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A Bridge Too Far, a book by Cornelius Ryan published in 1974, tells the story of Operation Market Garden, a failed Allied attempt to break through German lines at Arnhem in the occupied Netherlands during World War II. The name for the book comes from a comment made by British Lt. Gen. Frederick Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Airborne Army, who told Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery before the operation, "I think we may be going a bridge too far."
The film A film version under the same title was released in 1977, directed by Richard Attenborough and featuring an ensemble cast of many film stars, including Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Elliott Gould, Edward Fox, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Kemp, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Liv Ullmann, Maximilian Schell, Hardy Krüger and Ryan O'Neal. The music was scored by John Addison, who was a soldier with the British XXX Corps during Operation Market Garden. The film begins with a description of the state of affairs five years into the war. D-Day had come and gone and the allies were bogged down by difficult supply lines. Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded General Patton (U.S.) and Field Commander Montgomery (U.K.), each of whom had competing plans for ending the war. Under political pressure, Eisenhower chose Montgomery's Operation Market Garden. September, 1944: the allies are advancing but have paused in Belgium. The film opens with a family observing the German withdrawal and celebrating the arrival of the allied forces. A new German Field Marshal arrives at the Nazi HQ and discovers he has few resources in men or equipment and worse, morale is very poor. A local teenage Dutch boy keeps careful notes of German troops evacuating through his town; information he will later pass on to the Belgian resistance. Operation Market Garden: 35,000 men are to be flown 300 miles behind enemy lines in Holland, laying a "carpet of airborne troops" to seize the bridges with "thunderclap surprise" and hold them until they can be taken over by allied ground troops. Arnhem is to be the final bridge, the bridge which turns out to be "too far". Gene Hackman plays the Polish General who says nothing during the Market Garden command briefing, after which he voices his doubt that the plan can work. He is one of two dissident voices that are shuttled aside but correctly forcast defeat. American command worries about parachuting in daylight but note it is a "no moon period" anyway meaning a night drop would be difficult. The Dutch teenager manages to pass through German lines and discover that German Field Marshal Walter Model is at the German command HQ, an important bit of information for the underground because Model is a prominent figure and is always accompanied by crack German troops. A young British intelligence officer asks British command to allow another low level recon mission of the landing zone. Later, learning a German Panzer tank division (Model's unit) is near the drop zone, his concerns are also brushed off and he is actually removed from duty by a British doctor who claims he is too stressed to perform his duties. British commanders planning the drop note they are badly short of landing aircraft and the area near Arnhem is ill-suited for a landing. They will have to land 8 miles from the bridge. Hackman gets his best line when he walks up to check the British officers uniform insignia and says "Just making sure whose side you're on" implying that the plan is so dangerous that it could only have been drafted by the enemy. The Dutch teen is on his bike when he sees the American recon aircraft photographing the Panzer division and sees the tanks himself, hidden in the forest line. British officers briefing: everyone is surprised they are going to attempt a landing 8 miles from the bridge but of course they have to make the best of it, Brits are famous for keeping a "stiff upper lip". British technical support preparing the portable radios for the mission note they are not likely to work for the 8 miles from the drop zone to Arnhem bridge. As with most others questioning the mission, they choose not to rock the boat and do not convey their concerns up the change of command. But the young British intelligence officer does show the British commander the recon pictures and it is quite clear the Panzer division is staged at Arnhem. The British commander speculates the tanks are not operative and dismisses the photos, also ignoring the reports from the Dutch underground which were courtesy of the teenage boy. At the ground forces (Thirty Corp) briefing, the overall plan is outlined, laying out the bridges that will be taken by the paratroopers, held and then secured by ground forces. Speed is the vital factor. Arnhem must be reached within 2-3 days. It is the crucial bridge, the last means of escape for the German forces and the last route to Germany for Allied forces who hope to finish the War by Christmas by virtue of Operation Market Garden. There is only a single highway for the advance. The initial phases of Market Garden go as planned but the German Panzers cause heavy losses for Thirty Corp. The advance is also slowed by the single lane highway. The paratroopers do take and hold Arnhem in some exciting battle scenes, but can only hold so long. Thirty Corp never makes it to Arnhem and the paratroopers are forced to withdraw, Operation Market Garden has failed. The scenes around the 'Arnhem' bridge were actually shot in Deventer, where a similar bridge over the IJssel was still available. The bridge at Arnhem, while still unchanged from 1944, was by the mid-1970s sitting in modern urban surroundings which could not be used to portray a 1940s city. A few scenes were shot in Zutphen, where the old municipality house (a white building which in the film featured the Nazi command center) and the main church can be seen. Taken from DVD packaging: "An epic retelling of World War II's most tragic blunder, A Bridge Too Far meticulously depicts the ambitious plan which resulted in more Allied casualties than the entire Normandy landing. Painstakingly recreated on actual battlefield locations and boasting a remarkable all-star cast, A Bridge Too Far accurately recaptures the monumental scope, excitement and danger behind one of the biggest military gambles in history." The movie's treatment of military history is somewhat misleading compared to the original book; in particular, the reasons for the delay in XXX Corps reaching the Arnhem bridge, which led to the failure of the attack, differ considerably from the book. According to an episode of the Dutch TV history programme Tijden'' (site in Dutch) (English: Different Times) about the making of this movie, the producer Joseph E. Levine told the Deventer town government that their town should get the world premiere for A Bridge Too Far, on June 14 1977. This never came to be, though, and Deventer even missed out on the Dutch premiere, which was held in Amsterdam. Cast and roles include Facts and figures See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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