A BRIDGE TOO FAR (1977) | The Parachute Drop | MGM

Operation Market Garden, September 1944: The Allies attempt to capture several strategically important bridges in the Netherlands in the hope of breaking the German lines.
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Directed by Richard Attenborough
Screenplay by William Goldman
From the book by Cornelius Ryan
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Hardy Kruger, Laurence Olivier, Ryan O'Neal, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell, Liv Ullmann
Rated PG
Available on Blu-Ray, DVD and digital platforms.
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A Bridge Too Far (1977)
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#MGM #ABridgeTooFar

[@valhallaproject9560]

Best airborne operation ever on film. Sound of the jump was perfect.

[@geodes4762]

The jump scenes were very good. Overall the movie told the story pretty much the way Ryan wrote it. There were some scenes though that I found a little hokey. The scenes with Elliott Gould made that Colonel look like a real clown. I’m sure it was done that way because Gould was more of a comedian than a serious actor. Robert Redford did Major Julian Cook no favors in the way he portrayed him. Cook was a genuine hero for the leading that bloody river crossing. Again though the producers ruined the portrayal of Cook by trying to inject some inappropriate humor. Ryan O’Neil was not a believable player of Gavin. Understand the makers of the film were trying to draw an audience by including a lot of “in vogue” actors but the American “actors” I found all fell flat! On the other hand, the actors selected ti play both the Germans and the British were excellent

[@lyndoncmp5751]

Geo Des It was very inaccurate when they showed the 82nd taking the Nijmegen bridge, and in broad daylight. In reality it was the Grenadier Guards tankers who raced across the bridge and took it. The 82nd hadn't yet reached it after their river crossing. They were at Lent by the railway viaduct, about one kilometre from the bridge when the Grenadiers tanks were taking the bridge.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

It was also around dusk when the bridge was taken, and there were still Germans around even afterwards. The tankers weren't sitting there doing nothing except drink tea. Only five tanks got across that evening and two were damaged. Their mission was to take the bridge and stop the Germans from taking it back that night.

[@geodes4762]

@@lyndoncmp5751 That whole scene with Redford waving the tanks across the bridge was done solely for theatrics. It has been called out by a number of viewers in the past as just inaccurate historically. The producers of the movie evidently felt Redford needed to have a more standout role. Julian Cook’s real life heroics in leading that death defying river crossing were evidently not enough for a “star” like Redford.

[@freebeerfordworkers]

@@geodes4762 yes Brian Johnston the famous BBC cricket commentator was an officer with the tanks that crossed the bridge and said the first man across was one of their sergeants. He took it up with David Attenborough who said he was sorry but they were paying Robert Redford a lot of money so they had to give him something to do and say.

[@TonyLovell]

This is an adacious, expensive and risky shot. I like how they have enough C-47s to make it seem huge.

[@RMBB4202]

They had only a few flyable Dakotas, eleven I believe (?), that they had scrounged up from several sources, but they made it look like more by the way they filmed and edited it. Notice that in most shots there are never more than six to ten in the shot at any one time. They just kept showing the same aircraft over and over but from different angles to make it look like a long, continuous stream of planes. In the few shots that show more than a half dozen or so in the frame, they did a trick in editing where they were able to double and tripled up the same group of aircraft into one shot.

[@CherryCokeNixon]

Before they could fake it like Band of Brothers

[@Geronimo_Jehoshaphat]

Epic. So glad Attenborough did the sequence without music too.

[@robertcottam8824]

Yes, you’re right: The absence of music makes it feel absolutely authentic.

[@stevethomas2559]

My Uncle was a Para at Arnhem. He was machine gunned in the leg as dropped and taken prisoner. He had a blood transfusion in a German field hospital and always maintained he was lucky to have been caught. He said had it been a British field hospital they would have taken his leg off.

