You know what's cool? War films. What
could be cooler than seeing the adventure and all-out action,
depictions of armies coordinating and fighting using tactics and
fearsome technology in colossal battles where the stakes are huge?
I'll tell ya what's cooler: war movies that are based on true
stories. I'm talking about films like The Pianist (2002),
Downfall (Der Untergang, 2004),
Sergeant York (1941), Zulu (1964), Lawrence of
Arabia (1962), those types of films. There's something truly
special about movies that try to recreate these types of
history-changing events. Today I'm going to be comparing two of the
big classic heavyweights of this genre: 1962's The Longest Day
and 1977's A Bridge Too Far.
First let's start with the
similarities. Both films are based on non-fiction books by Cornelius
Ryan which detail some of the largest and most daring operations of
the Western Allies in the Second World War: The Longest Day
covers the D-Day invasion while A Bridge Too Far recounts
Operation Market Garden. Both films are big-budget epics with huge
set piece action scenes, impressive attention to detail, foreign
languages, and long run times. They've also each got extraordinary
casts made up of the biggest stars of their respective periods. TLD's
ensemble included Paul Anka, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda, Robert
Mitchum, Kenneth More, and John Wayne. ABTF boasted Dirk Bogarde,
James Caan, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence
Olivier, Robert Redford, and Maximilian Schell.
Interestingly both films feature Sean
Connery, though his appearance in TLD is rather short. The Longest
Day was the last film Connery did before taking on the role of
James Bond later that year and rising to international stardom. And
speaking of agent 007, TLD also includes German-born actors Gert
Frobe and Curd Jurgens who played Bond villains Auric Goldfinger
(Goldfinger, 1964) and Karl Stromberg (The Spy Who Loved
Me, 1977), respectively. (On a side note, Roger Moore was
originally offered the role of General Horrocks in ABTF, but turned
it down due to scheduling conflicts with The Spy Who Loved Me.)
Both films are remembered fondly today
with respectable contemporary reviews. However only The Longest
Day received any recognition at the Academy Awards, with two wins
(Special Effects, Cinematography) and three additional nominations.
(Just a side note, TLD was originally released in black-and-white
while ABTF has always been in colour.)
Now on to the differences, starting
with the action. The action scenes of both films are very good. They
range from small skirmishes – like a handful of guys trying to run
across an occupied town unnoticed – to large set piece battles –
like hundreds of troops storming a beach or a dozen tanks being blown
up by anti-tank guns. Both films' action scenes are very much a
product of their respective times, and I don't just mean that A
Bridge Too Far's play out better thanks to a larger budget and
more sophisticated special effects. The Longest Day came out
in a period where war in film was romanticized and idealized. As a
result, its action scenes are bloodless and feel like adventures for
our heroes to embark upon. The action scenes in A Bridge Too Far
are more gritty and intense (though not as visceral as today's war
films). Of course, this is likely also due to the film's narrative
compared to TLD; Operation Overlord was an Allied success whereas
Operation Market Garden was a failure that resulted in heavy Allied
casualties. The more intense action scenes in ABTF are a good way of
instilling a sense of urgency. This sentiment simply does not exist
in The Longest Day where we are told that all the action will
take place during one day. Also, TLD takes forever to finally give us
some action; the planning and preparation scenes aren't as
interesting as they are in ABTF.
Both films are reasonably historically
accurate, but I think there is some friction to be found between the
nationalities portrayed (which let's face it, happens with pretty
much every war film). The Longest Day follows characters who
are German, American, British, and French – both French resistance
fighters and army commandos. Hmm... who's missing? Oh yeah. THE
CANADIANS!!! There's no Canadian characters and (if I'm remembering
correctly) I don't think their contributions to Operation Overlord
are even mentioned. For a film that tries to pay respect to the brave
men who put their lives on the line for the sake of freedom TLD
really dropped the ball there. Overall, the most screen time goes to
US Army soldiers.
A Bridge Too Far focuses on
characters who are British, American, Polish, German, and Dutch. With
this flick, most of the screen time goes to the British armed forces.
