The Legacy of "A Bridge Too Far" (1977)

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – There was a time when the only place you heard the word “digital” was in a man’s urologist’s office. Now, everything is digital! Particularly when it comes to epic war pictures – digital planes, digital ships, digital tanks, even huge digital portrayals of massed infantry. Back in the mid-1970s, producer Joseph Levine had the ultimate cinematic challenge – how to adapt Cornelius Ryan’s book “A Bridge Too Far” into a film. This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, military technical advisor, film historian and veteran Rory Aywlard and I dive into a look at one of the most technically challenging war pictures of all time. Filmed, fifteen years after “The Longest Day,” also based on fact-based Ryan’s book, Levine and his capable director Richard Attenborough, working from a terrific William Goldman adaptation, had their hands full recreating war-ravaged Holland in 1944. Tune in and we explore those challenges, the fabulous cast and the legacy of one terrific war picture.