History Buffs: A Bridge Too Far

[Music] this episode's sponsored by curiosity stream hello and welcome history buffs my name is Nick Hodges and today I'll finally be covering my favorite World War two movie a bridge too far based on the book a bridge too far by the groundbreaking historian Cornelius Ryan this is the story of operation Market Garden a military offensive by the Allied armies to effectively end the war by Christmas by dropping nearly 40,000 airborne troops into occupied Holland their mission is to capture several bridges to open up an invasion of Germany it was the largest airborne drop in history that entered in stunning defeats with 17,000 allied lives lost how and why's happened are explored in vivid detail unlike your typical war movies we don't follow the actions of one group of soldiers but the efforts of many Americans British Germans poles and Dutch they all portrayed by one of the biggest costs of Hollywood actors you have ever seen most of whom are based on the real people who took part in this operation having said that this is not a film that's going to appeal to your average movie-going audience but it is one that hardcore history buffs will love this three-hour monster goes out of its way to be as historically accurate as possible and both some of the best battle sequences to be put on screen all of which are carried out by practical effects of truly epic proportions almost everything you see was shot for real its achievements easily join the ranks of other classics like tora tora tora and waterloo yes as we all know no historical film can be perfect even one such as this has its fair share of inaccuracies and creative changes but even as Aiko pointed them out of this episode you will still see that the filmmakers wanted to get this story right and compared to other war movies today we may never see it like again this is a bridge too far so the movie begins in late 1944 with the Germans on the run the Allied invasion of France inflicted the vert marks 725,000 losses along 600 of their tanks and much of their equipment the situation in the Russian front looks even worse with Germany losing 900,000 men that very summer with Army Group center being completely destroyed this ferocious onslaught from two fronts had many believing that Germany was on the brink of defeat which involved in the Allies as they swept through France and Belgium but their swift advance soon began to slow to a crawl they were stretched thin and the supply still needed to be trucked up for the Normandy beaches as well as the South of France now wanting to Alber on the logistical support they waited to be resupplied this erupted pause lost the Allied armies the momentum they had in pursuing the Germans so in September 1944 British Field Marshal Montgomery proposed to bold plan to supreme headquarters on retaking the initiative it was called Operation Market Garden and the idea was to drop Allied airborne troops into occupied Holland season hold seven major bridges over Dutch rivers and canals up to the lower Rhine the American hundred first would take the sector north of Eindhoven the American 82nd would take the sector up to Nijmegen and the British 1st airborne and the first Polish para Brigade would take Arnhem the farthest corner of the market objectives meanwhile the British 8th 12 and 30 tank corps would punch through the German lines with 30 Corps advancing along the only highway that connected the Netherlands to Belgium for the offensive they were expected to make 63 miles in two days as military operations go this was certainly an ambitious one way too ambitious as it turned out to be as all the planning and logistics was rushed together and just a week where it suggested any earlier in the war that this plan might have been killed at its inception but the euphoria and their recent string of victories had resulted in overconfidence to sweep through the Allied leadership unchecked with many believing Germany will collapse before the end of 1944 now these weren't naive or gullible people this was just the general thinking at the time and Monty's plan could not only potentially end the war sooner but also incorporated using the first allies airborne army which had been formed as recently as August 1944 vast sums of money had been in training and equipping these men but cancel drop after cancel drop kept many of them sitting on the sidelines and political pressure was mounting to use them before the end of the war so in September 10th 1944 Eisenhower gave Market Garden the green light now if you've already seen a bridge too far you probably noticed that Monti isn't in the movie and the overall blame for Market Garden seems to be placed in British Journal boy Browning as if the filmmakers were covering up for Monti this iconic British war hero but there's actually a good reason why he's not there and that's because he kind of wasn't despite being the mastermind behind Market Garden he didn't even involve himself with directing it around this time his right-hand man Francis de Gant had to be sent home on sick leave from the Allied HQ in France Monte inexcusably had no one to take his place that he felt he could trust sir Monty had to state his main headquarters to fill in for him and as a result he lost touch with what was going on in his absence little details like the RAF refusing to drop British Paris by the island bridges or anywhere close to them the reason why