Azanti

I have also posted this in the cinema section, but realised I might get a better response posting it here:

In the 1980s myself and my friend picked up an extra copy of the excellent film 'A Bridge Too Far' from a car boot. We already had original copies but this was one in slightly different packaging that we hadn't seen before.

Unusally when we watched it, the film had a number of differences, some of these were very subtle and some very obvious, but it was a totally different cut from all the other versions we had in our possesion, original videos, as well those recorded from the tv.

The most notable scene that I have only ever seen on this version and never any others, involved a patrol of Americans roving around the streets of Nijmegen City trying to locate the bridge, at which point they're ambushed by Germans from doors and windows and scatter to cover. The scene ends with two of them running round into a small road where they're mowed down by the faceless gun carrying halftrack (The same vehicle seen later in the scene of 'The human roadblock' in Arnhem) The acting in this scene and the dialogue, was well below par 'Nijmegen bridge must be around here somewhere...' which is probably why it was cut from the definitive version of the film. Which begs the question why did it make it onto one version (and one version only) of the releases of video over the years? It would have also been nice to have the deleted scene on the recent DVD release.

Another boggling sequence was the use of actual black and white footage to depict the advance of XXX Corps up the highway, several shots of these were inserted into the film on top of what was already there, where there had been none before.

The attack over Arnhem Bridge by the 9th SS recon unit was also different, some of the shots were taken from different perspectives and some had been replaced or swaped for others. The scene basically being a different edit of the same sequence.

Now this is not a case of a version that was different from TV, I am well aware the film has recently been appallingly badly cut for television on its last two showings. However its original screening on ITV 1 in 1983/2 was no different from the DVD currently available, both of which I have. (Other than the ratios for viewing)

Alas my friend who had the copy of this bizarre cut lost it recently during a move, which is a real shame. This is not a case of bad child hood memories I can assure you, as we watched it several times and examined all the scenes in detail at the time.

My theory is that somewhere at UA a rough cut ended up being copied by accident (rather than a final master) at some stage when the film was repackaged (It has been about 6 times now) and this version may have been released and then quickly withdrawn by accident.

Anyone else got any other ideas?

Did anyone else ever see or own this version?

David Brent

Very interesting Azanti.

Your piece also reminded me of the film 'Their's Is The Glory' (1946) which was the first to re-enact the Battle of Arnhem.
What is amazing is that the actors appearing in this film were some of the actual allied soldiers that fought in the battle.
Which makes some of the performances seem very wooden but still very fascinating all the same.

Dave.

Steve Crook

Yes, very interesting. Lord Dickie and others have said how some scenes like the SS unit being repelled on Arnhem bridge were a "just one attempt at it" type of thing and they had a lot of cameras on it. It sounds like this video your friend found could have included some of the footage from those other cameras.

I've always been interested in this particular action and I saw it at the cinema a few times when it was first released. I don't remember the additional scenes you mention but that memory could be influenced by the many times I've since seen it on TV, video and now on DVD

A bit of a mystery

Steve

Azanti

David, yes I have that as well, excellent film, all things considered.

Steve - a friend of mine who also saw the orginal cinema release also recalls a shot where a paras leg is split opem upon landing landing, but no one else I know remembers that and it was not on the video that we had. Was it in the version you saw at the cinema?

Steve Crook

I don't remember it exactly although it rings a faint bell, but it was a long time ago and I've seen the TV & DVD versions a lot of times since. There were also a lot of wounds like that in other places so it's hard to say exactly where it happened.

Steve