Robert Redford, Sean Connery, James Caan, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman and an all-star cast go to war in the WW2 epic A Bridge Too Far. New to 4K UHD from Kino Lorber.
The Film
A Bridge Too Far is the rare kind of war film … A WW2 film about a complete and utter disaster and failure of a mission on part of the allied forces. The film adapted by William Goldman from the historical best seller by Cornelius Ryan of the same name manages to be insightful and thrilling in the how this loss happened.
Operation Garden Market was a simple mission to take strategic bridges and points in Holland post D-Day. It was within the details of inclimate weather, terrible terrain, arrogance on the allied forces, and all-around bad luck that put the favor in the German’s hands. A Bridge Too Far illustrates this through the eyes of many of the men who took part from the Generals (played by Dirk Bogarde, Edward Fox, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Ryan O’Neal), to the Commanding Officers (Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Elliot Gould), to the men fighting in the trenches (Robert Redford, James Caan, John Ratzenberger).
Running at a stately 2 hours and 56 minutes director Richard Attenborough has created a film that despite its length never feels boring but also never feels rushed. The time we’re given with the men (and in rare case women or woman … played by the legendary Liv Ullman) gives us a sense of who these people are but also allows the all-star cast to have more than a few moments. There’s an adroit clever wit abound to Goldman’s script to the dialog and action that gives the film the punchiness you want. It also knows when to pull back to give us the full weight of the situation.
The clever understanding of casting the right actor to role is perfectly done here. Hackman’s third wheel Polish General seeing the calamity of it all (before it happens) and being powerless to do anything, the actor’s knowing subtle looks make the role all the better and more than a character as a plot device. Or the delightful appearances by Caine and Gould chomping scenery in their very different charismatic ways. Or Caan’s Sargent risking life and limb for his dead Captain is Caan at his physical best. Or Redford playing a sacrificial lamb of Major against horrible odds praying for he and his men as they are being gunned down in a river is the super star at his laconic best.
Though the standout and the defacto lead (within the ensemble) is Sean Connery as Major-General Roy Urquhart who leads the Airborne troops into battle and must contend with every setback imaginable at every turn. Connery is great at putting a human face to the commanders who saw the consequence of pencil pushers’ arrogance (in the form of Bogarde and Fox). It’s some of the best work done by Connery in his entire career and is the broken soul of the film.
A Bridge Too Far is a truly impressively mounted war epic. Shot beautifully by legend Geoffery Unsworth with his keen eye for diffuse imagery. Action scenes epically staged by 11 2nd Unit and Assistant Directors, 4 production Managers, and 26 Stuntpeople (including legends Vic Armstrong, Alf Joint, and Paul Weston), 8 special effects supervisors, and literally thousands more to make this physically to come life. When they say “they don’t make ‘em like the used to” they are talking about this film very specifically.
The Transfer
The all-new HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative is an excellent near flawless presentation of the 35mm Widescreen shot film by cinematographer Geoffery Unsworth. There is nary a scratch nor defect through the runtime. This new master allows Unsworth’s patented diffusion layered image with the use of Dolby Vision Encoding and 4K UHD, brings a level of fine detail that, for the first time, not on 35mm, there is a sense of clarity even during the nighttime scenes that also have that layer of diffusion. Kino has spent the time and care to ensure that the film is brought to 4K properly mimicking and in some cases outdoing the 35mm origins of the film.
