Remember what the general said; we’re the cavalry. It would be bad form to arrive in advance of schedule. In the nick of time would do nicely.

This WWII movie about 1944’s “Operation Market Garden” where the Allies attempted to capture strategically important bridges in the Netherlands but resulted in failure, was a veritable “who’s who” of 1970s Hollywood. Starring Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery, Ryan O’Neal, Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Dirk Bogarde, Gene Hackman, James Caan,  Maximilian Schell, Liv Ullmann, Elliott Gould and Robert Redford among many others.

This film was massive on its scale and it makes you wonder how the team and director (the incomparable) Richard Attenborough (who even makes a cameo in the film) was able to pull it off in terms of location and sheer number of actors and moving parts involved. Fun fact: Over 2.7 million feet of film was shot, the equivalent of 500+ hours of footage. I did like and appreciate the fact that there was a female character whose only function wasn’t to serve as a love interest for a cliched romance that is just thrown in for good measure…or to attract a female audience to a war movie…like in a lot of war movies I’ve seen. Some times I just like my war movies to focus on the actual war/battle/brotherhood and carnage itself (dark, I know SMH). I recommend this one.