Yeah, that was pretty cool and amazing. I thought the exact same thing when that scene appeared. I kept thinking, “Wow those are real, they didn’t have computer graphics back then”. We’ll never see the likes of that in a movie again, I’m afraid.
I think your points are valid, but I would also say the same problems apply to “The Longest Day” and are inherent in the type of story they are trying to tell. D-Day and Market Garden weren’t about one or two individuals, they were about a whole bunch of people doing a bunch of different things. That’s how Ryan’s books were written and it’s how both movies were made. They wanted people to realize all the individual acts of heroism. Maybe it would have worked better with unknowns in the roles, but then we are talking about very expensive movies to make and thus you need star power.
Well, that’s convenient. Anytime someone disagrees with us, we’ll just say, “It’s not me, it’s my source that’s wrong!” :) Just kidding.
Seriously, yes, I found what you are talking about on a review of the DVD on Amazon. But I think somehow Attenborough is confused or misspeaking in some way, because what he portrayed in the movie is exactly what happened. Perhaps Cook himself ordered the assault but did not participate, at least in the first wave. But other than that possibility, the movie was accurate. It was the US paratroopers that made the cross river assault, not the British. They had to because the Brits had no infantry in the area, their armor was the spearhead. In fact if you go to the wiki article on the, the Redford part is mentioned nowhere in the historical accuracy section as an issue.
Trust me, I did look it up just now and failed. Unfortunately a lot of my dvd’s are all over the place between storage units and relatives’ basements. Anyway, the more I think about it, the more much of my hostility towards the film seems unwarranted by the degree of its mistakes. Now I’m going to have to watch the goddamned thing again, if I can find it.
Yeah, sure. Like I said, I favor a different style of war movie by default, and it’s not really fair to judge Attenborough’s…whatever it is by that measure. If you’re going for gritty and detailed, I prefer a much narrower focus. If you’re going for a broad focus, I need less detail and certainly less star involvement. Catch 22 when it comes to market garden, to be sure.
It might be due to the showing of the first wave only, with Redford there braving the bullets. Apparently a British General referred to the river crossing as to the “single most heroic action of the war”. Unfortunately he was talking about the second wave (that still got into the boats seeing the carnage ahead of them), and not the first, led by Maj. Cook (yes, he was in the first wave - the movie is spot on there). The writer of the screenplay referred to it in his book “Adventures in the Screen Trade”.
