A Bridge Too Far

 

          

            Well, it's like this I'm still going on a massive quest in becoming the ultimate cinema fan, kind of like spending majority of my time on Dungeons and Dragons. For which I've done a fairly good job in watching a ton of Kubrick's movies as well as some Japanese films and Samurai movies. Though I haven't necessarily found the ultimate hidden treasures and with the help from my brother by providing me with a list of films to watch, I now can begin my quest of watching the right movies to watch as well as enjoying more appreciative films. Starting with a World War II movie that to me is most certainly in the top five best World War II movies ever made.

            Late in 1944, the Allies seem to have the upper hand in the European land war. A combined British and American paratrooper force, led by American General Gavin (Ryan O’Neal) and British General Urquhart (Sean Connery), plans to take a highway leading from the Netherlands into Germany, so that the British ground troops led by Lieutenant General Horrocks (Edward Fox) and Lieutenant Colonel Vandeleur (Michael Caine) can enter enemy territory. But the Allies soon learn that they may be overconfident. 

            In one of the rare few times in life, I'm glad to have forgotten a lot of my history lessons in High School, and watching something like this, where you’re on the edge of your seat as well as watching the Allies trying to conquer Germany but then turns of events hit and your like, "Really?" Now, I'm going to stop right there for the sake of the review just because I don't want to spoil any details about this great movie, A Bridge Too Far is a World War II movie based on the events of an Operation gone wrong (Operation Market Garden), almost like the events of Dunkirk in fact I'm told from listening to a book by William Goldman that these two events, England actually celebrate which is weird but I guess in a fair sense we celebrate the Great Depression at times? Although the States are always in debt so, they were secretly celebrating the Great depression. If you were raised with The Princess Bride, than you need to thank the late William Goldman for making your childhood worthwhile, and a surprising factor is that Goldman started off as a Novelist (aka Author), he actually had no interest in wanting to be a screenwriter, and so, he started off writing books as well as short stories and poetry then later when on to do works in the theater in New York furthermore with twists of fate, went on to Hollywood and written some underappreciative classics. Like a ton of Robert Redford's films, but more importantly written the classic novel The Princess Bride as well as helping the late Rob Reiner bring “The Princess Bride” to the big screen. Richard Attenborough is another great example of if you don't know this guy well I will give you the infamous line that ever came from Attenborough's mouth "Welcome, to Jurassic Park" and the surprising factor is that he's directed a ton of movies, as well as winning two Academy Awards for his direction on the film Gandhi in 1983, for which Sir Ben Kingsley won for Best Actor. So, deep down Richard Attenborough has been this almost forgotten filmmaker and after watching this I now need to watch all his movies, well, maybe one at a time you can never trust some of these filmmakers because let's be fair Steven Spielberg lost his mind after 2015. Now, if I had to pick a shot that I found was the best and needs to bring back into filmmaking now, is the entire paratrooper army landing on the Netherlands and Attenborough knew he had only one chance to pull it off and so, to ensure he had the coverage he wanted he used a grand total of 19 cameras rolling during the paratrooper drop and the way he did it is flat out awesome almost the same way Coppola shot the Valkyrie scene in Apocalypse Now. Moreover, the tone of the battle sequences looks so legit especially when you see the battle on the bridge sequences it's almost like you’re transported into the battle itself and either way I love the way it turns out and would stamp in approval, considering this as the best battle sequences in any WWII movie. What's great about this movie is that you even have a huge list of A-list actors in this movie from Sean Connery just six years after is time as James Bond, as well as Academy Award winners Michael Caine and Sir Anthony Hopkins it's almost like an Avengers for British actors ready to destroy the Nazi's. And the same goes with Robert Redford as well as Elliot Gould and to those who've never heard of Elliot Gould, he was one of the main financiers for George Clooney and Brad Pitt on the Ocean's Eleven trilogy back in 2001. But you also got James Caan delivering a great performance in helping a brother in arms, as well as Gene Hackman though he's not playing an American in this movie but also delivers a great performance as well. When you think of World War II movies in general you'd always know that the Allies of course win the war and it's really a matter of how, you as writer or even a filmmaker can give the audience a refresher in terms of how to make a epic war movie new and different, more importantly what story you can tell that we as an audience member don't know about. And with this movie this is a grand and epic battle where the odds tend to shift and your worry for each of these characters in if they become victorious or not, and both Goldman and Attenborough really do a fantastic job in bringing this film to life. Now if you’re looking for an epic War movie, I would highly recommend watching A Bridge Too Far, this was an epic movie with a great ensemble of tremendous actors who don't have a ton of on-screen time but deliver in the best way possible. Now, keep in mind that this film is three hours long so, if you’re having a hard time paying attention to the movie just take constant breaks in between the film. And although I've seen this film on Amazon Prime the film is also on Tubi so, if you have both streaming services then this will be the film for you to watch in January.