Customer Reviews

The Bridge: Die Bruecke

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This film is like a bomb with a very long fuse. It starts slowly, moves at a gentle, almost maddeningly slow pace, and then suddenly rips you to shreds.

Very few WWII movies are told from the German perspective. This one has the added, almost unique advantage of having been shot 10 years after the end of the war, when the wounds of the war had not even stopped bleeding. Although it is shot on B/W film, the violence is extremely graphic and no attempt is made to spare the audience the horrible result of bullets going through human bodies. In other words, if you are looking for cartoon violence, look elsewhere. This film was written by people who understood that bullets make holes.

"Die Brucke" is the story of six schoolchildren who are drafted into the Wehrmacht in the spring of 1945, given one day's training, and then thrown into battle when the war is hopelessly lost. A well-meaning officer and an equally human NCO conspire to have them detailed to a useless objective -- a small bridge in the little Bavarian town where they grew up and, only days before, played Cowboys & Indians. Unfortunately, the war does not pass them by, and the boys are too naive to understand that their cause is lost and that people who are shot to death do not get up and keep playing afterwards.

The young "soldiers" are alternately pathetic and frightening with their mixture of boyhood enthusiasm, decency, cruelty, and mischief. One minute they are playing pranks, the next cold-bloodly shooting down an American soldier who tries to get them to surrender. They grasp far too late that their elders don't care what happens to them, that they will receive no medals for their heroics, and that there are people in their own army who are bigger enemies than the Americans are.

The film may be too slow in the beginning for American audiences, but the payoff is well worth it. With an obviously limited budget and resources, director Wicke does a first-class (surprisingly graphic) job of pitting his kindergarten soldiers against American tanks and displaying the disgusting mayhem that follows. All war films are said to be anti-war films, but most American and British pics from the postwar period depict combat as a thrill-ride and the Germans as human targets who are equally sadistic and stupid. "Die Brucke" puts human faces on the men (often boys) in the Nazi uniform without making apologies for Nazism (this film rarely passes up a chance to scorn the Nazis who preached 'holding out to the last round' and then hopped the fastest train away from the battle). People who somehow found films like "Where Eagles Dare" entertaining should watch this DVD and then try to find the humor in slitting a teenage conscript's throat. I would recommend the film to anyone, but especially as an insight onto how things looked and felt on "the other side of the hill."

This is a little known gem that was nominated in 1959 for "Best Foreign Language Film". Give it an extra star if you are a huge foreign, military, history, or WW2 film fan. The fact that it is so hard to find is reason enough, as it was for me, to justify the reviews I read of hard core war atrocities. This time that against the youth of a defeated nation, that forces them to fight a lost fight. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! The DVD is excellent in offering both German (English subtitle's), and an excellent English soundtack that's not at a loss compared to the German! THIS IS A HARD TO FIND HISTORICALLY ACCURATE GEM!

Now avialable on DVD, this little masterpiece of a film has, up to now, been all but forgotten. Yet it seems to have created quite a stir back in 1954 when it was released... less than ten years after the end of WWII, and already the Germans were asking themselves hard questions about war, blind adherence to authority, militarism, etc. Black and white, the DVD offers both English Dub and Sub versions of the film. The acting is first-rate, the uniforms, weapons and sets are quite good, and the story is rivetting.

Suposedly based upon a true story, we are offered an open and painful tale, full of self-criticism and honesty. Almost as graffic in places as Saving Pvt Ryan. Almost as powerful as "All's Quiet on the Western Front." One of the best WWII films I have ever seen...

Other reviewers have praised this film at length, so I don't have much to add there. However, none of the other reviews addresses the question of how the DVD itself looks. Here are my impressions:

This DVD was made by a small company called Belle & Blade, which mainly distributes war movies released by other home video companies. I'm a little apprehensive of buying DVDs from such companies because they sometimes border on bootleg quality. (I won't name names.) Happily, this release of "The Bridge" is a pleasant surprise. While not in pristine condition, the print is very good, with excellent contrast and sharpness. The DVD is not progressively encoded, but it looks fine on regular tube TVs. (You may see some blurriness during action sequences if you watch it on a computer or another HD source.) For a DVD originally released in 1998, it holds up well.

