MovieChat Forums > A Bridge Too Far (1977) Discussion > Elliot Gould and Ryan O'Neal

Elliot Gould and Ryan O'Neal


If there were ever any two actors miscast for a war movie it's these two clowns.

Anyone agree?

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The 'Big Names' were supposed to be Box Office 'draw' obviously...I found that it distracted from the movie to a certain extent; of course if there weren't 'big names' it's very likely that the movie would not have been made....

NM

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Gould was fine, O'Neal terrible as always.

"I shall tread uncommon wary and keep my pepperbox handy."

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I liked both of them.

What's the problem with O'Neal? He was just one year younger than the character he portrayed, and he acted the part well enough.

On the other hand, I like Roger Moore, but I am glad Edward Fox got that roll.

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dont forget robert redford that got 2million just to appear for about 5 minutes in the movie tops.
talk about sell out :)

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The role of Major Cook was to go to Steve McQueen, but he turned it down. The studio wanted star power for an American in an action role, and Robert Redford was offered the cash to play the role.

Redford did well enough, but he came off as a Hollywood actor rather than as being believable in the role. He was stale for most of his screen time.

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One of my favorites is Edward Fox. What a dashing intelligent character he created.

Gould played a one dimensional caricature of the famous real life person he is based on Colonel Robert Sink.

O'Neal's portrayal of General Gavin was whiney. About as far from the real man as possible.

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Yep - if it weren't for those 2 clowns, this movie would actually have been in the category of very good. ecause of those 2, I would characterize the film as poor. Elliot Gould was badly miscast and Ryan O'Neal was a complete disaster. They were so conspicuously bad, it was distracting. All the British actors were outstanding and so were the actors portraying the Germans. Redford wasn't bad; Gene Hackman was OK; James Caan was probably the best American in the film.

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All the British actors were outstanding


Agreed. They made this movie.

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I watched it again since my original post and now I see that Gould was trying to do an imitation of George C. Scott doing Patton. What a shame.

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Believe it or not, Gould's character of "Colonel Bobby Stout" was a fictionalized version of Colonel Robert Sink, the same real-life person played by Dale Dye in Band of Brothers. It was Sink who had the Son River bridge blow up in his face.

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the same real-life person played by Dale Dye in Band of Brothers. It was Sink who had the Son River bridge blow up in his face.


And because of that fact, some venomous folks have actually said The 506th (and specifically Easy Company) was the reason Market Garden failed.

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

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Hope you don't mean me being venomous, nick, as I have in the past pointed out that both the Son and Nijmegan bridges not being captured as contributing to Market Garden's failure. But there are many reasons for it's failure, the main one being the bloody Germans.
The loss of Son Bridge could be coped with by the building of a Bailey, losing valuable time of course but the Nijmegan Bridge couldn't be replaced by a Bailey and that was far more critical. It's not entirely the US paras fault, they'd been ordered to capture the Groensberg(?) heights before taking the bridge but the failure to take the bridge as spoon as possible before it could be reinforced definately did delay XXX Corps. If the bridge had been captured and held, whether they could have still made it on time to relieve Frost's forces at Arnhem bridge is conjectural at best.

Trust me. I know what I'm doing.

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No not you, hot...the poster in question was specific in pinning the blame for M/G's failure on Easy co...heck, it might have even been one of those pissing matches on YouTube.

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

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I saw this as a 12 year old & Gould's part was a stand out then & still is today. I just watched it on Blu-ray today.

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Gould is the plucky comedy relief for the Americans. The script made it so.

O'Neal did fine. He had to play a character frustrated by the delays and logistical nightmare that was Market Garden. He was shown as not too keen on the British reserve while troops were dying in the field under his command and others'.

I found Redford and Caan less believable. Redford often had poor lines to read, and the Staff Sergeant Dohun storyline portrayed by Caan was a distraction.

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I pretty much agree. Although Caan and Redford were superior actors to O'Neal and Gould overall. Its hard to believe, but Elliot Gould was considered a "heart throb" in the 70s. Thus, he was added to the "All-Star" cast.

My favorite performance in this film is that of the young Anthony Hopkins.

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I don't think Gould was in the film that much to even be considered to be miscast. While I originally thought O'Neal was too young, then I researched that the real BG Gavin was close to O'Neal's age.

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Let's face it, the American roles were much more sketchy and undeveloped than the British roles. Put an actor like Gene Hackman in even a halfway decent role and he would be the equal of any of the British actors. Here he is a painful misfire. Of course, the most compelling character stories of Operation Market Garden will always be Col. Frost, Gen. Urquhart and Gen. Horrocks, but I think the American players could have been more intelligently handled. With that being said, casting changes I would have liked would have been Charles Bronson as the Polish Major General Sosabowski, Robert Duvall as Col. Sink, and Jack Nicholson as Gen. Gavin.

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I would have had Jack Palance in it too, just to add an air of menace.;O) I didn't find Hackman all that bad actually but as you point out the US roles weren't done as well as the British ones.

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

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They were big stars at the time who had made hit films. Only Redford from that era still remains as a film star.

Its that man again!!

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Michael Caine and Anthony Hopkins are still working.

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Sean Connery?

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He's retired.

Trust me. I know what I'm doing.

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I would almost agree, but found Gene Hackman's terrible attempt at a Polish accent far more distracting than anything else in anyone's performance in the film. Even as a 12-year-old child watching this film for the first time, he accent took me right out of the film. Original choice Charles Bronson or any other actor of Polish or Eastern European descent would have been sooo much better.

Gould comes off as pretty hammy but thankfully his screentime is quite brief. O'Neal I think at least gave the role a very earnest energy though he does come off as a bit of a sanctimonious whiner.

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