[@shaunoakman5609]

Hi Steve, my grandfather dropped in with 1 para, he was a brew gunner, lost his left leg & his best mate in a grenade blast fighting at oosterbeek, till he passed, he had nothing but praise for the German medics. That's all he really said about his time at arnhem

[@PatrickS.Tomlinson]

lucky they were white@@shaunoakman5609

[@einfachignorieren6156]

@@shaunoakman5609 what a waste of german supply, for fool like him

[@bobmetcalfe9640]

He was probably wrong. The Germans performed far more amputations than either the Brits or Americans. Not sure about the Russians.

[@arefkr]

@@shaunoakman5609Credit when it's due

[@garyK.45ACP]

Hard to believe this move is 46 years old...and it was only 33 years after the actual event.😲

[@fair2guy]

dude that pov shot at 2:12 in 1977?? way ahead of its time!

[@91Redmist]

Epic scenes.

[@Frankie2012channel]

Several camera operators jumped along with the others. This was REAL FILMMAKING!

[@mollyfilms]

Just witnessed probably the best directed parachute drop in history.

[@drxym]

The studio got the British army parachute corps to jump for this sequence. There is obviously a lot of different camera angles and superimposing footage on top of itself to make it look like a huge spectacle but it's still impressive. My dad was one of the parachutists in the jump though I can't see his face anywhere.

[@geofftodd3979]

Done by 3 Para!

[@davidsinclair7439]

You can see your dad at 2:42, 23rd paratrooper from the left

[@Jaysol24]

Honor and Gratitude to Your Dad for OpMG @drxym, my Dad may have been there too; was C-47 co-pilot stationed in England first, then in Orleans after that if I heard it right. Didn't talk much and didn't say much twice. Was fantastic, did everything well, was not his equal but am still a candidate..Regards.

[@anglerfish1001]

My dad was in a TA unit, 289 Para Bty, when they filmed this. They were going to be part of the jump as seen in the film but apparently, because they were civilians, they were not insured, so didn’t get to do it.

[@mindslaw4961]

My high school history teacher was one of the jumpers too. Man had some great stories.

[@CatchDude]

I love how the heath is in bloom where they land, all nice and purple, in this movie. The landing happened in september, when it blooms in real life (half august till halfway through september, roughly). So they even got that detail down, since the landing happened on great fields of heath in september, just west of Arnhem.

[@twobyfour]

My thought too. I visited for the commemorations in September 2014, The DZs and LZs were in full bloom and watched modern British paras jump on to those historic grounds, that was quite something.

[@HappySpanker2016]

I grew up in Ede, very close to drop zone Y. My grandmother told me of the impossible noises she heard those days and that the people of Ede scavenged the parachutes to make wedding dresses.

[@oilersridersbluejays]

Heath? Heath Ledger?

[@stevemance2812]

The most realistic airborne landings recreated for the movies ever.

[@daviddouglas6610]

Yes apart from our lads jumping with a reserve

[@AngloSaxonWheatFarmer]

I love these old movies, I wish they still made them like this with all the practical effects and the equipment

[@damselnoir5905]

I don't think they know how anymore; they're so addicted to green screens and computer-generated characters and props that everything looks phony and like a Marvel movie.

[@lgjm5562]

Hollywood can't afford practical effects like this anymore. And in other ways I'm glad they won't try to make it today.

[@fisk0]

Gee, you mean you wouldn't want this to be depicted as a rollercoaster ride with a cut every second, no wide/establishing shots and just a spinning camera and non-stop screaming for the entire duration of the scene?

[@arefkr]

@@damselnoir5905They know, but now CGI is cheap and cheap is what every producer is aiming at

[@garyK.45ACP]

One of the top WW2 movies ever.

[@billace90]

Even the cameraman jumped. It doesn’t get any more realistic than that.

[@Nperez1986]

NO CGI = AMAZING!

