Neither ‘Saving Private Ryan’ nor ‘The Great Escape’: This 3-hour classic war film took 2 years to film and has an all-star cast
Despite its impressive cast and the resources it had, 'A Bridge Too Far' went unnoticed at the Oscars.
When discussing the best films about World War II, the same titles tend to dominate the conversation. Saving Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line if we’re talking contemporary classics, or The Great Escape and The Longest Day if we go further back. Rarely, however, is A Bridge Too Far (1977) brought up — which is surprising, given the way it was filmed and the spectacular cast it assembled.
A Bridge Too Far is based on the book by Cornelius Ryan, an American journalist who specialized in military conflicts. The story focuses on Operation Market Garden, a bold Allied maneuver aimed at capturing key bridges in the Netherlands, which were under Nazi control at the time.
The film was directed by none other than Richard Attenborough — a World War II veteran himself and brother of David Attenborough, one of the greatest nature writers and broadcasters of the 20th century. The production took Richard two years to complete and boasted one of the largest budgets of its era — the highest ever for a war film at the time.
It also featured an all-star cast made up of some of the biggest names in Hollywood: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford, James Caan, Gene Hackman, and Laurence Olivier, among many others. It’s almost absurd how stacked the lineup is.
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At the time of writing, A Bridge Too Far is currently available to stream on Prime Video.
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