was because there was a German airfield nearby with anti-aircraft guns and the Aria for more concerned with protecting their planes than ensuring the success of the mission understandable butter put the Paris in a tough spot where exactly they were going to land my problem is I don't just need drop zones I need drop zones I can hold and defend I understand sir but we really think we've found the right place well well the hell is it well it's not actually on this photographic it should be yeah this put the drop zone under eight miles from the Arnhem bridges which hasn't received criticism over the years as paratroopers are ideally dropped as close to their target as possible however I don't think it would have made any difference if they had been dropped right on top of Arnhem that far behind German lines was unrealistically ambitious and there were just too many variables for things to go wrong if any one group fare was its total failure was all that's another thing this whole plan hinged from the fact that the Allies expected to me little to no resistance from the Germans the general consensus of opinion is that our opposition will consistent I'll have hit two u-thor l men on Vice which just wasn't true general browning was told as much by the Dutch underground who reported that two SS Panzer divisions were resting and refitting in Arnhem but he refused to accept it even when he was shown photographs of hidden tanks in the woods and that's because neither browning or anyone else wanted to be the ones that rocks the boat they didn't want to tell Montgomery or Eisenhower that this great plant they rushed together in a week had serious flaws 16 consecutive drops have been canceled in the last few months for one reason or another but this time the part is on and no one is going to call it off this short side the stubbornness would cost the Allies dearly lightly armed paratroopers are just no match against tanks as left-handers Colonel John Frost battalion found out in Arnhem during the battle against such heavy resistance the only hope they had was to hold on long enough for 30 Corps to come in and rescue them and they were expected to take two days to reach them if they could pull that off that operation Market Garden might succeed unfortunately the british paratroopers learned that this was easier said than done the Allies have underestimated just how difficult 30 cause journey would be to get to Arnhem as a country the Netherlands is a very flat and wet place making it a treacherous terrain for tanks and heavy vehicles 30 course movements were restricted along the only highway to Arnhem and any tanks that went off-road got stuck in the mud this naturally created a massive traffic jam that stretched for miles oftentimes the highway was only wide enough to let one tank pass through and the Germans took every opportunity to stop that from happening from both sides the road they lay hidden and waited for the first few tanks to pass them by once they did the Germans opened fire with everything they had time and time again 30 course chart was stalled by these ambushes parked bumper-to-bumper they could not advance until the disabled tanks were pushed off the road by an armored bulldozer the fighting was so fierce along this route that it became known as hell's highway for a journey that was supposed to make 63 miles in two days there only made it to seven miles on the first overall it was delays like this and under estimating their enemy that cost the Allies this important battle but even as the smoke cleared and the dead were counted Montgomery still refused to accept accountability he doubled down and claimed the battle was 90% successful saying anything other than what he was being told which isn't surprising given how Operation Market Garden even started well as you know I've always thought that we tried to go a bridge too far this infamous quote that became the title of the book and of this very movie was believed have been said by browning to Montee on the 10th of September 1944 the day Monty issued the directive for Operation Market Garden supposedly browning asked Monty how long will it take the armor to reach us Montgomery replied two days twitch browning said we can hold it for four but sir I think we may be going a bridge too far referring of course to Arnhem it's a great quote but most likely not true although Cornelius Ryan the author of the book stated that it happened there isn't any recording of browning meeting or speaking to Montgomery that day nor any other over the decades subsequent historians agree that browning was not personally briefed by Monty on operation Market Garden at any point and that's weird because high-level military matters and army group level headquarters always get recorded somewhere reinforcing this possibility is the fact that Monty's 21st Army Group had no liaison staffed with the brand-new first allied airborne army which browning was a corps commander in now there's a possible chance Montgomery himself said the bridge too far quote to a staff officer and other people had it somewhere down the line the reason for this is that Monty knew himself that the deployment and logistical preparations were sloppy but he didn't care he was a man in a hurry more focused on personal matters and was winging it by taking the Germans as broken and by extension so is Eisenhower by giving him than not the vert marked were always quick to punish