A Bridge Too Far - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of A Bridge Too Far or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to A Bridge Too Far

[ivan]

Denholm Elliott, who had a brief cameo as an Royal Air Force officer, served in the R.A.F. during World War II.

[clayton]

An episode of the Dutch television history program Andere Tijden (2000), about the making of this movie stated that Joseph E. Levine told the Deventer local government that their town would host the world premiere on June 14, 1977. This never came to be, and Deventer even missed out on the Dutch premiere, which was held in Amsterdam.

[sylvia]

Laurence Olivier (Dr. Jan Spaander) previously narrated The World at War: Occupation: Holland - 1940-1944 (1974) and The World at War: Pincers: August 1944-March 1945 (1974), documentaries which discussed the Allies' defeat at the Battle of Arnhem and the failure of Operation Market Garden respectively.

[morris]

The scene where Private Marsh is killed, trying to retrieve a supply canister that was actually full of maroon berets, was based on a real event, but the actual paratrooper, Corporal Johnny Johnson, survived unharmed (but in Cornelius Ryan's original book was described as rather irate and frustrated at his risking his life for what turned out to be such a futile errand).

[richard]

Composer John Addison was a member of XXX Corps during the actual operation.

[nina]

Over 2.7 million feet of film was shot. At the normal speed of ninety feet per minute (1.5 feet per second) for 35 millimeter film, this equals five hundred plus hours.

[ethel]

Waffen-SS General Wilhelm Bittrich (Maximilian Schell) is one of the few high-ranking SS officers generally considered to have not been personally involved with any war crimes. After the war, he was tried in France for the execution of 17 members of the Resistance. The trial brought to light that in fact Bittrich had known nothing of the atrocity, had not given the orders, and had attempted to have those responsible court-martialed. Bittrich was nevertheless convicted and sentenced to 5 years as the responsible commanding officer. He was released for time served during his long pretrial detention. In later life, Bittrich became active in groups that indulged in revisionist history to resurrect the shattered reputation of the SS.

[duane]

Shooting of the American-led assault on the Bridge at Nijmegen was dubbed the "Million Dollar Hour". Because of the heavy traffic, the crew had permission to film on the bridge between 8:00-9:00 on October 3, 1976. Failure to complete the scene, would have necessitated rescheduling, at a cost, including Robert Redford's overtime, of at least a million dollars. For this reason, Sir Richard Attenborough insisted that all actors playing corpses keep their eyes closed.

[ethel]

Sir Laurence Olivier showed up on the set wearing an old suit and a pair of battered black shoes. He informed Sir Richard Attenborough that he had been gardening in the shoes for a month, so that they would look just right for the character, a Dutch farmer and doctor who risks his life to tend the wounded.

[kyle]

Wolfgang Preiss appeared in this movie and The Longest Day (1962), also based on a book by Cornelius Ryan. In the earlier movie, Preiss played German Major General Max Pemsel, Chief of Staff of the German Seventh Army, while in this movie, he played German Field Marshal Karl Gerd Von Rundstedt, Commander-in-Chief of German ground forces on the western front.

[leo]

This was the first of a two-picture deal that Sir Richard Attenborough signed with Producer Joseph E. Levine. The other being Magic (1978). Attenborough happily signed on with Levine in the hope of getting the financing in place for Gandhi (1982), though Levine ultimately decided not to get involved with that project.

[manuel]

Stuntman Alf Joint was badly injured while filming a stunt falling off a rooftop. He missed the air mattress.

[manuel]

Originally rated "R" by the MPAA for strong language, it was lowered to "PG" upon appeal.

[fred]

In the opening post-invasion scenes, shot in black-and-white and matted, a column of A27M Cromwell tanks, one of the more effective British armored vehicles of World War II, is briefly shown. Elements of the Cromwell's design were incorporated within the later A34 Comet, arguably the best British tank of World War II. This movie may have been both the cinematic debut and sole appearance of the A27M in a major post-1945 war movie production.

[leo]

Laurence Olivier (Dr. Jan Spaander) and Robert Redford (Major Julian Cook) are the only people to act in and direct different Academy Award for Best Picture winners: Olivier played Maximilian de Winter in Rebecca (1940) and directed Hamlet (1948), in which he also played the title role, while Redford played Johnny Hooker in The Sting (1973) and Denys Finch Hatton in Out of Africa (1985) and directed Ordinary People (1980).

[camila]

DIRECTOR CAMEO (Richard Attenborough One of the lunatics wearing glasses watching the soldiers. This was his only acting role in one of the films that he directed.

[edgar]

Hardy Krüger's character, General Ludwig, is a composite of German division commanders General Harmel and Lieutenant Colonel Harzer.

[cameron]

This is the fourth of five times that Robert Redford appeared in a film written by William Goldman. The other four are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Hot Rock (1972), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) and All the President's Men (1976).

[chad]

The scenes around the "Arnhem" bridge were shot in Deventer, where a similar bridge over the IJssel was still available. Although a replica of the original road bridge in Arnhem existed, it was, by the mid 1970s, sitting in modern urban surroundings, which could not be used to portray a 1940s city. A few scenes were shot in Zutphen, where the old municipal house (a white building which in the movie featured the Nazi command center) and the main church can be seen.