Summary
The epic 3-hour 1977 war movieA Bridge Too Farfeatures a remarkably star-studded cast. Directed by Richard Attenborough, who is arguably best known for playing John Hammond inJurassic Park(1993) andThe Lost World: Jurassic Park(1997),A Bridge Too Farchronicles the real-life WWII Operation Market Garden, a failed Allied operation in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. The film takes place late in 1944 when the Allied forces, particularly a group of American and British paratroopers, appear to have the upper hand but are met with unexpected resistance. The film was released in theaters on August 12, 2025.
The war epic received mixed reviews from critics despite its outstanding cast that has never been replicated since, earning a critic score of just 55% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was widely favored by causal viewers, earning it an overwhelmingly positive audience score of 85%.A Bridge Too Farwas written by the acclaimed screenwriter William Goldman, who penned the Oscar-winningButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969) andAll the President’s Men(1976). With such a formidable screenwriter at the helm, it’s surprising thatA Bridge Too Farfailed to impress a majority of critics.
A Bridge Too Far’s Cast Featured Multiple Major Stars
Its ensemble is one for the ages
The ensemble cast ofA Bridge Too Faris nearly too good to be true. The film starsSean Connery, James Caan, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford, Dirk Bogarde, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Hardy Krüger, Ryan O’Neal, Maximilian Schell, and Liv Ullmann. An ensemble of this caliber is remarkable and should have theoretically resulted in more critical acclaim for the film overall. War movies typically offer some of the best ensemble casts of all film genres, particularly classics such asPlatoon,A Few Good Men, andSaving Private Ryan. Still, the cast ofA Bridge Too Faris in a league of its own.
A Bridge Too Farfeatures Connery during the thick of his movie career, which ended with 2003’sThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It also featuresJames Caan only three years after his legendary performances inThe Godfather Part IIandThe Gambler, which were both released in 1974. What’s more, both Anthony Hopkins and Gene Hackman appear in what is collectively one of their earliest onscreen appearances. Redford was also riding off the success of his Oscar-winningAll the President’s Menand the legendary Michael Caine, known best nowadays as Alfred inNolan’sDark Knighttrilogy, also makes an appearance.
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What A Bridge Too Far Is About
It’s based on a stunningly true WWII story
A Bridge Too Faris based on an actual failed operation involving an Allied invasion of the Nazi-occupied Netherlands named Operation Market Garden. More than 40,000 Allied troops were parachuted in with orders to capture the bridge across the Nederrijn, or the Lower Rhine River, to create a salient around the Nazi forces. The invasion occurred in September 1944 and wasexpected to be a fairly routine operation involving both American and British troopsafter Garmany had already lost control of most of France.
Had the Allied forces' invasion been successful, it likely would have put an end to WWII then and therebut as the film portrays, the operation fell apart. The film portrays a crucial point in the war that highlights the specific factors of what went wrong with the massive invasion, which involved a combination of poor Allied intelligence and fierce resistance from the German troops. Unfortunately, it becomes clear while watching A Bridge Too Far that the operation was somewhat doomed to fail from the start, resulting in the war continuing for another year.
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Was A Bridge Too Far A Success?
A Bridge Too Farwas a success depending on how you look at it. At the box office, it grossed just under $51 million worldwide against a production budget of $27 million, generating a modestly successful financial return. The cast is also a triumph of cinema and is easily the greatest quality of the film. The critic reviews, however, weren’t great for a movie with a cast of that caliber.Roger Ebertwrote in his 2-star review of the film, “The movie’s big and expensive and filled with stars, but it’s not an epic. It’s the longest B-grade war movie ever made.“A Bridge Too Faris available to stream on PlutoTV and Tubi.
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A Bridge Too Far
Cast
A Bridge Too Far is a 1977 war film directed by Richard Attenborough that chronicles the failed World War II operation, Market Garden, a massive Allied attempt to capture key bridges in the Netherlands. Featuring an ensemble cast including Sean Connery, Michael Caine, and Anthony Hopkins, the film explores the intense battles and strategic mishaps that resulted in one of the war’s most significant setbacks.