mistakes like that and Julie did regardless of whether quote came from it is now synonymous with an act of one's ambition overreaching their capability as Monty did when he went a bridge too far so now that you have a rough idea of the colossal blunder there was Operation Market Garden we can go ahead with what you're really interested in what exactly that the filmmakers get right well like I said before now historical film is perfect even a classic like a bridge too far has more than its fair share of inaccuracies so what I'm gonna do in this chapter is to point some of them out now that doesn't mean that they're all necessarily bad changes is just that some events and even people were changed slightly to condense some really complex history for example let's take a look at the fictional character major Fuller who clumsily shows general browning recon photos of German tanks around Arnhem splendid view of the Dutch countryside can't see any tanks it's a lot clearer in the next picture he's actually meant to me major Brian Oh Kurt or was renamed to avoid confusion where general Roy Eckert no relation as an intelligence officer major Fuller's played up to be a shy and nervous individual who seems terrified in standing up to general browning I shouldn't worry about them let's say you see that they are tanks I doubt if they're fully serviceable in reality Brian er Kurt was very confident in himself and his responsibilities in fact the reason why we know about him is because he kicked up such a fuss I bet there were a lot of people who were too scared to speak up to browning or Monty about why operation Market Garden was such an awful plan and in a way they are represented through major Fuller's character another thing that isn't true is when we see the cause medical officer send him home on sick leave under orders by browning I haven't done anything wrong of course not just a little time the only thing that happened to Brian urca's was that he requested a transfer out of the airborne forces following the defeat he became depressed after hearing about the high casualties and being unable to stop Market Garden from happening let's take a look another example according to the movie one of the big reasons why the British 1st airborne was defeated was because their radios didn't work and that's kind of true but not exactly the tree rich geography the Netherlands did interfere with communications as it would have done in Sicily Normandy and southern France the standard 22 set radio didn't a range of six to eight miles and the wrong crystals and rundown batteries were installed in some of the radios so you might be asking yourself if the 22 set radio was so bad then why did they bring it well because there wasn't anything better the thing is portable radio technology back then was still primitive so inadequate radios were to be expected in fact he could say these backpack radios were as reliable as a child and walkie-talkies were honestly think that people have this misconception about World War 2 radios because the rubbish that comes out of Hollywood like honestly there's a scene in the movie where Eagles dare with Richard Burton uses a backpack radio to call London from the Bavarian Alps broadsword calling Danny Boy broadsword calling Danny Boy over yeah I'm calling bollocks on that anyway the 22 set radioed works before because paratroopers had always dropped within only a few miles of allied ground forces but on this occasion the Market Garden drop was dozens of miles behind enemy lines so the problem with the radios wasn't so much faulty equipment as it was with general incompetence they actually worked most the time but information had to be relayed back to Moore Park headquarters in London and then over to browning and I make in causing frustrating delays that's basically the real reason why there are communication issues but I'm sure that the director Richard Attenborough didn't feel was necessary to give this more involved explanation another inaccuracy I think you guys will get a kick out of is this one it's that bit in the movie where Antony Hopkins character left Ellen's Colonel Frost runs across the street from enemy gunfire imagine if I told you it would have been more accurate of his character walked across the street instead that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard hey don't look at me this is what the real John Frost told Antony Hopkins when I was shooting that scene you can process something up there I had to do a scene I was right I had to do a run across the street and a gunfire I was running fairly fast as I thought I would you know it's get on the cover and he did say to me he said you know you're running too fast I said will you I'm running too fast this yes he said um you wouldn't understand your men to a danger obviously you can't show that because no audience is gonna believe it it sounds like something someone would make up to make themselves look cool but it wasn't so with John Frost because there's another moment in the movie where the scriptwriter William Goldman wanted to give him a cool line to say and John Frost put his foot down because he never actually said it it's the scene when a German soldier walks across the bridge with a white flag and asked the British to surrender now in real life this conversation was with a captured British sergeant on parole who was sent by the Germans to Samant surrender on their behalf but this