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The war movie ‘A Bridge Too Far’’ was one of the hits of 1977. It was a much-anticipated extravaganza that was well received by the public if not all the critics. The movie tells the story of Operation Market Garden. This was an attempt by the allies to seize several key bridges over the Rhine in the Netherlands in 1944. This it was hoped would have allowed the Allies to seize control of key crossing points and then attack Northern Germany from the Netherlands. The plan was to use airborne forces to seize the bridges before the Germans could react. Armored divisions would then join the lightly armed paratroopers and secure them for the allies.
However, things did not go to plan and the Germans were at first able to delay the attacks and then defeated the British paratroopers at Arnhem, the offensive’s key objective. Arnhem was the "Bridge Too Far." Operation Market Garden was widely seen as a failure and resulted in the loss of thousands of Allied paratroopers and soldiers. The 1977 motion picture was directed by Richard Attenborough, a former British movie star. The movie had a huge budget and is visually spectacular.
The movie A Bridge Too Far was based on the non-fiction book of the same name written by the journalist Cornelius Ryan.<ref>McKenna, A. T. "Joseph E. Levine and A Bridge Too Far: A Producer's Labour of Love". <i>Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television</i>. 31 (2011), pp 211–214</ref> Attenborough was committed to making the movie as accurate as possible. The production had several veterans of Market Garden on hand, to give technical advice. One of the stars of the movie was Dirk Bogarde who had fought in the campaign. The movie was a real epic and had an all-star cast. Among its stars were Sean Connery, Ryan O Neill, James Caan, Elliott Gould, Robert Redford and Gene Hackman. How accurate is <i>A Bridge Too Far</i> and does it really portray the events during Operation Market Garden?