The Extras
They include the following;
DISC 1 (4KUHD):
NEW Audio Commentary by Filmmaker/Historian Steve Mitchell and Combat Films: American Realism Author Steven Jay Rubin
Audio Commentary by Screenwriter William Goldman and the Film’s Main Crew
DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):
NEW Audio Commentary by Filmmaker/Historian Steve Mitchell and Combat Films: American Realism Author Steven Jay Rubin
Audio Commentary by Screenwriter William Goldman and the Film’s Main Crew
Theatrical Trailer
The first of two Audio Commentaries is an all-new track by Filmmaker/Historian Steve Mitchell and Combat Films: American Realism Author Steven Jay Rubin. Mitchell and Rubin begin with their credentials before diving into the opening that features stock footage which is there is very little of and a discussion of how the War film had fallen out of popularity in 1977. Some of the details include a discussion of who’s the author of the film that’s based on a hugely popular historical best-selling novel; a discussion of producer Joseph L Levine and how he developed the property and brought this to production; how Levine mitigated the dangers of producing such a big budget out of favor genre; how Levine started preproduction 4 years before the novel was even completed; the films that were produced by Levine; the actual budget for the film; a discussion of the critical reception of the film; a larger discussion of the historical context to the battle; a larger discussion of William Goldman’s adaptation of the novel – what changed, what was embellished, what are its strengths, what are its weaknesses, and what not included; the various locations around Europe that the production used; a detailed discussion how they accomplished this mostly physically mounted film; a detailed discussion of the various actors that appear in the film and their specific part in the film; and much more. Mitchell and Rubin provide a great commentary track with a wealth of quotes from the various actors and crew that made the film from Mitchell.
The second Audio Commentary is an archival track by Screenwriter William Goldman and the Film’s Main Crew – which consists of Music Historian John Burlingame, Camera Operator Peter MacDonald (First Unit), Assistant Art Director Stuart Craig, and Special Effects Supervisor John Richardson. Well over twenty years old the track is still one of the best tracks ever produced with Goldman taking most of the track both discussing historical points, production anecdotes, as well as sometimes just reading from his book about the making of the film. The other participants discuss their contributions at length with an honest and “nuts and bolts” informational style that may seem at first dry, but when one realizes the herculean task they and the thousands of others hand it becomes all the more fascinating to hear them talk about how everything was accomplished. This is truly a wonderful audio commentary from the golden age of commentary tracks.
Rounding out the special features are trailers for A Bridge Too Far (3:18); Wake Island (2:08); Five Graves to Cairo(2:13); Sands of Iwo Jima (1:53); The Bridges at Toko-Ri (2:00); To Hell and Back (2:53); The Train (4:26); Hell is for Heroes (2:55); Uncommon Valor (1:21); Cry Freedom (2:43);
The Final Thought
Kino Lorber has provided collector’s with another wonderful 4K UHD upgrade. Highest Possible Recommendations!!
Robert Redford, Sean Connery, James Caan, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman and an all-star cast go to war in the WW2 epic A Bridge Too Far. New to 4K UHD from Kino Lorber.
The Film
A Bridge Too Far is the rare kind of war film … A WW2 film about a complete and utter disaster and failure of a mission on part of the allied forces. The film adapted by William Goldman from the historical best seller by Cornelius Ryan of the same name manages to be insightful and thrilling in the how this loss happened.
Operation Garden Market was a simple mission to take strategic bridges and points in Holland post D-Day. It was within the details of inclimate weather, terrible terrain, arrogance on the allied forces, and all-around bad luck that put the favor in the German’s hands. A Bridge Too Far illustrates this through the eyes of many of the men who took part from the Generals (played by Dirk Bogarde, Edward Fox, Sean Connery, Gene Hackman, Ryan O’Neal), to the Commanding Officers (Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Elliot Gould), to the men fighting in the trenches (Robert Redford, James Caan, John Ratzenberger).
Running at a stately 2 hours and 56 minutes director Richard Attenborough has created a film that despite its length never feels boring but also never feels rushed. The time we’re given with the men (and in rare case women or woman … played by the legendary Liv Ullman) gives us a sense of who these people are but also allows the all-star cast to have more than a few moments. There’s an adroit clever wit abound to Goldman’s script to the dialog and action that gives the film the punchiness you want. It also knows when to pull back to give us the full weight of the situation.
The clever understanding of casting the right actor to role is perfectly done here. Hackman’s third wheel Polish General seeing the calamity of it all (before it happens) and being powerless to do anything, the actor’s knowing subtle looks make the role all the better and more than a character as a plot device. Or the delightful appearances by Caine and Gould chomping scenery in their very different charismatic ways. Or Caan’s Sargent risking life and limb for his dead Captain is Caan at his physical best. Or Redford playing a sacrificial lamb of Major against horrible odds praying for he and his men as they are being gunned down in a river is the super star at his laconic best.