[@pikiwiki]

So interesting to watch this knowing there was no CGI back then

[@SaltimusMaximus]

I have a relic british para helmet that came from a house in Oosterbeek, I got it off a guy who was involved in the making of this film, always loved this film and to get it was utterly fantastic

[@redgeneral5792]

1:47 Dude in the middle is having a bad day.

[@eoghannolan741]

My god spinning out

[@sillyone52062]

​@@eoghannolan741"If I my chute don't open wide, I've got a reserve by my side"

[@joseph291]

The micro to macro details of that plan. Fantastic.

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

GAWD!!!!! I Just LOVE that 'fox hound ( Rally-around ) horn'!!!!!

[@johnclay7644]

Great cinematography from 77

[@GP-fw8hn]

fantastic movie. very realistic and well done

[@sixbells99]

Incredible footage before the days of CGI where you could just paint in multiple parachutes. Most of the jumpers if not all were British paratroopers, many of which would face real combat in the Falklands a few years later and performed just as well as their counterparts in WWII against a larger enemy and missing kit after most of their equipment and helicopters sat at the bottom of the sea after their cargo ship was sunk. Despite the odds being against them, they still won out!! "They are in fact - men apart - every man an emperor."

[@jamiejudd8018]

Well said sir🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧

[@Mrz-sb1hw]

British sir, man for man the greatest army in the world especially the great SAS unequal in combat.

[@davidmurray5399]

The Drop of the 1st Parachute Brigade was nearly perfect, it was described by some of the men as a "canteen drop", a practice drop with a NAAFI wagon waiting to dish out tea and buns. What got things off to a bad start was Lathbury's insistence on all the battalions waiting on the drop zone until order groups were done, wasting valuable time. Frost had his men assembled and ready to move within a half an hour, and was first off the mark toward the river road. Lathbury's plan had all three battalions marching on divergent routes that made it nearly impossible for the battalions to support on another if problems arose, which they certainly did.

[@derek-press]

I can imagine the frustration of the men must have been hitting the roof

[@pschroeter1]

Wow. I think that was almost more impressive than Band of Brothers because it was real and not CGI.

[@Klassiker-]

Much better than Band of Brothers. Shame though, that the planes are in the wrong color here, and the C47s didn't fly in finger-five formation during parachute-drops.

[@jamesdiaz793]

@@Klassiker- It's a movie, not a documentary.

[@Dave-hu5hr]

Almost.. ? 🥔

[@ausis6214]

​@@Klassiker- it's not much better because Band of Brothers had planes getting shot at. Recreating what Band of Brothers did without CGI is impossible.

[@SenzoTanaka]

​@@jamesdiaz793Says the Braveheart fan. Why not just paint them pink.

[@dondraper3871]

My son: "But dad, without CGI no film could faithfully depict grandiose and large scale battle scenes" Me: "Oh my sweet summer child..."

[@shaidorsai4834]

As a Former Paratrooper I've often wondered what it would have been like to The Very Last Jumper out of The Very Last C-47.

[@RMBB4202]

You likely would have had a long walk back to the assembly area 😄

[@aroundtheworldindays6770]

You are never a FORMER Paratrooper, you always will be but i see your point and wondered the same, even the first. And yes i am a Paratrooper from Australia (not serving anymore).

[@Okiedog1]

That POV drop at 2:15 is really thrilling

[@xenomorph6961]

Yes, listening to the trooper forcing his breathing and an almost "phew" when then canopy deploys really made these scene. No CGI back then!

[@Ragingmaja]

I was really impressed by that, very cool seeing the parachutist perspective.

[@jhnshep]

as an ex para one thing I can say is the silence after the canope opens is deafening, wonderful experience

[@romainandrieux5948]

There is another one, quite sad, later in the movie, from a Paratrooper that injured by the germans who had captured hours ago the landing field. He is crying, helpless...

