This film forgotten by many remains one of the best of its kind even after 47 years

Despite a great cast, few people think of this title when talking about films like this

Image Credit: United Artists

The history of cinema is full of great films of every genre. There are masterpieces in comedy, drama, sci-fi, fantasy, and so on. Even war films, and war movies, have their own pantheon of great titles that goes from Apocalypse Now to the most recent Dunkirk, passing through Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, and many others, but there is one title in particular that is often forgotten when talking about films of this genre. For example: in the Variety ranking dedicated to the 50 best war films, it is not even mentioned, and yet 47 years later it is still one of the titles that have best been able to tell the Second World War. 

We are talking about A Bridge Too Far, a 1977 film directed by Richard Attenborough and written by William Goldman. Based on the historical essay of the same name by Cornelius Ryan, it is set in the Netherlands in September 1944. It reconstructs the phases of Operation Market Garden, with which the Allies attempted to conquer and control five bridges, one after the other. At the last bridge that gives the film its title, near Arnhem on the Rhine, Montgomery's troops found themselves blocked by a German battleship, which led to the failure of the plan.

Reading the names involved today gives you goosebumps: Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford... the absolute elite of cinema of those years, basically. However, A Bridge Too Far was received lukewarmly by critics, because it was considered too long. It still won 4 BAFTA awards out of eight nominations, but today few remember it.

That Last Bridge – of which you can see the trailer HERE – has several merits: it manages to capture the brutality of war and the harsh reality, especially by cynically showing that behind every victory there are numerous losses. The tension is palpable, the scenography that of the great occasions, but despite all this and an absolute level cast it has not managed to survive the test of time. Have you seen it? Will you give it a chance? If you are a fan of war films, it is a title that cannot be missing from your collection.