I am a sucker for war movies, especially World War II films that are mostly accurate.

I recently rewatched A Bridge Too Far – a three-hour epic with an all-star cast and a riveting story line.

Some of the stars of the movie were Dirk Bogarde (Lt. Gen. “Boy” Browning); Sean Connery (Maj. Gen. Urquhart); Ryan O’Neal (Brig. Gen. James Gavin); Gene Hackman (Polish Maj. Gen. Stanislaw Sosabowski); Edward Fox (Lt. Gen. Horrocks); Michael Caine (Lt. Col. Joe Vandeleur); Anthony Hopkins (Lt. Col. Frost); James Caan (Sgt. Dohun); Maximillian Schell (Lt. Gen. Bittrich); Liv Ulmann (Kate Ter Horst); Elliot Gould (Col. Stout); Arthur Hill (Medical Colonel); Lawrence Olivier (Dr. Spaander); Robert Redford (Maj. Cook); John Ratzenberger (U.S. Lt.); Richard Attenborough (lunatic); and there were filmed inserts of Gen. Omar Bradley; British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; France’s Charles de Gaulle; Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower; Adolph Hitler; Gen. George Patton; German Gen. Erwin Rommel; and President Franklin Roosevelt.

(Actor Dirk Bogarde actually fought in this battle).

Cornelius Ryan wrote the book that was the basis for the film and William Goldman wrote the screenplay. It was directed by Richard Attenborough. A Bridge Too Far may have been the best work ever by Attenborough, who won the Best Director Oscar for Gandhi. Star Wars won Best Picture the year A Bridge Too Far was nominated so it didn’t have a chance to win.

Some think it is the best war movie ever made and it compares well with, Patton, Saving Private Ryan and Platoon for realism and impact.

This 1977 war movie was a departure from most of previous war films. It pretty accurately described a failed mission by Allied Forces.

In September of 1944, Gen. Eisenhower bowed to Winston Churchill and let Field Marshal Montgomery craft Operation Market Garden. Montgomery’s plan was to strategically capture a series of important bridges over the Rhine in the Netherlands in an effort to break through the German lines.

Montgomery thought he could end the war by Christmas of 1944.

He didn’t.

While Patton clearly showed the ego and arrogance of Montgomery, Attenborough didn’t criticize Montgomery as heavily as he could. A Bridge Too Far does point out that Montgomery’s mistakes cost thousands of Allied lives. In the film, German high command anticipates an attack led by Patton because placing Montgomery in charge would be disastrous.

And it was.

Montgomery was not portrayed in the movie. Monty was the hero of El Alemein and maybe 32 years after the war was too soon to trash a British hero.

Montgomery’s plan was to drop 35,000 American, British and Polish paratroopers behind German lines to take the five bridges. The target was the German industrial Ruhr.

Like the title says, Montgomery’s plan was one bridge too far. That line is in the film and it is disputed if it were historically accurate.

Some of Montgomery’s advisors warned him but he refused to listen. Even when aerial photos showed German tanks waiting for the assault, the British refused to change plans.

 In fact, at least one British planner was put on “sick leave” because he warned that the campaign would be a disaster.

General Sosabowski was rightly concerned that there would be a massacre and he was correct. But he had no real voice in the strategy.

The German defeated the British paratroopers at Arnhem, the key city in the invasion.

The movie points out that the British ignored warnings by the Dutch Resistance. Montgomery thought German moral was low and he would sweep through the Netherlands. He believed the bridges were lightly defended – which was right – but he ignored large groups of highly trained German soldiers nearby.

The campaign started well but German resistance was fierce. Because there were so many canals alongside the roads, British tanks were slowed. 

After battles in Crete, the Germans abandoned their own paratroop “behind the lines” strategy because the soldiers could take enough weaponry with them for a sustained battle. They had to have backup quickly, which they didn’t in the Netherlands.

I love the spirit of the fighting men of the Allied Forces in this film. At some point, they almost all knew they were up against stacked odds in a master plan that was seriously flawed. They were facing an enemy who was defending their homeland for the first time and fighting was fierce.

Yet the Americans, the British, the Poles, the Canadians, the Scots, the Irish and the other soldiers in this fight didn’t back down. They didn’t disobey orders. They held their ground as best they could.

 They had one goal – victory.

Now, as some Americans want to rewrite our history and to paint the United States as evil colonizers, it’s more important than ever for these new generations to understand the sacrifice that these soldiers made. We live in peace because they risked their lives to liberate the World.

A Bridge Too Far would be a good history lesson for young people and a great way to spend three hours learning about American greatness.