This war movie starring Michael Caine has been described as the benchmark for war movies, and it is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
A Bridge Too Far follows the Allied armies as they concoct a plan to win the Second World War at Arnhem. However, the area of Arnhem, including the key bridges of Germany, is loaded with armoured assaults, and disaster ensues.
The film’s synopsis reads: “Tells the story of Operation Market Garden. A failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of World War II to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in the Netherlands, allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.”
The film is based on historian Cornelius Ryan’s non-fiction account of the WW2 Operation Market Garden, and the film decided to not stray too far from the book in its accuracy and duration.
Military.com have hailed A Bridge Too Far as one of the best military and veteran movies of Michael Caine’s Career alongside films such as The Harry Palmer Spy Series, Zulu and Harry Brown.
Praising the 1977 hit as near the top of the list, Military.com said, “the film never received any prestigious awards, because A Bridge Too Far depicted Market Garden as an operational failure (which it was), but it’s still widely enjoyed by audiences, even today.”
Alongside an incredible performance from Caine, A Bridge Too Far also features James Caan, Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Elliott Gould and Robert Redford.
Simon Lewis, author of Making A Bridge Too Far, praised the film as “top of the class of all the sprawling historical war epics. It conveys the facts and the history with painstaking economy and fastidious fidelity to authenticity, almost without parallel”.
He added that “it’s the greatest epic war movie ever made.”
A Bridge Too Far is available to stream on Amazon Prime now.