Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1419 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-05-24
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: Dutch, English, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 168 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
1977's A Bridge Too Far by director Richard Attenborough features an all-star cast in an epic rendering of a daring but ultimately disastrous raid behind enemy lines in Holland during the Second World War. A lengthy and exhaustive look at the mechanics of warfare and the price and futility of war, the film is almost too large for its aims but manages to be both picaresque and affecting, particularly in the performance of James Caan. The impressive cast includes Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery and Liv Ullmann among others. While not a classic war film, it nevertheless manages to be a consistently interesting and exciting adventure. --Robert Lane

Special Features

• A Bridge Too Far: Heroes From The Sky documentary
  
• A Distant Battle: Memories of Operation Market Garden feature
  
• Richard Attenborough: A Filmmaker Remembers feature
  
• Audio commentary with screenwriter William Goldman
  
• Trivia track
  
• Photo gallery
  
• Original theatrical trailer

DVD Technical Information:

• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 (French, English)
  
• Running Time: 168 mins
  
• Region Code: 2
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
  
• Subtitles: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, English for the hearing impaired, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish

Synopsis
Richard Attenborough's ambitious, all-star adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's book, scripted by William Goldman, gives an account of the Battle of Arnhem during 1944, part of an Allied attempt to expedite the end of the war with a costly operation to capture six bridges connecting Holland to Germany. A multitude of notable actors--such as Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Olivier, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Robert Redford, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Edward Fox, James Caan, Elliott Gould, and many more--star in this military epic.

Customer Reviews

Sweeping, flawed epic, but worth a viewing
This is almost a classic war movie, with A Cecil B DeMille "cast of thousands", including a multiplicity of stars as noted by other reviewers. At the time of release (1977), it was critiqued as "an hour too long" by some reviewers, which is too harsh a verdict for such a detailed overview of one of the much-analysed battles of World War 2.

The film has both narrative and action which capture the viewer and character performances which are finally toned, remembering that many of the key participants were still alive at the time of release. The battle scenes are well done, albeit with very obvious use of 1970s artillery pieces and tanks in certain scenes.

The major flaw in the movie is its obligation to the 1970s Zeitgeist of the "all war is evil" movement. In the film, war is effectively presented as an evil unto itself, with neither side any better morally than the other. A monstrous untruth in the context of 1944 Europe and equally false at the time of release, as the West was to find out in 1979 when the Soviet Union attempted to annex Afghanistan, prompting today's conflicts in that area.

A new style of WW2 film (in 1977)
Tremendously influential WW2 movie. Shows the failure of a mission too dangerous from the outset, and the tragic unfolding of events as they happened. These were elite allied troops being used, rather too cheaply, the film loudly suggests. Lightly armed assault troops completely ill equiped for the job of facing the feared Panza Corp and enemy machine gun nests aplenty, were being asked to hurl themselves at their heavily armoured foes in a way that conjured up the suicidal missions of WW1 or even the charge of the Light Brigade. The blame is very squarely (and probably quite rightly) laid on the British top brass, yet again, but yet again it was all rather too late to have any effect, you have to feel. It has anger in its tone, and this was a departure from the norm in WW2 movies, which had for far too long been largely non judgmental glorifications of justified violence.

Its big success at the box office, and with the critics, definitely helped sew the seeds for the large clutch of even angrier American made Vietnam war movies that followed soon after. The use of big name actors has pluses and minuses, as far as I'm concerned, but at least it helped to sell the picture. It all heralded a welcome change of tone in war movies, making most that have followed, either anti-war movies in sentiment, or war movies made with alot more focus on the pain, suffering, sacrifice, and general mayhem of war in the action scenes. This wasn't new in war movies per se, but in the ever popular WW2 movie market, I think it was the first time it had been used without watering down the action element. The result was a film to please both action film lovers and historians (not to mention survivors of the campaign).

Operation Market Garden at its best!
This star-studded film is a must see film for those interested in World War II. This is one of the '70s big budget war films, which covers Operation market garden. Field-Marshall Montgomery's plan that took place September 1944. The Allies attempt to break out of the deadlock in France, and thereby dramatically shorten the winning of the Second World War. Operation Market-Garden was the largest daylight airborne raid of all time. They tried to capture several bridges in the Netherlands and by capturing and holding them, provide the Allies with a direct road into the German heartland. Of course this film shows how the term "Military Intelligence" is an Oxymoron. Recon showed that there was armor in the area and the strength of German forces in the area was in actuality much larger than expected. The British General's with their own agenda's (beating Patton to Berlin) ignored all warnings. It stars Sean Connery, Dirk Bogarde, Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, and Anthony Hopkins.