is basically how went down we haven't the proper facilities to take you all prisoner sorry what I gave that law into Hopkins now in point of fact he didn't say it somebody else said it and general Frost said you have me saying that line and if I say that line everyone will know that I'm trying to make myself more than I was and I said would you mind being present when it was said and he was quiet for a long time then he said no that would be fine so we gave the line to somebody else what I can't confirm is that John Frost did say this when he was asked to surrender tell him to go to hell next up is not exactly an inaccuracy but an alteration to a certain character the German Field Marshal water modal who's portrayed to be an exaggerated Prussian stereotype he's shown to be unimaginative and a bit of a coward there's one scene in the movie was having lunch at the hotel tafelberg which just happened to be close to a British drop zone literature flash from you doesn't untangle and it thank you a meet often here bottoms are considers tuned he keep the snitch Soviet for us ich ich bin here v8 file so using an ANOVA common which confounded cinnamon or insurv a natural feeling Benoit although the scene is clearly played up for Laughs it is true that motile thought the British worker gets him as well as all the bridges but honestly it wasn't for an unfounded reason the British were dropping in plain sight after all and given his rank in the German army it's understandable why he'd think he was a target when he left Motul kept in touch with HQ with his communication vehicles are like in the movie where he drops out of contact and the scenic commander struggled to reach him Layton usually needs a bigger school sweetings of personnel modals also made to look incompetence in another scene inspired by real events it's when a German soldier stumbles on the crash glider filled with dead paratroopers for some reason we see british paratroopers even though they were really American don't ask me why and the German finds plans detailing everything about Operation Market Garden but when the plants are brought before Field Marshal modal he simply dismisses them Kanzi Ludwig there were nice yes but Oh Steven plan is a plan so far okay this is complete fiction right here in real life these plants will not only taken dead seriously but wound up in front of none other than Colonel general coach student one of the world's great pioneers and foremost experts on airborne warfare he quite literally wrote the book on it in fact the British and American airborne were closely modelled on students own fallschirmjäger so he knew the real thing when he saw its students immediately grossed the Allies strategy and deploy the soldiers accordingly students paratroopers are most famous for seizing the island of Crete and he could see how effective they were in this fantastic documentary series called apocalypse the Second World War and it covers all the biggest moments of that war in high-quality color you could find this documentary in thousands like it's on curiosity stream it's a subscription streaming service that has nothing on it but documentaries including history and you can watch them all for just $2.99 a month but the best part is that fans of history buffs can get their first 30 days for free to get started all you have to do is end promo code curiosity stream comm forward-slash history buffs now whilst is fun to learn about a film's inaccuracies it's also important to recognize when they get it right despite what I said in the previous chapter the director Richard Attenborough did try to make a bridge too far as historically accurate as possible but ironically when it was released in 1977 it was shunned by American critics with some feeling that the movie was too unrealistic and referenced as in scenes that didn't believe was true like the one where James Khan's character Staff Sergeant Eddie Doan finds his captain wounded but close to death seeking medical help he drives like crazy through enemy lines and makes it to a field hospital but instead of being treated the doctor assumes the officer is dead and tells the sergeant just to drop him in a body pile outside well if you don't look at him right now he's gonna die dead now right now I think examination tonight thank you very much sir when some critics saw the scene they dismissed it as pure Hollywood fiction but it is mainly true apart from the bit with the Germans shooting him in the woods the guy's real name was Staff Sergeant Charles Doohan and he did force a doctor at gunpoint to save the life of captain Legrand Johnson now this is just one example but it doesn't take much to see the lengths which dodson Brett went through to try be accurate or at the very least authentic it's pretty obvious why he wanted to shoot a bridge too far in the Netherlands is some of the real locations the battles took place one thing's for sure it certainly wasn't because it was cheap a big problem during production was when the newspapers announced that a bridge too far was going to be the most expensive film ever made which it was at the time the locals started hiking prices up for everything a film shoots might need when we go and try to buy a bag of cement or something is like it's a hundred dollars what this event well let if you got 25 million bucks you know I mean it was literally that so something we had to go to Germany sometimes to buy stuff wow you