If you ever get a chance to read the book, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is one of the best books written about the war.
"The Gallant Hours" (starred James Cagney as Admiral Halsey)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053849/
The Glenn Miller Story was another good movie - Love Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson.
I saw the flick first, book later. I agree with your take on the book vs. movie. The movie is actually pretty good, and my favorite WW-II movie. (It has some annoying flaws. Elliott Gould as an Infantry Officer, is just bad casting.) Casting of the Germans seems better than the Allied side, mostly because they used real actors and not blow dried Hollywood stars. (Model's character's summation, "Market-Garden war ein haarverbrenntes (sp?) Plan.")
The story behind making the movie (as told on the History Channel's "History vs. Hollywood") is worth retelling. Producer Joseph E. Levine financed most of the $25 million budget himself. Much of the budget went to exorbitant salaries for its all-star cast, including Robert Redford, who earned $2 million for 10 minutes of screen time. (Bad call. Definitely not a chick-flick.)
Levine thought the story should be told and risked most of his personal fortune financing the film. Fortunately, it was a success at the box office and he landed on his feet.
I disagree with you about the movie, A Bridge Too Far. I understand how you feel that the book provided so much more detail--but think of all the scenes in that movie that the film recreated so well.
And consider how difficult it must have been, not only to recreate the individual scenes, but to edit the book into a comprehensible movie.
By the way, the book became a bestseller at the top of the NYT list--a rarity for a military history.