A Bridge Too Far (1977) on Netflix
In September 1944, the Allies launch Operation Market Garden: 35,000 paratroopers land in the Netherlands to seize a chain of bridges. Major-General Urquhart commands the British division.
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Trailer
Plot summary
With the Battle of Normandy won, General Browning drafts Operation Market Garden, with Field Marshal Montgomery's approval. Some 35,000 paratroopers and glider men are to land 300 miles from their English airfields, behind enemy lines in the Netherlands, and seize a chain of bridges along a narrow 64-mile corridor, aiming to cross the Rhine at Arnhem. American divisions drop near Eindhoven, Grave and Nijmegen. Major-General Roy Urquhart's British division is bound for Arnhem, supported by Polish paratroopers under General Stanisław Sosabowski. XXX Armored Corps is to break through in Belgium and reach Arnhem within two days.
Cast
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- Josephine Peeperas Cafe Waitress
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Nijmegen bridge assault was nicknamed the "Million-Dollar Hour": heavy traffic left the crew only between eight and nine o'clock on 3 October 1976 to film there, and missing the slot would have cost at least a million dollars, including Robert Redford's overtime, so Richard Attenborough made sure every actor playing a corpse kept his eyes closed.
- At the 31st BAFTA Awards the film won four of its eight nominated categories, including Best Supporting Actor for Edward Fox and Best Score for John Addison, who had himself served in the British XXX Corps during Operation Market Garden.
- Ten Horsa glider replicas were built for the airborne sequences, but a windstorm damaged almost all of them and only seven or eight could be hastily repaired in time for the shoot.
- The MPAA initially gave the film an R rating for its use of the word "fuck" and its war violence, but United Artists lobbied to change it to PG so younger audiences could see it, and cuts were made for the British release to avoid an AA rating.
- The scenes around the Arnhem bridge were shot in Deventer, where a similar bridge over the IJssel was still available; a replica of the real Arnhem road bridge existed, but mid-1970s urban development around it made it impossible to use as a 1940s city.
- Sufficient genuine World War II American tanks, jeeps and trucks were found because many were being discarded from European military units, almost entirely reserve, especially from Greece and Turkey.
- To keep costs down, the film's star-name actors agreed to receive the same fee, of $250,000 per week, the 2012 equivalent of about $1,008,250.