think that the Dutch wanted to support a Hollywood film based of their own history but instead the local businessman sounds so greedy it's almost cartoonish we're shutting down production yeah well we only have a thousand dollars left anyway our there's $8,000 leaving town tax as expensive as this film came to be it was surly worth it in the end what comes to mind the most is the fantastic airborne drop sequence alongside the Battle of Britain this is the most epic real-life air cinematography ever put on film we really get a sense of what it must have been like to be a civilian on September 17th 1944 to look up at the sky and see it filled with 4636 aircraft ranging from transport planes gliders towed by bombers and escorted by fighters just one indication of just how huge the Samata was on the first day was that it took two hours of a non-stop solid stream of Allied planes flying overhead [Music] I'm materials and due to the scale and complexity of the drop sequence they couldn't afford to do that many reshoots so to capture as much footage as they could they used 19 cameras in total including cameramen inside the planes who'll be jumping out the paratroopers as well you can't get more real than that it was an enormous operation you couldn't store him all that you know what the wind would do you didn't know where that parachute would go left or right you didn't so you had to have cameraman who to all intents and purposes had the expertise and the Lords of documentary film cameramen you had to have a guy who was prepared to put a camera on his shoulder and catch what he could catch as it happened if we were doing it now he'd have three men drop and technically though you know it all done for you that was real there wasn't a fake shot it wasn't a fake shot in the movie and also what's really cool is that this scene was shot in Holland as well in the very skies that the real airborne drop took place I mean I'm sure he could have saved money if he shot us in England or someplace else but a borough was insistent on using the real locations whenever he could the reason why is because they can offer the actors the same challenges that the real soldiers went through like the infamous River wall crossing wanting to be as accurate as possible at a brand not only wanted to shoot on the same River he also wanted the same boats of the 82nd airborne used but when they arrived he saw how flimsy they were and was a little worried for his actors safety which is understandable given how they were made of little more than plywood and canvas what do you expect destroyers come out put it together fortunately everything went fine with the actors safety which is great for the film because the way they're fumbling about trying to get these crappy boats to work is exactly what the paratroopers experienced once a deep-water the walls strong current worked against them they lost momentum were some boats crazily spinning in circles the reason for this was due to the lack of paddles made available to them each boat was supposed to have eight paddles at least but many only arrived wood - which is absolutely disgraceful so the only option they had was to use their rifle butts there been no time to give me soldiers any training with these boats just a desperate dash to get over this big stretch of water the river wall here runs to eight to ten miles per hour and is 1,200 feet wide on the other bank is 1900 feet of flat land overlooked by a high dike Road defended by the Germans an incredibly daunting task and the 82nd airborne had to get there all under intense artillery fire and it was worse than you see in the movie as they were subjected to enfilade fire from the road and railway bridges as well as the opposite riverbank some men became so desperate to avoid the incoming shells that they rode against each other spinning in circles their boats were easy prey for the Germans desperate to maintain a unit cohesion major cook started praying out loud the purpose of this was to mainly keep his men in rhythm as they wrote he'll Mary would be one stroke full of grace would be the second stroke and the inclusion of this historic detail built up the tension one of the most suspenseful scenes I have ever seen in a movie it's so well done the scene I can't praise it enough this is an accurate portrayal of the incredibly courageous American assault the only minor criticism I have is an altercation they left out of the movie because it makes the British look bad and rightfully so basically the reason why the 82nd airborne needs it across this river was so they could capture the Nijmegen Road and railway bridges and allow 30 Corps to pass through on their way to rescue the trapped british paratroopers in Arnhem this joint effort would require the Americans to attack the bridge from one side and the British xxx tank or to attack it from the other however the 82nd airborne in the Germans knew that such a crossing was almost suicide wanting some assurances first they asked a question to the 30 tank corps commander British general Horrocks general if I men do it if they take the bridge what assurance do we have from you that your tanks were gone to Arnhem and that's when he made the statement my troops will be lined up in force held there for him and nothing will stop when this promise was made the Americans fully committed themselves to taking that bridge and the cost in doing so was high of the 240 sent to that