Bridge Too Far, A: Special Edition/Gold Edition (1977)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	War	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio Audio Commentary-William Goldman (Screenwriter) Informational Subtitles-Trivia Track Featurette-Heroes From The Sky Featurette-A Distant Battle: Memories of Operation Market Garden Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Richard Attenborough: A Director Remembers Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1977
Running Time	168:43
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (84:53) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Richard Attenborough
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Dirk Bogarde James Caan Michael Caine Sean Connery Edward Fox Elliot Gould Gene Hackman Anthony Hopkins Hardy Kruger Ryan O'Neal Laurence Olivier Robert Redford Maximilian Schell
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Dual-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	John Addison

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired French Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Portuguese Polish Greek Hungarian Czech English Audio Commentary French Audio Commentary English Information	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The classic war movie, A Bridge Too Far, has finally been released on DVD in R4.

    If you read my review of Black Hawk Down, you will note that I listed some of the all-time great war movies; films such as Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, The Longest Day, and A Bridge Too Far. Of all of them, A Bridge Too Far is one of the most daring and ambitious.

    "Well someone's come up with a real nightmare. Real nightmare." (Maj. Julian Cook)

    Based on history, and the intricately researched book by Cornelius Ryan (who also wrote The Longest Day), A Bridge Too Far tells the story of Operation Market Garden — the Allies' attempt, in 1944, to "end the war by Christmas". The idea was to drop 35,000 men behind enemy lines, and capture a series of German-held bridges in Holland. Seizing these bridges would provide the Allies with direct access into Germany's industrial heartland in the Ruhr. The lightly armed and lightly provisioned Allied paratroopers were to take, and then hold, these bridges for two days, while Allied ground forces invaded and caught up. That was the idea anyway . . .

    Produced by Joseph E Levine and Richard P Levine, the talent involved in this movie is notable: The novel was adapted into a screenplay by one of the greatest screen-writers, William Goldman. Goldman wrote such movie gems as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All The President's Men, Marathon Man, A Bridge Too Far, Misery, Heat, Maverick, and The Ghost and the Darkness. The film also boasts excellent cinematography by Geoffrey Unsworth, who gives the movie an almost cinema verite style. Finally, the film is brilliantly directed by Richard Attenborough, and it is surprising to think that this monumental, and truly epic war film, made pre-CGI on such a huge scale, was only his third feature.

    The film is truly remarkable in that it simultaneously presents multiple stories and multiple characters and never loses the audience, all while presenting large amounts of exposition and explanations, without any of it appearing to be obvious. Of course when you have multiple stories, with many different characters only having limited screen time, one way to get away with this is by using recognisable actors, as the audience immediately recognises the actor/character and thus, the story line being presented. As a result, this movie has a genuine all-star cast, with wonderful performances by Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliot Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Hardy Kruger, Ryan O'Neal, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell, Liv Ullmann, and Denholm Elliott.

Video

    The transfer is a little grainy, hazy, and even 'damaged' at times, but considering the age of the source material, it's very good overall.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness and shadow detail are good considering the age of the source material.

    The colour is also good, but at times it is a little muted and aged. I also found that some of the darker scenes were a little too dark.

    As one might expect of a film of this vintage, film artefacts appear throughout, and include black/white marks, hairs, and scratches. I only found one or two of these distracting, such as at 10:29, as most are hardly noticeable.

    Film-to-video artefacts are present in the form of aliasing, and many objects have a slight shimmer, such as the bench seat and windows at 33:35.

    In regard to MPEG artefacts, the image does appear to be highly compressed at times, and some scenes look a little pixilated. However, there is no break up of the image.

    There are 16 sets of subtitles are present on the DVD, and the English subtitles are simplified, but accurate. Portions of the movie are spoken in German or Dutch, and these are subtitled. I found the use of German and Dutch to be refreshing and authentic, rather than having actors speaking with a 'German accent'.

    This is a dual-layered disc, with the layer change placed at 84:53. There is a slight pause, but it is well-placed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Originally released theatrically in Mag Stereo (and 6-track Mag Stereo for the 70mm version), the audio has been remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 for this Special Edition DVD.

    The feature offers English and French soundtracks, both Dolby Digital 5.1. There is also a stereo commentary track.

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are mostly good on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. Very occasionally dialogue was muffled, or the sync seemed slightly out, but it was so slight that it is hardly worth mentioning.

    The musical score is credited to John Addison, who provides a very different approach to scoring. Apparently Richard Attenborough felt that to retain the documentary feel of the film, there should be no, or at least limited, music. As a result, this lengthy epic film has less than 30 minutes of music. That said, the music is instantly recognisable, with sweeping orchestral, martial themes which really suit the movie. Interestingly, the composer, Addison, was a British tank commander during Operation Market Garden.

    The surround presence and activity is a bit of a mixed bag. The sound mix is quite front-heavy, but the rear speakers burst to life occasionally, which is very noticeable, as there is very little ambience through the other passages of the movie. There are few rear directional effects, but the rears do add nicely to the cacophony of the battle scenes, and there are some nice moments of panning between front and rear speakers, such as the plane flying overhead at 36:39.

    While not being a very bass-heavy experience, the subwoofer supports many of the sound effects, such as the rumble of tanks at 77:42.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are some great extras on this 2-disc Special Edition DVD.

Menu

    Animated, but simple menus, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

Disc 1:

Audio Commentary

    While the menu only mentions the script writer William Goldman, he is 'joined' by a few others: Film historian and film music lecturer/writer, Jon Burlingame, Camera Operator, Peter MacDonald, Assistant Art Director, Stuart Craig, and. Second Assistant Director, Roy Button. Each recorded separately, I found Goldman's commentary to be the most interesting, and wished he had a track of his own. Goldman shares many insights from the wealth of his experience on the art and craft of writing and filmmaking. If you've read Goldman's book on screenwriting, you might recall that he devotes a chapter to solving the 'problems' of presenting this vastly complex story as a cohesive story, and human drama.

Trivia Track

    Hardy 'trivia", this extra allows text boxes to appear on-screen throughout the movie which contain a lot of historical background information about the events being portrayed in each scene.

Disc 2:

Heroes From The Sky (43:40)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, this is a genuine documentary about Operation Market Garden, and the making of A Bridge Too Far. It includes interviews, film footage, and historical file footage.

A Distant Battle: Memories of Operation Market Garden (16:59)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, this extra features interviews with veterans and file footage. The vets provide a first-hand account of Operation Market Garden.

Richard Attenborough: A Filmmaker Remembers (18:05)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital stereo audio, 'Dickie' shares his recollections of making the movie.

Theatrical Trailer (3:06)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Photo Gallery

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, there are a short series of behind-the-scenes stills.

    Two versions of A Bridge Too Far  have been released on DVD in Region 1: The first was released in 1998, and only had Dolby Surround audio, and limited extras. This version was not released in R4. The second R1 release will be the Special Edition, which appears to be the same as the Special Edition released in R4.

    I will update this section once the R1 Special Edition is released, and I can verify the disc's content and extras.

   As a child growing up, I watched this movie every time it was presented on television. As I'm now able to enjoy it in anamorphic widescreen, with digital surround sound, this is the best this movie has ever looked and sounded to me.

    The video quality is very good, considering the age of the source material.

    The audio quality is also very good, albeit quite front-heavy.

    The extras are great, and really added to my enjoyment of the film.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall