Changes

Earlier in the war, in Crete, the Germans had learned this lesson and they had abandoned the idea of large-scale airborne operations by paratroopers. Montgomery did not heed this and instead produced a plan that had a high likelihood of failure. The movie somewhat spares Montgomery and this is unfair. It seems likely that Attenborough knew that if they blamed the great British hero that it would be controversial and bad for box office. The movie also does not show the unpleasant way that the British commanders tried to place some of the blame for the failure on the Polish commander Stanislaw Sosabowski. In fact, he had opposed the plan and had wanted his men to be dropped into his native land to help the Polish Resistance to liberate their country from the Nazis.<ref>Badesy, p. 289</ref>

Hollywood has a long history of getting it wrong on history. Movies often sacrifice truth to enchance entertainment and box-office appeal. This is not the case with Attenborough’s <i>A Bridge Too Far</i>. It is very accurate and gives a good account of Operation Market Garden, its battles and most of the reasons as to why it failed. The movie’s portrayal of the battles is particularly accurate and shows the intensity of the fighting. Although there are some minor inaccuracies about units and armaments.

The motion picture does show all the leading players in Market Garden and the only real omission was Montgomery who was the architect of Operation Market Garden. Indeed, this is perhaps the main failing of the movie. The movie noticeably fails to show who was ultimately responsible for the failure of Market Garden. Browning rejection of the intelligence offered by the Dutch Resistance and his own intelligence service was critical. However, Montgomery must take the major share of the blame for the disaster and this is not shown in the motion picture. The movie is historically accurate however, it is argued by many critics that this made the film less dramatic, entertaining, repetitive and overlong.

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