I like this change; it was the British paratroopers who landed at
Arnhem and Arnhem is the crucial location of the whole operation.
There's still no Canadians present, but since the film focuses more
on combat and only Canadian engineers were involved in Market Garden
I don't think it's as big a deal as in TLD. No, this time the short
end of the stick goes to Field Marshall Montgomery and (especially)
General Browning. Blaming Montgomery for Market Garden's failure has
become the popular thing to do since the war's end (and he somewhat
deserves it), but since Montgomery isn't given a portrayal in this
movie Browning (played by Dirk Bogarde) is made out to be the bad
guy. He keeps a smug smile on his face as he ignores intelligence
reports and intimidates his peers and subordinates into obeying
Montgomery's plans. This portrayal of Browning understandably caused
a bit of controversy amongst those who personally knew the General in
real life.
However there was one performance in
ABTF that I felt was done even worse than Bogarde's and that is Ryan
O'Neal as Brig Gen James Gavin. His soft demeanour and passive voice
do not at all make him appear as a hardened career soldier, but
rather some wimpy pushover who gets his hopes up about everything.
It's as if he asks people to do things instead of telling
them. As for The Longest Day, the rotten turkey award goes to
John Wayne as LT Col Benjamin Vandervoort. Why is John Wayne in a
Second World War movie? I've never been a big Duke fan; he basically
just plays himself in every one of his movies. But this one is particularly weird since he's playing a character who's supposed to be half his
age! They picked him just for his star power. It couldn't have
been anything else.
But most of The Longest Day's
acting is pretty good, even if there's no truly standout performances
(though to be fair that may just be because I'm not too familiar with
most of TLD's actors). In A Bridge Too Far, I'd say the best
acting comes from Anthony Hopkins as Lt. Col. John Frost and James
Caan as SSG Eddie Dohun.
However, one problem shared by both
films is that their cast is too big. They both have so many big-name
actors and they try jamming in so many characters that most of them
are relegated to only a few scenes. For instance, Gert Frobe has
maybe two minutes of screen time in TLD. James Caan is given two
scenes (two and a half, tops) in ABTF. For crying out loud, Robert
Redford is on screen for approximately ten and a half minutes minutes
in ABTF – despite rumours of him being that film's highest-paid
actor! This doesn't give us much of a chance to get to know or care
about most of the characters whose names you'll struggle to remember.
Which brings us to the last point of
contention, the story. Each film has a story with a very different
feeling to it that roughly reflects their subject material. As stated
before, TLD is focused on one day of combat and so each subplot and
character arc is rather short. There's five different beaches being
stormed as well as a vast swath of countryside being attacked by
resistance fighters and paratroopers dropping in. The characters are
all working towards a common goal – the liberation of Normandy –
but their subplots rarely converge and can feel a bit disjointed,
probably because that goal was still far from being achieved by the
end of Overlord's first day. Instead The Longest Day is but
the first step in an epic, grand crusade; a “feel-good war movie”,
if you will.
A Bridge Too Far is more a lesson against the folly of one's own hubris. It's about an Army
Group that tried biting off more than it could chew. The tone is more
intense and more urgent. Additionally, the characters' successes are
interdependent. Lt. Col. Frost can only do his job if Lt. Col.
Vandeleur can only do his job if Major Cook can only do his job if
Col. Stout can only do his job if Maj. Fuller can only do his job if
Gen. Browning would only let him. The subplots and character
arcs each feel like they're leading somewhere (except maybe Sergeant
Dohun's); they're moving with a purpose in the same direction just as
XXX Corps is in a race against time to reach the Arnhem bridge.
This is why I think ABTF is the
superior movie. They're both great – though not perfect, 90%
successful – classic entries in the war genre. They've each got
some impressive action scenes and chances are you might find one of
your favourite actors in one of them. If you like WWII films, then
just give both of them a try. Just bear in mind that I think you'll
end up enjoying A Bridge Too Far a bit more.
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