Bridge control, in warfare, is a comfortable position to be in when defending a territory. The job of taking a bridge is not as fortunate -- artillery, explosives, masses of infantry all wait on the other side. A Bride Too Far follows the Allies' attempt to capture a number of bridges (the most notable being in Arnhem and Nijmegen in the Netherlands) in the hopes of seizing German factories during World War II. As you may have guessed from the title (or knowing history), the plan was a failure, as they tried to take too many bridges (cue the title line of dialogue), and we get that same feeling of over-extension in Richard Attenborough's film.

Within the first hour (of the three-hour epic), seemingly-nameless generals, captains, and other military personnel prepare for the one of the largest assaults in military history. Because there are so many people in the scenes, characterizations are lost early on, and we resort to referencing each character by the starring actor. And everyone is in this film is a name brand: Sean Connery, James Caan, Michael Caine, Elliot Gould, Gene Hackman (offering one of the worst Polish accents in film history), Anothony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, and Liv Ullman (just to name a few). While the first third takes time to set up the operation, which is overtly complicated, it loses site of what is truly affecting -- the personal battles the soldiers must go through in fighting a losing battle.

There are standout moments where the film shines, but they are disjointed and segregated from the film's plot. When Caan risks his life to help a fallen soldier who he promised wouldn't die, Robert Redford leads his company across a river by boat during an onslaught of Germany artillery fire, or Ullman is asked to give up her house for wounded Allied soldiers, we connect with these actors as characters. In these brief moments, we are in tune with their bravery and fear. We connect with them doing the impossible when the impossible needs done. Although these moments are close enough to keep our attention, they hardly create a cohesive experience. Instead, the film is merely the sum of some of these moments.

Nevertheless, when it comes to the bombastic warfare, A Bridge Too Far delivers. The film is awe-inspiring as an endless cavalcade of tanks and jeeps stream down a narrow dirt road and Army parachute battalions leap from airplanes, creating a dust cloud of parachutes, bodies, and supplies. But what makes this spectacle so magnificent is that they are all being done in reality -- those are real parachutes, real tanks, and real people making a movie. In today's climate of computer-generated effects where anything is possible, it's amazing to see the impossible done through practical means.