made it back with the drop container only to discover it was berets
The last of the big budget pre CGI film🎉. Almost everything was made from scratch, reproduced, fabricated or simulated. All the Amor vehicles were correct. Except for the German Tanks. It was a modern Tank dressed up to look like a period Tank.
There were no gliders for the film. The Producers wanted to construct a few. They found out. That none of the blueprints survived. All they found was one blueprint on microfiche. They used that to produce the gliders you see.
I'll put in for your consideration, Tota Tora Tora, 1970 and The Longest Day, 1962.
Tora, Tora, Tora is an absolute masterpiece!
@@alexachipman Dead right.
My brother, cousin and I watched it in the cinema in 77, until my mother pulled us out. She had not realized the run time.
This is a superb film
I always thought the jaunty music playing through much of the movie was a great counterpoint to the waste and defeat by the end. Great film. Thanks for the reaction.
Brilliant reaction and review, one of your best
A very undervalued WW2 movie, that is rarely ever reacted to. The film came out during the summer of 77 when everything was buried by a little film called Star Wars. The film largely sunk without a trace. It really was one of the last big budget WW2 films, which became passe in the Anti-War, Anti military sentiment of the late 1970s. I too would love to have seen this epic on a Big Screen which the film was clearly designed for.. Maybe Someday.
@stevegauthier9838 It didn't sink without trace; it made money despite its 25 million dollar budget. It's true that it was lazily dismissed by critics and others with glib labels like "confusing"and "a film too long" but it's been rightly reappraised since as a classic. As Alexa says, it's not difficult to follow at all.
It suffered in the United States because its release was during the Summer when Star Wars fans were still lining around the block for the 19th time and also came just two years after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, and American theatre audiences were not interested in seeing another Allied defeat. In the UK, Star Wars didn't open until after Christmas, leaving A Bridge Too Far to be the big Summer hit. I remember seeing it in around August time during the school holidays after borrowing the paperback 'film tie-in' edition from a schoolfriend during the previous school term.
As you were amused by how the British rejected the German offer to surrender, you might enjoy the "German Capitulation" sketch from the British TV series "Smith and Jones". It's on CZcams.
Your story about the backfire reminds me of when I saw the Oliver Stone film Platoon. Platoon is a Vietnam war film. {Spoiler ALERT} It ends with the embattled US troops calling down a naplam bomb attack on their own position as they are being overrun by the Viet Cong. After the end, as we left the theatre, the streets were full of smoke and there was the scent of fire and chemicals in the air. It was quite surreal as it felt like we had been bombed too. It turned out that a hardware store 2 blocks away had burned to the ground while we were watching the film.
Great movie. Amazing ensemble cast. Great score.
An amazing film, released at probably the worst time (June 1977 the Summer of Star Wars). They should have released it a few months later. Everyone was brilliant in it.
So glad I picked you to watch.
A good film. Not my favorite but a good film.
On the Independence Day I finally got around to watching _'Greyhound'_ starring Tom Hanks. I recommend it. Only 90 minutes long.
Thanks for leaving in the commercial for _'U.F.O.,'_ one of the great shows that was ahead of its time.
This movie is why I enlisted. And told them I wanted to be Airborne Infantry.
Turns out the reality of being a soldier is about 10x more suck than is presented here. But I still would not change the experience for anything.
And the $10 is because you are cute. And I'm a sucker for cute girls.
Thank you so much! 💙
The scene where the British officer tells the German soldier he cannot accept his surrender was true but those lines were originally given to Anthony Hopkins who was playing Col. Frost until the real Col. Frost went to screenwriter William Goldman and begged him to not let Hopkins say them because in real life he wasn't the one who said them to the German and he didn't want to dishonor the officer to did say it so the lines were given to the other actor in the scene. After that William Goldman vowed never to make another movie that depicted living people because he didn't want to take a chance on hurting someone the way he almost accidentally hurt Col. Frost.
Dieppe, Dunkirk, Market Garden....ouch
Great Reaction 👍👍👍 Another great Bridge movie is "Bridge At Remagan"
It's always a hard watch despite the exemplary film making (for obvious reasons and historical accuracy). A brave decision by producer Joseph Levine to finance a very downbeat project.
Pretty impressive that you could condense a 176 minute movie into 40 minutes. And Taxi, whatever that's for.
