VS.
A BRIDGE TOO
FAR (5) vs. A WALK IN THE SUN (12)
ACTING:
"A Bridge Too Far" has an all-star cast of both
British and American A-Listers. They
took the production seriously. There are
excellent performances across the board.
Maybe it was the competition. The
standouts included James Caan as a grunt who saves his “dead” lieutenant and
Elliot Gould as a crusty American officer who has to build a Bailey
Bridge. Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins,
Sean Connery, and Gene Hackman are commanding as commanders. Kudos to Dirk Bogarde for taking on the
thankless role of Gen. Browning (Monty’s incompetent lap dog – or so the movie
implies) and making American audiences shake their heads smugly.
"A Walk in the Sun" has a cast of familiar B-Listers
from the 1940s. They do as well as could
be expected, but can’t compete with the “Bridge” cast. Dana Andrews is strong in the lead role, but
noone breaks out. A couple of the
performances get a little grating after a while (ex. Richard Conte as Ramirez) . However, given the small nature of the film,
the acting is more than adequate.
FIRST QUARTER SCORE:
BRIDGE 9 WALK 7
CLICHES:
“Bridge” is not the type of war movie that lends
itself to clichés so this category is slightly unfair. I tried thinking of some “epic war movie”
clichés like pompous orchestral music, but could not come up with a comparable
list to the combat movie clichés list.
With respect to similar movies like “The Longest Day”, “Midway”, and
“Tora! Tora! Tora!”, it follows the typical plot pattern. Concentration on leadership instead of the
troops, coverage of several units, jumping between Allied and Axis
perspectives, a few grunts getting personal stories (ex. Dohun), etc.
“Walk” is a small unit dynamics movie in the classic
sense. It begins with a thank you to the
Armed Forces. The group is heterogeneous (including the Brooklynite), but the
different backgrounds are not a major plot point. There is a commentator in the form of Windy
Craven who is composing a letter to his sister in his head. The hero (Tyne) has leadership forced on him. There is a distinct objective that they move
towards. The plot alternates between
action and dialogue. On the other hand,
it is missing several of the other clichés.
There is no redemption character and no real conflict within the group.
HALF TIME SCORE:
BRIDGE 17 WALK 14
PLOT:
“Bridge” is the true story of Operation Market Garden
and it is based on the outstanding book by Cornelius Ryan. The movie does justice to both. It does an excellent job juggling the command
perspectives of both sides and integrating the battle scenes. Considering the complexity of the campaign,
the film is not confusing and manages to stick to a linear structure.
“Walk” has a much simpler plot. It also is based on a great novel by Harry
Brown so it is not a true story. The
plot builds slowly to an assault on a German farm house in Italy. The combat
scene at the end is the obligatory payoff for a movie that is more interested
in soldier interaction than action. This
means the plot is uncommon for a war movie and thus its competent direction by
Lewis Milestone makes the movie very interesting, but not for everyone. In other words, if you have seen ten war
movies, you will probably hate it. If
you have seen 100, you’ll probably love it.
The movie is almost totally the opposite of “Bridge” in its
concentration on the small picture. The
movies make outstanding companions.
THIRD QUARTER SCORE:
BRIDGE 26 WALK
22
COMBAT:
“Bridge” is very underrated as a combat film. There are several very well done combat
sequences. The scenes involving the
Arnhem Bridge stand out, but there is also the best river crossing under fire
scene in war movie history. The action
is violent and pretty graphic. There are
plenty of realistic explosions. Compared
to its most obvious equivalent, “The Longest Day”, it packs a lot more punch.
“Walk” is at a big disadvantage in this tournament
when it comes to combat. It throws some
in, but almost as an afterthought. There
is a scene involving ambushing an armored car which is cool, but mainly because
of the staging and cinematography. The
assault on the farm house has a weird feel to it with most of the action from a
German machine gunner point of view and Americans making a frontal charge
leading to falling bodies. It’s pretty
bloodless. Other than the lack of blood,
the movie is honest about the boring nature of warfare where long bouts of
sitting around and talking are broken up by short intense moments of
violence. However, this reality does not
go over well with most war movie fans.
FINAL SCORE:
BRIDGE 35 WALK
27
COLOR ANALYSIS: I am a big fan of "A Walk in the Sun", but sometimes bigger is better. "Walk" could not hang with the more talent-laden "Bridge". Realistic soldier talk and behavior makes "Walk" a fine representative of the minimalist school of war films, but in a match-up of combat films it lacks bang. The fact that its day in the life of a platoon is true to the basically boring nature of war is commendable. However, it ran into a movie that was true to the massive nature of a military campaign. "Bridge" lived up to its pedigree with excellent acting and set pieces. It just overwhelmed "Walk".
Have not seen A Walk in the Sun yet, but A Bridge Too Far is a brilliant movie.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely need to see "Walk". I am a big fan. This was not a good match-up for it. It does not have a lot of action and it is not for everyone, but I find it more realistic inits depiction of how war is mostly walking around clueless. It also has one of the few honest depictions of a leader cracking from stress. The dialoge is some of the best from any war movie, although the lack of cursing is unrealistic. Just substitute the f word whenever they say "lovin'".
ReplyDeleteAs far as Bridge, I totally agree. It does not get its due because it did not do well at the box office (partly because its about a loss). If it had D-Day as its subject (unfortunately already taken by "The Longest Day"), it would be considered one of the great war movies.