
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s installment of A Movie A Day.
[For those now joining us, A Movie A Day was my attempt at filling in gaps in my film knowledge. My DVD collection is thousands strong, many of them films I haven’t seen yet, but picked up as I scoured used DVD stores. Each day I pulled a previously unseen film from my collection or from my DVR and discussed it here. Each movie had some sort of connection to the one before it, be it cast or crew member. This is the last entry, marking 215 films in 7 months]
And now we have finally come to the final entry into A Movie A Day. A BRIDGE TOO FAR marks the 215th film in the column’s history, which lasted 7 months. The Word document I use for all my AMADS is well over 1400 pages long at this point, filled with each coded entry starting with HARPER.
In my original concept for this column I thought this would be more blog-like with entries ranging from full-fledged review to a few paragraphs if I didn’t have the time.
But a pattern started emerging rather quickly. I couldn’t just write a small paragraph or two even for movies I didn’t care for… hell, almost especially for movies I didn’t care for. Watching these films spanning 8 decades worth of cinema, from short Busby Berkeley comedies to epic war movies like today’s column-closing film has given me a much deeper appreciation of film and filmmaking and just as much of that comes from watching the films that have fizzled and not worked.
I believe Stanley Kubrick once said that he always went to the cinema to see every new release. Someone asked him why go see the bad stuff, the things you know are going to suck and he answered that he learns more from bad films than he does good ones.
I don’t know if I’d go that far, at least from an audience member’s standpoint, but there is a truth to that. Figuring out how certain films fell apart is just as important as recognizing when it works and why.
So, with only one exception… my one-word review of cheap-o horror flick SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT… each entry into this A Movie A Day column has been a substantial review. Some longers, some shorter, but none throwaways (except for the aforementioned one-word review).

Ending the column on A BRIDGE TOO FAR seemed to be a stroke of great luck. I initially picked it to end the column because of wanting to keep the connected nature of this series by ending the column with a film scripted by William Goldman, who wrote HARPER, the very first AMAD. But after watching it I came to find that it works on other levels as well.
It’s an epic film, for starters, chronicalling a huge operation toward the end of the War, a huge push into German territory with the aim of controlling a series of bridges in Holland that lead right into the heart of Germany and opens up supply lines for the allies.
It’s also a remarkable film. Not just for the filmmaking, which is top notch, or the cast which is insanely huge, but because it’s the prime example of the type of film we will never, ever see again.
We can definitely see movies on this scale today, for sure. Even bigger. Movies like LOTR. But what we will never see again is the sheer level of manpower and real eye-popping massive shots of hundreds of planes unloading thousands of paratroopers… real, people jumping out of airplanes (or at least real dummies), littering the sky with thousands of floating chutes and bodies. Why hire real WW2 craft, fuel them, fly them and hire thousands of people to jump out for a few moments in a three hour long film when you can just CGI it?

I don’t want to start an anti-CGI rant because I don’t hate CGI as a tool, but there is without a doubt something missing, especially in real non-fantasy stories, with CGI. Something not as impactful as seeing real people doing real stunts, seeing a cast of thousands marching through wartorn Holland and Germany, etc.
Richard Attenborough’s direction is also unique to this era. We don’t often see his assured directing today. Attenborough isn’t afraid to let the actors propel the story, not the editing, but he’s also keenly aware of visually telling the story and keeping the audience’s eyes occupied with interesting framing and angles.
Also, many of the actors and crew were actually in the War, some of them even involved in one way or another in the actual Project Market Garden, including composer John Addison who was in the XXX Corps during this operation and actor Dirk Bogarde who served in British Intellegence during the war and was actually sent to Arnhem. There’s a soul to their work, especially Addison’s amazing score, that wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t a drive to honor the memories of those onscreen.
And so many of the actual soldiers Cornelius Ryan’s book followed were still around and consulting on this project that there is a further air of authenticity that is almost impossible now as well since we’re now 64 years out of the War, meaning that the youngest surviving soldiers would be at least 81 years old by now.
For those reasons and more we will never see a movie like A BRIDGE TOO FAR again. Not just in execution, but in concept as well. The Nazis are clearly the bad guys, but they’re not portrayed as true evil, thanks mostly to a fantastic turn by Maximilian Schell as the lead German General Bittrich. He shows some compassion and a lot of intelligence as the higher ups on both sides show nothing but careless incompetence.