[@modellbaugoaly9293]

if posible visit the museum in Ahrheim. There they have a kind of simulation path. Okay not for the jumo, but for landing with the glider and the fight. It is in the original building, where the german gernarl of the beginning of the clip is. (later it became the headquater of the landing troops)

[@KuijperRob]

i walked there along the field as a 10year old kid..imagioning the whole thing happened here..the Ginkelse Heide..then visited the Airborne Museum in Oisterwijk....impressive..it was a long desired dream to visit the place in my holidays with my parents..

[@sitrepSNAFU]

I met one of the guys that jumped at Arnhem on Airbourne Forces Day, and MP. Such a privilege.

[@blackbird5634]

For two solid hours EVERY single time I watch this, ALL I want in life is to wear a red beret and jump into Arnhem with the 1st Parachute Battalion. It's been that way since I first watched this as a boy in 77'.

[@richardwilliams5312]

Wont get a classic like this anymore 😪

[@SanDeezyBreezy61986]

Probably as close to what a mass airborne drop actually looked like and sounded like in WWII.

[@johnrife7134]

They dropped too high but other than that you're probably right.

[@jonathanakehurst4489]

Incredible drop scene! 😮❤

[@altonbunnjr]

And no CGI, all real aircraft and men.

[@glenchapman3899]

well eleven aircraft, and if you watch closely a fair number of dummies jump out of those craft lol

[@jamesross1799]

Couldn't agree more with the comment bellow. Used to watch this with my grandad a lot (he wasn't airborne he had been R.M but he seemed to have a massive respect for op market)

[@esajuhanirintamaki965]

There was some Finnish Air Force C-47:s too. The Finnish pilots were enough young, and they were able to fly their planes in reguired formations. The other countries had difficulties to find experienced and still young pilots.

[@hrafnofthule5962]

You mean for the movie or the real event? I knew a Danish girl, her father was a Danish airforce pilot that flew a plane for this scene in the movie.

[@brunoalsantos]

Fantastic footage!!

[@Mobius118F]

I love the *spring-e* noise when they jump weirdly calming to me.

[@Play2Win1958]

Incredible

[@gabrieldjatienza6971]

Unbroken record of 35,000 men !!!

[@patrickcannady2066]

Anthony Hopkins as Colonel Frost with the fox horn.

[@jamesross1799]

They actually had Johnny frost as an advisor for the film

[@justonecornetto80]

It had General Sir Brian Horrocks, Roy Urquhart, James Gavin and J.O.E Vandeleur as advisors as well.

[@erikmann3640]

One of the best films ever made. I wish they still made pictures like this. I would love to see the assault on Pegasus bridge and the fight until they were relieved. Amazing story.

[@sayjack1328]

Yea, there is no CGI in that one.

[@Markus_Andrew]

They don't make them like this anymore! They must have rounded up every airworthy C-47 Skytrain in the world for this movie.

[@RMBB4202]

@The Richest Man In Babylon I've read that they had eleven. "Air filming was done in the first weeks of September 1976, culminating in a series of air drops of a total of 1,000 men.[citation needed][17] Supplies were dropped from a number of Dakota aircraft. The Dakotas were gathered by the film company Joseph E. Levine Presents Incorporated. All aircraft were required to be CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) or FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) registered and licensed to carry passengers. An original deal for the purchase of 10 fell through when two airframes were rejected as passenger configured without the necessary jump doors. Eleven Dakotas were procured. Two ex-Portuguese Air Force, 6153 and 6171 (N9984Q and N9983Q), and two from Air Djibouti, operating from Djibouti in French Somaliland, F-OCKU and F-OCKX (N9985Q and N9986Q) were purchased by Joseph E. Levine. Three Danish Air Force K-685, K-687, and K-688, and four Finnish Air Force C-47s, DO-4, DO-7, DO-10 and DO-12, were loaned for the duration of the parachute filming."

[@hardihard1610]

they don`t make movies like this anymore.

[@christopherparrisjr.3146]

Superbly filmed!

