Originally Posted by
globecanvas
Eh, as a big movie buff, I'd say it's decent and watchable, but not great. Some of the vignettes are great, especially the ones with Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery, but it suffers from the 70s blockbuster movie failing of too many stars (aka Towering Inferno Syndrome), and all of the American actors are just plain miscast. Gene Hackman is wasted (not easy to do!) and Robert Redford looks like he belongs in a different movie entirely.
Sorry for the derail, but I just read Ebert's 1977 review of the movie out of curiosity.
Originally Posted by http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-bridge-too-far-1977
an exercise in wretched excess, such a mindless series of routine scenes, such a boringly violent indulgence
(the producer) went two or even three bridges too far
the longest B-grade war movie ever made
marches glumly from one cliché to the next
Ryan O'Neal is so bad that (the producer) should have fired him and started over
That fine actor Gene Hackman turns in a performance that looks as if it's trying to hide underneath itself
... and so on. I don't always agree with Ebert (I tend to find him too sentimental), but there are few things as entertaining as a review of a movie that he hated.