I obsessively watched this one on video as a brat, the all star cast. We've got Lex Luther with a Scottish accent? A future Hannibal Lecter, James Bond trigger happy as ever, & even Jemeriah Johnson (I forget which he was in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid).
the History Buffs channel has a great video on this movie and many others where he covers what they get right historically. for a war movie this is very accurate but not perfect
I hope you don't regardless as a spoiler as I not going to give you names but many of the cast were actually part of of operation Market Garden in fact one of the actors play his own commanding officer effectively giving himself the original orders.. TAXI
I think you may be confusing Arnhem Bridge with Pegasus Bridge. Pegasus Bridge, across the Caen Canal, on the eastern flank of the D-Day beaches, was taken a few minutes after midnight on D-Day, 6th June 1944, by British glider troops (the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the Ox and Bucks). This action was portrayed in the film, "The Longest Day", in which the CO of the Ox and Bucks, Major John Howard, was played by the actor Richard Todd. Lt Richard Todd, in real life, had himself landed by parachute near-by to aid in the defence of the Bridge while they waited to be reinforced by troops with heavy weapons who had come ashore on the beaches. At one point, Lt Todd carried a message to Maj Howard, so they actually met on the day.
I Heard of this Movie but I Never saw it before.
Definitely worth a watch.
Theres a bed upstairs if you want it I took 10,000 men into Arnhem i came out with less the 2,000 i dont feel like sleeping I was 13 when i saw this film the ending scene the reminants of the 1st airborne division singing abide with me touched me like a fire.
TAXI Tacxi Taxie Taxiy Tacksie
Operation Market Garden Monty's Folly
Eisenhower was both the C-in-C of all ground forces and was Supreme Commander. It was Eisenhower's folly.
In truth, it wasn't as big a failure as the Hurtgen Forest, Lorraine and Ardennes.
@@lyndoncmp5751 Eisenhower at least took on board his responsibility for it as Supreme Commander; Montgomery didn't know anything about taking his share of responsibility, either for Market Garden or for the failure to exploit the capture of the port of Antwerp intact by immediately organising the clearing of the Scheldt estuary in early September.
Taxi
I saw this on the wide screen and it was amazing. And you see how the American paratroops and British Armor reacted. Had the armor been American it would have been different.
Market Garden was actually the fastest allied advance against German opposition in the entire September 1944 to February 1945 period. British armour moved 100km in 3 days. This was far more than American armour was moving in the Lorraine and Hurtgen Forest at the same time. How long did Patton take to move 20 km to Metz? Three months?
The American campaigns in the Hurtgen Forest, Lorraine and Alsace and Operation Queen all failed just as Market Garden did and suffered far more casualties. The Lorraine alone was 52,000 battle casualties.
Operation Queen is next to forgotten because it was an American operation. It was a similar operation, to try and get a bridgehead over the Roer River in November. It failed in its objectives.
American forces never got anywhere near the Rhine until late February 1945 and were thrown back into a retreat in the Ardennes before that.
So your post is bizarre. Stop believing Hollywood.
@@lyndoncmp5751 A lot of truth in that, though to be fair the Americans still beat the Germans in the Ardennes battle which contributed greatly to victory overall.
@@chrisgibbings9499 - the Germans ran out of petrol but they had penetrated the US forward combat zone and rear communications zone in the central 5.Panzerarmee sector. They ran out of fuel just as the spearhead of 2.Panzer-Division met the forward outpost line of the British XXX Corps positions that had been hurriedly established on the Meuse.
How would American armor have been different? They were constrained by the fact the Nijmegen bridge was not secured on the first day while it was guarded by just eighteen men. The Patton fans never seem to come back with an answer.
@@chrisgibbings9499They did (with Montgomery's help as he commanded US 1st Army) but suffered nearly 100,000 casualties just to get back to the start lines they were already at 6 weeks before. If that happened to the British we'd never have heard the end of it from American commanders, historians and internet critics today. 😉
This is what happens when one man's vanity cost hundreds of lives, my opinion Patton was a better commander!!
Patton's Lorraine campaign cost 52,000 battle casualties and was a far bigger failure. 3 months trying to take Metz?
@@lyndoncmp5751 That's right. Patton, for all his talent and ability, has had too easy a ride over the years.
@@chrisgibbings9499 The moment Patton actually had to face German opposition he never achieved anything of note.
@@lyndoncmp5751 I'll have to check up on that one.
Patton didn't do any better than Monty when faced with actual German resistance.
They shot the movie at the actual bridges.
Not at Arnhem, they didn't. The Arnhem scenes were shot at another Dutch town called Deventer as they found that the authorities wouldn't shut the Arnhem bridge for the filming needed even for five minutes.