first wave that weren't killed a wounded only 99 remained still the bridge was taken a 30 call rolled through the only slight deviation from the film was that the British tanks got across that bridge 45 minutes before major cooks Paris got the northern end of it who wants on the other side 30 Corps came to a halt a few miles later in the village of Lent much to the fury of the American paratroopers and we see major Cooke confronts the Grenadier Guards tank officer captain Carrington those are British troops at Arnhem they're hurt bad you're not gonna stop not now I'm sorry we have our orders we busted our asses getting here half my men are killed and you're just gonna stop and drink tea we can't leave with tanks up that row Jerry will pick us off like sitting ducks our infantry are still fighting in Nijmegen and I get here we'll move on now whilst this confrontation really did happen it wasn't as polite as you see in the film nor was it major cookie chew the guy out but this man captain Boris I can't repeat exactly word for word what I said but I flipped my gun to his head and said if you don't get this blank blank a blank tank moving I'm gonna blow your head off but with that he ducked down in the tank closed the hatch and it couldn't get turned the sad truth is that even if the British kept their promise to the Americans they still would have been able to rescue their fellow paratroopers in arnhem around this time Colonel Frost was forced to surrenders position at the lower Rhine bridge to the Germans and any hope of Market Garden succeeding ceased to be lastly I also want to applaud a bridge too far for going that extra mile on their honest depiction of the Germans during the course of the battle especially the waffen-ss despite their deservedly dark place in history there were moments were some conducted themselves with the same code of honor and chivalry who would have founded the 1700s towards the end of the battle all nine hospitals and casualty stations still in British hands were overflowing with wounded it's medical staff worked around the clock trying to save lives all under intense artillery fire out of desperation dr. Graham Warrick appealed to the Germans humanity and asked for a truce forgive me but there's a battle and we are in the process of winning it cease fire one hour to just to evacuate our wounded afterwards you can kill us as much as you want to the Germans were reluctant at first but then general Beatrice appeared and agreed to a ceasefire and just like you see in the film he gave the British three hours to evacuate 1,200 their wounded into German hospitals even went as far as to say he was sorry for the war between their two nations and gave dr. Warwick a bottle of brandy to take back to general ER Kurt which sounds very civilized once the three hours were up it was game on again now I just like to add that no matter how disgusted we are with the atrocities the waffen-ss have committed it would be wrong of us to deny that these events happened most films today would avoid the subject altogether for obvious reasons which is why I love a bridge too far so much it had the courage and wisdom to respect that history is not all black and white there are ugly smudges of grey between its pages that we all must look at with a critical eye and to deny that is disservice to the people who were actually there [Music] now as much as I love a bridge too far there's one moment that does make my eyes roll and has through the scriptwriter William Goldman now I'm not suggesting is terrible anything in fact I applaud the man for a remarkable job in adapting the original book and being largely faithful to history he definitely has my respect in that regard however he's a little bit full of himself one of the things Goldman was especially proud of with the bridge too far was the fact that he had set out to write an anti-war movie a fact that he makes very clear in his interviews it was a chance to say that war sucks which most movies don't do or is a terrible thing people die lives are destroyed people are maimed I just think glorifying war is a terrible thing that's me personally now obviously there isn't any one of us who'll disagree with this opinion as he puts it war definitely sucks the only thing I don't get is him suggesting that most movies don't say that well what does he mean like what kind of movies like war movies because I can't think of a single one that is pro war even the most gung-ho over-the-top flag-waving war movies don't glorify the acts of war itself I mean seriously have you ever seen a Vietnam movie that made you think this war it's fantastic I didn't think so and yes William Goldman would have us believe that anti-war movies are something of a rarity this wouldn't necessarily bother me if he was just a little bit more subtle in saying that war sucks there's one scene that really stands out to me at the end of the movie is when all the principal allied generals are atop the church fire and they're acknowledging their defeat and their interpretations on how it came about then gene Hackman's character general sosabowski says this stupid line doesn't matter what it was one man says to another I know what let's do today display the war game everybody dies I can't express to you how much that line bugs me it's a pure copper by William Goldman and I'll tell you why the thing is generals can't afford such thinking because if they did they'd