A Bridge Too Far

War, Action

Dirk Bogarde	Lt. Gen. Frederick Browning
James Caan	SSgt. Eddie Dohun
Michael Caine	Lt. Col. J.O.E. Vandeleur
Sean Connery	Maj. Gen. Roy Urquhart
Edward Fox	Lt. Gen. Brian Horrocks
Elliott Gould	Col. Robert Stout
Gene Hackman	Maj. Gen. Stanislaw Sosabowski
Anthony Hopkins	Lt. Col. John Frost
Ryan O'Neal	Brig. Gen. James Gavin
Hardy Krüger	Maj. Gen. Ludwig
Denholm Elliott
Laurence Olivier
Maximillian Schell
Liv Ullmann

Director	Richard Attenborough
Producer	John Palmer; Joseph E. Levine; Richard P. Levine
Writer	William Goldman; Cornelius Ryan
Cinematography	Geoffrey Unsworth
Musician	John Addison

The film depicts the events surrounding the most ambitious airborne operation (Operation Market Garden) in history. 35,000 paratroopers are to take three key bridges that will allow the following armor units of the Allied Forces to make a quick run into Germany. This would hopefully end the war. This is a joint operation between the British and American armies, but lead by Field Marshal Montgomery. The final bridge to be taken is at Arnhem, which turned out to be the "bridge too far". Poor planning and disregard of intelligence information lead to the downfall of the operation. At first successful, the attack towards Arnhem gets bogged down by counterattacks by undiscovered German Tank Divisions, who slow the advance along a single lane road, and cut the road many times. The British Paratroops with a contingent of Poles are to take the bridge at Arnhem, but are landed 8 miles away and only a small percentage manage to get to the town and take the bridge. Most of the film shows the heroism of the paratroopers fighting against tanks, but steel is stronger than human flesh, and the British are forced to withdraw and the operation fails.