It's worth pointing out that Belle & Blade has transferred two separate versions of "The Bridge": the original 102-minute German-language cut and the slighly abbreviated 100-minute English dub. There are some differences between the two, and I prefer the German-language original. My biggest complaint is that you can't turn off the subtitles when you watch the German-language version. In my opinion, all subtitles ought to be optional -- that's simply one of the advantages of the DVD medium. (And other reviews are correct: the subtitling is not completely accurate. But it's not bad.)

Furthermore, "The Bridge" has been such an important and influential movie (particularly in Germany) that it deserves an extra feature or two. Belle & Blade has thoughtfully included the intro by Chet Huntley that accompanied the film's showings in the United States in 1960. (It's of historical interest because Huntley sets the film up as a rejection of totalitarian government, with anti-Communist overtones. That's an obvious misreading. "The Bridge" is primarily about the contrast between youthful idealism and the brutal reality of war, and it can be read as an out-and-out anti-war film.) Still, it would have been nice to hear a military historian provide a commentary track, or perhaps a current German director or critic could have been interviewed about the film's importance. Not to mention that most of the actors who portrayed the boys are still alive and working.

With the above caveats, I recommend this DVD. I don't know if Belle & Blade's other releases are of similar quality, but you should have no worries about this one. I do think that the Amazon price is much too high, though, so keep an eye on the Marketplace sellers.

Others here have already detailed what a fine (anti)war film Die Bruecke is and why. I can only echo those sentiments: this is a gripping film that really makes you think about militarism and war and their costs. I did find one unfortunate problem with this particular release of the film: the subtitles are at times wrong, but more often they cut and simplify the dialogue and seemingly make little attempt to recreate its nuances. On the bright side, this film isn't heavily rooted in dialogue: the plot and images speak louder than words and get the messages across as clear as day. Still, it would be nice to see this film re-released with better subtitling.

One of the few post-war (1959) German films to depict actual combat against the Americans, "Die Bruecke" (The Bridge) was shot on location in Bavaria in black-and-white with a low budget and mostly local actors. Still, it tells its story well and avoids the blah-blah, angst-ridden, self-psychoanalysis that plagues much German cinema. Set in the last days of World War Two, the film tells the story of a group of teenage schoolmates drafted into the home guard and assigned to defend the bridge into their village against the approaching Americans. Their leaders are middle-aged WW1 veterans (who recall their own combat experiences with bitterness) and die-hard Nazi fanatics (who can't admit the war is already lost). In simple, realistic scenes the director portrays the futility, confusion, terror and waste of all war, and the hopeless anarchy that existed in 1945 Germany. A well-wrought little gem. Too bad it hasn't found a larger American audience. Compares favorably with "A Walk in the Sun," which is at least available on VHS.

Yes, the movie starts slowly and builds, but this is fairly routine for foreign films of the era. The Bridge was made on an extremely low budget and the movie reflects this, with the homemade tanks at the end being almost comical in their appearance. Still, the story overpowers the movie's short falls. If you're a student of German WWII history or an enthusiast, this is a "must have" movie. I would like to see a major motion picture in the league of "Stalingrad", "Downfall" or "Das Boot" done with The Bridge. The book places more emphasis and details on the battle at the bridge which the movie kind of moves quickly over, but again, I think this was a production and cost issue when the movie was made. If someone doesn't make a big screen big budget remake of this movie, they're missing a golden opportunity.

I saw this film as a high school kid in the 60s. It's set in a small boys' boarding school in Germany during WWII. As part of their training, the boys are told it is their responsibility to defend the little bridge next to the school. They drill with surplus helmets and other war-play gear, and practice vanquishing imaginary invaders. At the end of the war, with the German army in full retreat, the kids believe it is their sober duty to defend the bridge. They take their positions with their token weapons as the unsuspecting Allies cross. Tragically, they fight bravely, but are overcome.

One of the earliest postwar masterpieces from Germany, Wicki's "The Bridge" is a stridently antiwar film that depicts the tragic loss of innocence under the futile and exploitative protocols of end-stage combat. Still children, as evidenced by the puerile pranks they play on each other, the seven lads are forced to fight and die like adult soldiers because of a last-ditch effort by Hitler and his officers to stave off defeat by recruiting schoolboys. Based on a true story novelized by Manfred Gregor, and featuring some impressive battle sequences, "Bridge" is a harsh portrait of war's hell.

I first saw this awful movie in one my senior political dance classes in college. I remember most of the guys were high, others were druged, until the end came.

I doubt anyone who reaches the end will have the same view of war, no matter what it is.