never win they wouldn't have the stomach to deal with death they wouldn't be able to lead their soldiers confidently into battle or even gain the trust and respect a perfect example why that is would be this idiot right here Sir William elphinston he oversaw what is on record as the most needless catastrophic defeats in British imperial history they retreat from Kabul in 1842 this was way back when Great Britain was trying to conquer Afghanistan elphinston was a man who couldn't abide confrontations of any sort and compromised the point of betraying his own side when he was placed in command of a garrison Afghanistan the last thing he was looking for was a fight elephants in position his compound miles away from the capital city of Kabul whilst this was more defensible it did isolate himself and his troops from the local people who've naturally looked at these foreign invaders with hostility and suspicion inside the massive compound that didn't seem to be anything to worry about the British lived a luxurious lifestyle with their wives and children they had a race course they played cricket and danced in great balls their attitude was so relaxed they might as well been Garrison's in England anyway this piece would soon end when the British government stopped paying subsidies to the local tribes in anger these tribes started attacking convoy Sauron carbyl in the Khyber Pass elphinston did nothing stop these attacks nor did he take any action against an uprising in Kabul what he wanted was for a treat with his 4500 troops and 12,000 civilians to another British garrison in Jalalabad but to do that or take them through hostile tribal country so evanston reached out to the Afghan leaders to negotiate their safe passage the afghans agreed to meet for tea but when the British envoy Sir William McNaughton arrived they instead killed him and his party and dragged their bodies through the streets of Kabul and what does elphinston do about this nothing he just sent another guy over asking for the same deal this time with an army escort anyway the Afghan leaders agreed to grant him safe passage on the condition that the British handover most of their guns and cannons unbelievably elphinston agreed to this on an January 6th 1842 he withdrew from Kabul was 70,000 men women and children when the British column reached the narrow mountain pass of cut Kabul they were ambushed by the Afghans using the same guns elphinston forgiving them in the carnage that followed the British Army was virtually wiped out this is what happens when generals refused to play the war game anyway I'm sorry for going off on that tangent but I just wanted to illustrate the total absurdity of that line and what it implies general sosabowski wasn't anti-war far from it he was deeply affected by the Warsaw Uprising raging at that time and pleaded for his Peres Brigade to be dropped into Warsaw to fight alongside his fellow poles he was just anti Montgomery's plan for operation Market Garden a fact he made clear when he told browning it was suicide now he actually demanded his orders in writing for Major General er cut and not general browning but still the gut took for him to say that it's a terrific example of a man willing to be true to himself and to his level of professionalism when careers are at stake most people buckled to the powers-that-be he didn't and he wasn't doing that because he thought everyone loses in war it seems that in Goldman's mission to make an anti-war movie he misunderstood what kind of a man Sasa boskie was by having him say this line everybody dies because when generals think like that they often do but to be fair this is the only issue I have with the bridge too far but the rest of it William Goldman knocks it out of the park along with Richard Attenborough as well as the cast and crew who made this film with a same passion for history that we all share on this channel if you've been salivating for another big-budget war movie with nothing in it but practical effects and an attention to detail so well researched that is almost like a documentary then my fellow history buffs look no further than a bridge too far well that about wraps it up my name is Nick Hodges and thanks for watching history buffs and remember if you like the show help the channel grow if you wish to support history buffs then you can now do so at patreon and as always let me know in the comment section what you thought about a bridge too far and of course what historical movie should I review next in the meantime check out the history bus Twitter and Facebook pages for new updates and so then I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: History Buffs

Views: 1,561,680

Rating: 4.9383321 out of 5

Keywords: History Buffs, Nick Hodges, A Bridge Too Far, Operation Market Garden, 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, bernard montgomery, Boy browning, WW2, British airbourne, American Airborne, sean connery, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford, michael caine, james caan, 82nd airborne, 1st airborne, arnhem, richard attenborough, ryan o'neal, gene hackman, elliott gould, dwight d. eisenhower, behind enemy lines, historical film review

Id: PjbEdZyEiMA

Length: 38min 3sec (2283 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Rayhelm]

Such a great movie.

[u/richardnyc]

Hey Fatty, I got a movie for you 'A Fridge Too Far'

[u/serravok]

The first movie that truly hurt me