I loved that about this movie. General Montgomery’s Market Garden plan is risky to begin with and then Dirk Bogarde, playing Lt. General Browning, further fucks things up by ignoring crucial intel about Germany’s panzer tank divisions being in the drop zones in order to not scrap the project. But on the German’s side there’s a ditzy General (above Schell’s Bittrich) who keeps radically mininterpreting the situation. He is told that the allies are after the bridges when they start parachuting in behind their lines, but he doesn’t buy it. They’re all coming for him! He’s the most important thing in this area, afterall.
He also ignores the Market Garden documents hand-delivered to him (recovered from a crashed plane) as fakes to throw them off the real objective.
In other words, this operation, aiming to end the war early in ’44, was a giant rat-fuck, but if either side actually had their shit together it could have either won the war a year earlier or been a massive blow to the allies’ assault.
There’s no main character for us to follow. The operation is the main character. There are multiple divisions of Scottish, American, British and Polish troops crucial to making this thing work. The idea is to parachute a single strike force within short distance of three bridges. Each one will work to secure and hold the bridges as the main force pushes through the German lines, leading a fast and straight line up to Arnhem, the final and most curcial bridge.
The whole thing is supposed to last 2 days, but of course things don’t go to plan, thanks greatly to the main force running into that ignored Panzer division.
Anthony Hopkins leads the group at the furthest bridge in Arnhem, commendearing a house overlooking the bridge and setting up his guys in defensive positions. Of everybody, he gets the most beat to shit, waiting for his ammo and reinforcements to come as Schell takes the sleepy peaceful little neighborhood and destroys it with his tanks trying to get at Hopkins and the Brits.

A cigar-champing Elliot Gould and his American force are to take the first bridge. I assume Addison didn’t have a particular love for the American forces because when we first meet them they’re running along deserted woods to an almost comic score, looking more than a little goofy. The score reminded me of Robert Folk’s POLICE ACADEMY score. Up beat, but silly.
They run up to their small wooden bridge, Gould grinning hugely and el-blamo… it disappears in a splash of water and splintered wood.
Sean Connery leads the Scots in the middle bridge, but they’re overtaken almost instantly thanks to half their equipment, including their armored jeeps, doesn’t make it to the ground.

Meanwhile, back at command Gene Hackman, playing a pissed off Polish Major, is waiting to be put into action, but due to fog on the ground he has to sit out the battle while his comrades die trying to wait for his help.
Leading the main force up the road is Michael Caine.
And we’re not done yet. There are also a few stories following American GIs, the best of which is James Caan as an experienced Sgt. who promises to look after his green bunkmate. When they land, his bunkmate’s squad is overtaken immediately. Caan searches the bodies, finding him, bullethole in the side of his head. Caan is determined to get him out and props him up in a jeep and quickly realizes that he’s right in the middle of an advancing Panzer division, surrounded by Germans.

Caan’s great, but he’s in maybe 10 minutes of this three hour movie.
Robert Redford is another American Major who is drafted to do a suicidal daytime river crossing in order to retake the second bridge which is completely occupied by the Nazis. The best way to take a bridge is to attack from both ends, of course, but crossing the river in the day time is crazy and nothing goes their way, leading to a scenario where their boats are being blown out of the water and those avoiding shells are using rifles, hands, helmets, anything to row them toward the shore, Robert Redford repeating “Hail Mary Full Of Grace” over and over again as his group is blown apart.

Oh, oh! And noneother than John Ratzenberger is in Redford’s group! How cool is that!?!
Even with all that, that’s still leaving out Laurence Olivier as a Dutch Doctor helping the wounded, Liv Ullmann as a Dutch wife and mother who gives her house to the Allies to use as a hospital after her underground resistance husband and son are killed, Denholm Elliott (!!!) as an affable British meteorologist who has to try to explain to the pissed off Polish Gene Hackman why he can’t get his troops into action, Ryan O’Neal as a young General trying to create some kind of order out of this mess (all with a fractured spine from his jump), Christopher Good’s scene-stealing performance as Hopkins’ extremely British number two… always quick with a quip, especially in the scene where he rejects the German’s surrender… fantastic work… And there are tons more who deserve much praise, but that’s the bulk of the movie.
Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth brings his great milky haze look to this film (he also shot SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN II, so you should know exactly the look I’m talking about) and William Goldman is in top form with his script that is atypical in structure, but still somehow organized and streamlined.
Final Final Thoughts: A BRIDGE TOO FAR is an entertaining and engaging epic, one that will stay with me. I can tell. You know how you get those feelings when you see a movie and you just know it’s going to be one that doesn’t dissolve amongst the rest? I can’t imagine the nightmare of trying to organize this film, but I’m thankful for the results. I couldn’t imagine a better film to close out this column.

And that’s it. We’ve come to the end, my friends.
Don’t be too sad, though. This weekend I’m going to gather my favorites of the 215 films and rank them into some kind of workable list… Kind of an AMAD Awards Ceremony if you will.
And I’ve been hinting at something special that I’ve been developing… I can finally say it. Starting Monday I will be posting a special run of Celebrity A Movie A Days from friends and constant readers within the industry. I’ve asked some very special people to contribute their own A Movie A Day one-shots and we can expect at least 5, maybe more.
I guess I will close this thing out by giving my most sincere thanks to everybody who has followed along with me since June 2nd and kept up the vintage film discussion. This column has easily been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done for this site. The sheer amount of email, talkbacks and in-person gratitude has meant a lot to me and I thank you all for it.
You’re going to see me around a little bit more on the day to day, especially now that Awards season is upon us and film festival season is starting. Lots of interviews to do and movies to see and report back on. But even with all that, I will be keeping up a vintage film discussion here. Still don’t know what I’m going to call it, but at least once a week, maybe more, I’ll write up a vintage film I’ve seen. I mean, hell… I still have a year’s worth of unwatched movies on DVD here. I can’t just let them sit there unwatched now can I?
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com