[@christopherjcarson]

Remarkably the hotel turned field hospital at Arnhem is still visited by Veterans and their families. Some life long friendships have continued as a result!

[@wadesuen778]

Jesus, this was filmed during the time without any CGI!

[@BobbyD262]

Love Unsworth's fog filters. Looks like there's a WW II flashback scene from Superman the movie for some reason, haha.

[@mikewinston8709]

My cousin was one of the jumpers for the film; serving in 1 Para. They were paid £75.

[@jussim.konttinen4981]

Four Finnish Air Force C-47s, DO-4, DO-7, DO-10 and DO-12, were loaned for the duration of the parachute filming, by the so-called People's Front government.

[@peterdebrie]

Visited the airborne monument today on Ginkelse Heide and walked one of the airborne routes.

[@dr.jones.3832]

Amazing👍

[@miller84631]

Ex 82nd airborne here; we used c130's and c17's

[@rubedogg6969]

C123, C130 and C141’s great times!

[@BattleAxe1345]

That trooper in 1:48 at right was twirling around like crazy! That looked scary.

[@eigerw]

Yeah, that's really bad.

[@BattleAxe1345]

@@eigerw Could have gone VERY wrong, lol.

[@AllanGildea]

Absolutely gobsmacking.

[@DerekHoscorner]

Awesomeness job

[@col4574]

That lion always gets me

[@ianwyj1]

An actual parachute jump too, nothing CGI about it

[@zaid9161]

Very nice

[@Cha4k]

Love the paratrooper spinning uncontrollably on the right side of the screen at 1:49

[@Falkriim]

Awesome movie

[@mariosprenger5186]

Dieser Film hat mich als Kind so begeistert, daß ich Jahre später selbst am Schirm hing...😅 Glück ab!👍

[@robertmunoz7543]

Never snows in septembre!🤔 Jman

[@RangaTurk]

Forest on the side of roads provides plenty of camouflage as only a few leaves start to turn yellow around this time so I believe this operation wasn't thought through as much as it could have been if a Kettenkrad motorcycle could tow a 20mm flak gun. A fleet of them can be concealed in woods with netting and could be traversed on swampy ground towards the flanks of formations landing on or near main roadways. The area around Wyler isn't wooded and just as well. Some forests are so thick you could almost get away with concealing a whole regiment in them.

[@user-zi5ge1ee6k]

No CGI Good real scene 👏

[@robertlehnert4148]

"Gory, gory what a hellva way to die..."

[@Plumbump]

Thousands of hard men jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with the express purpose of meeting you.

[@TheGrenadier97]

Back when CGI wasn't a (every) thing.

[@johnrife7134]

The only reason CGI is so overused is cost.

[@jilldecker6257]

The sound track makes the movie..

[@AllanKlo63]

Great stuff this. Now I just have to watch this movie.

[@Nperez1986]

They mitigated risk by jumping higher in the film. That's too high for a real combat jump. Helps lower insurance premiums

[@sillyone52062]

No AA fire in the movie.

[@wolfgangi]

just realizing how influential this scene was to a lot of more modern WW II movies

[@adamndirtyape]

No CG, all GI.

[@Razziazor]

This was only battalion sized, looking at the number of planes. Can you imagine what it must have looked like when they dropped a whole division?

[@ryszakowy]

most likely exactly the same because it would be impossible to see it all at once but i know what you want to say

[@canerguener8664]

Search for pictures in b/w. Amazing

[@kayschmitz1155]

hard 2 believe that this was the last german victory in the west, no matter how much yarn is spun by the losers afterwards

[@glenchapman3899]

Yeah and even if the radios had worked they might have still pulled it off. Or the Germans didn't get a complete set of the operational plans. Germans really rolled a triple 6 on the luck roll with this one lol

[@kayschmitz1155]

@@glenchapman3899 lost is lost

[@user-oo1bf2yr7h]

