BRIDGE TOO FAR, A 55
Production
During the film’s 16- month pre- production phase, Levine hired Geoffrey Unsworth
as his cinematographer and Richard Attenborough to direct (though Attenborough
had directed only two films, both flops: a WWI- era musical and a biopic on Win-
ston Churchill). Levine’s production team put together a formidable air fleet: 11
WWII- era C-47 Dakota transport planes (from Portugal, Djibouti, Denmark, and
Finland); 4 T-6 Texan/SNJ/Harvard fighter planes, an Auster III, and a Spitfire Mk
IX. Levine also secured an international all- star cast that would rival the all- star
cast of The Longest Day (1963)— Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean
Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Hardy
Krüger, Ryan O’Neal, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell, and
Liv Ullmann— for the film’s 14 featured roles. Levine’s first choice to play Kate Ter
Horst (Ullmann’s role) was Audrey Hepburn, who was a 15- year- old girl living in
the Netherlands during Market Garden, but Hepburn’s agent asked for $750,000
for six days work— too much even for Levine. Steve McQueen also wanted too
much money: $3 million for three days work. Location shooting in Holland lasted
the six months that weather conditions were favorable, starting in April 1976 and
wrapping in October. In Attenborough’s capable hands, the movie came in on
schedule and under bud get. It premiered on 15 June 1977, which was Levine’s tar-
get date from the outset— a remarkable feat for a large- scale proj ect employing
130 actors and hundreds of extras, 100 technicians, airplanes, tanks, and numer-
ous other vehicles used in lengthy, large- scale, pre- CGI combat sequences.
Plot Summary
Concocted by British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, Operation Market Gar-
den prescribed a combined airborne (“Market”) and ground (“Garden”) assault, a
plan calling for 35,000 paratroopers to be flown from bases in England and dropped
behind enemy lines in the Netherlands. Their mission is to secure bridges along a
north- south road and hold them for 48 hours so that an armored column advanc-
ing north from the Allied frontline in Belgium will be able to reach Arnhem, 100
kilo meters (60 miles) deep into German- held territory. The British 1st Airborne
Division, commanded by Maj.- Gen. Roy Urquhart (Sean Connery), supported by
a Polish airborne brigade under Gen. Stanisław Sosabowski (Gene Hackman),
is to land in drop zones east and west of Arnhem and to secure both sides of the
bridge there. Farther south, the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division under Brig. Gen. James
Gavin (Ryan O’Neill) is to land near Nijmegen and secure its bridge and approaches.
The U.S. 101st Airborne Division under Maj. Gen. Maxwell Taylor (Paul Maxwell)
is tasked with securing the road and bridges around Eindhoven. The XXX Armoured
Corps under Lt. Gen. Brian Horrocks (Edward Fox) is to advance north, cross the
bridges captured by the American paratroopers, and reach Arnhem two days after
the drop. When Gen. Urquhart briefs his officers, some of them balk at landing so
far from their objective (up to 13 kilo meters, to avoid German anti- aircraft fire),
but Urquhart assures them that German re sis tance in the area will be negligible—
despite the fact that recon photos and reports from the Dutch re sis tance indicate
panzers near Arnhem. Lt. Gen. Frederick Browning (Dirk Bogarde) ignores these
reports because he is not willing to contravene Montgomery. In a similar fashion,