54 BRIDGE TOO FAR, A
(a characterization fabricated by Pierre Boulle to cast aspersions on traitors with
France’s Vichy government). In fact, Toosey was much the opposite, doing every-
thing in his power to protect his men while surreptitiously delaying and sabotag-
ing construction. For example, he had his men collect and deploy large numbers
of termites to eat away at wooden bridge structures and saw to it that the concrete
was mixed poorly. Likewise, the movie’s depiction of Saito also slanders his real-
life counterpart— a Japa nese officer at the camp named Risaburo Saito, who was
actually a sergeant- major, second in command, and not at all like Sessue Hay-
akawa’s Col. Saito. Indeed, the real Saito had great re spect for Lt. Col. Toosey and
was, by all accounts, an unusually humane guard. The movie also erroneously
portrays the Japa nese as incapable of proper bridge design and in need of British
expertise. In real ity, the Japa nese army had excellent engineers. At the end of
the movie the wooden bridge is destroyed by commandos almost immediately
after its completion. In actuality, the wooden bridge was bombed and rebuilt seven
times between 1943 and 1945. Completed on 1 May 1943, the concrete and steel
bridge (Bridge 277) remained intact more than for two years, until it was destroyed
in June 1945 by B-24 liberators from the U.S. 458th Heavy Bombardment Group.
As reparations after the war, the Japa nese rebuilt the bridge, which still stands
tod ay.Bridge Too Far, A (1977)
Synopsis
A Bridge Too Far is a World War II epic based on the 1974 book of the same title by
Cornelius Ryan. Produced by Joseph E. and Richard P. Levine, adapted by Wil-
liam Goldman, and directed by Richard Attenborough, the film tells the story of
the failure of Operation Market Garden, an ambitious Allied attempt to seize several
bridges in the occupied Netherlands in order to outflank German defenses and
end the war in Eu rope by Christmas of 1944.Background
On 17 September 1974 Simon & Schuster published A Bridge Too Far, a 672- page
epic by WWII historian Cornelius Ryan (The Longest Day) that recounted the story
of Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944), Field Marshall Montgom-
ery’s failed attempt to hasten the end of the war by landing paratroopers behind
German lines in the Nazi- occupied Netherlands in a bid to outflank the Siegfried
Line and reach the Rhine. Published on the 30th anniversary of Market Garden,
Ryan’s magisterial tome garnered glowing reviews and earned over a million dol-
lars in sales. Sadly, its author did not survive long after his final success; he died
from prostate cancer five weeks after publication— but not before expressing the
wish to movie mogul Joseph E. Levine that it be made into a film. Not affiliated
with a studio, Levine raised money by selling advance distribution rights, but even-
tually put in $10 million of his own money. Riskier still, pre- production planning
was done without a script; William Goldman’s adaptation would not be completed
until November 1975.