A Bridge Too Far (1977)

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Joseph E Levine, a very famous producer, asked if I would show him Oh! What A Lovely War. I arranged a small screening room in London and, when I went in at the end of the showing, he was crying. He cried all the way back to the Dorchester hotel. In his suite there was a book on the table - Cornelius Ryan's 'A Bridge Too Far'. Joe said, "I want you to direct this movie" and I replied, "Mr Levine, I want to make a film about Mahatma Gandhi". He shouted "Mahatma Who?" He told me that they had a great screenwriter called William Goldman who was prepared to do the script, that A Bridge Too Far could be the greatest movie of our time and, that if I agreed to direct it, we would do a deal to do Gandhi afterwards.

I think Bill's script was utterly brilliant. I remember going into his office and, on the wall, he had pinned up the whole passage of the various nationalities of troops.

It looked impossible; the problem being that we were telling a true story and war doesn't shake down into little boxes where you choose. Joe suggested we get a huge star cast and I jumped at this as it solved a great problem. With the film being so complex and everybody in battle dress, it was going to be very difficult for an audience to keep tabs on each storyline. But it would be easy to recognise the Sean Connery story, the Edward Fox story, the Anthony Hopkins story and so on.

The wonderful thing was that with one exception (and I refuse to name him), all these stars were wonderful, magic, always on time, always word perfect. It was tremendously exciting to work with that calibre of player. The film was condemned apart from one or two really perceptive critics such as Philip French, who immediately said this is a brilliant piece of work and tackling an almost impossible task.

Lord Attenborough

"Attenborough felt to tell the story correctly a three-hour movie was required. He wasn't about to 'Hollywood-up' the Battle of Arnhem. This was complicated for me as I had never written a story that long - most movie scripts have to be brought in at 1 hour 50 minutes. It was a different type of script writing than I was used to.

"So the first reading of the script was nerve wracking. Dickie was the first out of the reading and he came out in tears - of joy."

Bill Goldman Screenwriter, A Bridge Too Far

"I enjoyed all of the films but A Bridge Too Far is the one I enjoyed the most because of the character I had to play, Lieutenant General Brian Horrocks. Brian was alive then and I knew him well - we were friends until his death. He was a very particular type of General and it was important that I play the role correctly."

Edward Fox Actor, 'Lt-Gen Brian Horrocks', A Bridge Too Far