Though the standout and the defacto lead (within the ensemble) is Sean Connery as Major-General Roy Urquhart who leads the Airborne troops into battle and must contend with every setback imaginable at every turn. Connery is great at putting a human face to the commanders who saw the consequence of pencil pushers’ arrogance (in the form of Bogarde and Fox). It’s some of the best work done by Connery in his entire career and is the broken soul of the film.
A Bridge Too Far is a truly impressively mounted war epic. Shot beautifully by legend Geoffery Unsworth with his keen eye for diffuse imagery. Action scenes epically staged by 11 2nd Unit and Assistant Directors, 4 production Managers, and 26 Stuntpeople (including legends Vic Armstrong, Alf Joint, and Paul Weston), 8 special effects supervisors, and literally thousands more to make this physically to come life. When they say “they don’t make ‘em like the used to” they are talking about this film very specifically.
The Transfer
The all-new HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative is an excellent near flawless presentation of the 35mm Widescreen shot film by cinematographer Geoffery Unsworth. There is nary a scratch nor defect through the runtime. This new master allows Unsworth’s patented diffusion layered image with the use of Dolby Vision Encoding and 4K UHD, brings a level of fine detail that, for the first time, not on 35mm, there is a sense of clarity even during the nighttime scenes that also have that layer of diffusion. Kino has spent the time and care to ensure that the film is brought to 4K properly mimicking and in some cases outdoing the 35mm origins of the film.
The Extras
They include the following;
DISC 1 (4KUHD):
DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):
The first of two Audio Commentaries is an all-new track by Filmmaker/Historian Steve Mitchell and Combat Films: American Realism Author Steven Jay Rubin. Mitchell and Rubin begin with their credentials before diving into the opening that features stock footage which is there is very little of and a discussion of how the War film had fallen out of popularity in 1977. Some of the details include a discussion of who’s the author of the film that’s based on a hugely popular historical best-selling novel; a discussion of producer Joseph L Levine and how he developed the property and brought this to production; how Levine mitigated the dangers of producing such a big budget out of favor genre; how Levine started preproduction 4 years before the novel was even completed; the films that were produced by Levine; the actual budget for the film; a discussion of the critical reception of the film; a larger discussion of the historical context to the battle; a larger discussion of William Goldman’s adaptation of the novel – what changed, what was embellished, what are its strengths, what are its weaknesses, and what not included; the various locations around Europe that the production used; a detailed discussion how they accomplished this mostly physically mounted film; a detailed discussion of the various actors that appear in the film and their specific part in the film; and much more. Mitchell and Rubin provide a great commentary track with a wealth of quotes from the various actors and crew that made the film from Mitchell.
The second Audio Commentary is an archival track by Screenwriter William Goldman and the Film’s Main Crew – which consists of Music Historian John Burlingame, Camera Operator Peter MacDonald (First Unit), Assistant Art Director Stuart Craig, and Special Effects Supervisor John Richardson. Well over twenty years old the track is still one of the best tracks ever produced with Goldman taking most of the track both discussing historical points, production anecdotes, as well as sometimes just reading from his book about the making of the film. The other participants discuss their contributions at length with an honest and “nuts and bolts” informational style that may seem at first dry, but when one realizes the herculean task they and the thousands of others hand it becomes all the more fascinating to hear them talk about how everything was accomplished. This is truly a wonderful audio commentary from the golden age of commentary tracks.
Rounding out the special features are trailers for A Bridge Too Far (3:18); Wake Island (2:08); Five Graves to Cairo(2:13); Sands of Iwo Jima (1:53); The Bridges at Toko-Ri (2:00); To Hell and Back (2:53); The Train (4:26); Hell is for Heroes (2:55); Uncommon Valor (1:21); Cry Freedom (2:43);
The Final Thought
Kino Lorber has provided collector’s with another wonderful 4K UHD upgrade. Highest Possible Recommendations!!
Kino Lorber’s 4K UHD Edition of A Bridge Too Far is out now.
Share this:
Like this:
Discover more from The Movie Isle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.