🌀😱👀♥️ ノルマンディー上陸作戦の いいところ、落下傘部隊 カッコいい‼️

[@Grayman58]

I had this movie poster on my bedroom wall when I was a teenager . I stole it from the cinema lobby during the movie when things were quiet in those days the poster was pinned to a A frame stand . WHO. DARES WINS . 🇬🇧👍

[@Markus_Andrew]

I love it 👍😁

[@carlmarston1687]

Market Garden seemed like such a good idea

[@tomevans4402]

Great movie

[@joseph291]

THE ORGANISATION PROCEDURES ARE GREAT.

[@threeone6012]

Little known fact, some of the most amazing CGI came out of the 1970s.

[@JC-uo5rj]

Huh??

[@lyndoncmp5751]

Yeah, Jaws was CGI too 😂.

[@tactiguay7154]

"Camera Generated Image"

[@anibalcesarnishizk2205]

At that time WWII was still fresh.

[@sillyone52062]

​@@anibalcesarnishizk2205Many of the surviving participants of Market Garden were advisers to the film.

[@user-ti4hw3uc6j]

これDVD持っているんですが、何回観てもすごいですね。CGじゃなくて、本物の兵隊さんが降下してるんですもの。 昔の映画って、スケールが違いすぎる('◇')ゞ

[@kurtthewicked9009]

In the beginning, Gen. Bittrich says, roughly, "But one time to command so much power". If someone's German is better than mine, please correct me.

[@andrewcombe8907]

Major historical inaccuracy the Brits didn't issue reserve chutes due to cost saving.

[@frankvandergoes298]

Even though they were heavily outnumbered ad hoc German Kampfgruppe such as training battalion Kraft soon rallied and attacked the landing grounds, causing delays to the time table.

[@chrisrowland1514]

Not a single computer generated image in sight all real

[@4dojo]

So many abandoned and forgotten parachutes. 😢

[@geofftodd3979]

The drop was performed br the Third Parachute Bn, British army

[@jdee8407]

They look like jellyfish in the sky.

[@yatsumleung8618]

82nd Airborne jumps: 504th PIR: Husky, Avalanche, Market Garden 505th PIR: Husky, Avalanche, Overlord, Market Garden 507th PIR: Overlord, Varsity (as part of 17th Airborne Div) 508th PIR: Overlord, Market Garden 325th GIR: Avalanche, Overlord, Market Garden 101st Airborne jumps: 501st PIR, 502nd PIR, 506th PIR, 327th GIR: Overlord, Market Garden 1st Airborne jumps: 1st Para Brigade: Husky, Market Garden 1st Airlanding Brigade: Husky, Market Garden 4th Para Brigade: Slapstick (not a jump, just amphibious landing), Market Garden 6th Airborne jumps: 3rd Para Brigade, 5th Para Brigade, 6th Airlanding Brigade: Overlord, Varsity

[@sirloin8745]

‘Ahh, it must just be a training exercise’.

[@ko900]

No CG. 😮 Though quite impressive!

[@matthewobrien3527]

Operation MARKET GARDEN

[@alexcordero6672]

Band of Brothers had some big shoes to fill to come equal to or top this scene.

[@robertnymand9889]

The germans had alot of fight left in them yet in fall of 1944.

[@geofftodd3979]

2 para found themselves against an armored Div

[@TwitchPluslleGaming-ky3hw]

Okay 👍

[@user-by3ul2xu5v]

俳優陣が豪華絢爛🎬

[@mikazuki230]

｢遠すぎた橋｣

[@gris186]

Never watched this scene before but it's easy to see where Band of Brothers got their inspiration from

[@OneofInfinity.]

Yes from the real drops in Normandy just like this one from the ones at Arnhem 🤦‍♂

[@joseph291]

Imagine seeing that in the sky during napoleons era. During the siege of Vercingetorix. But the paras are on the side of the Brits. mAD. King