Product Details

• Actors: Lynn Bari, Akim Tamiroff, Francis Lederer, Alla Nazimova, Louis Calhern
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: April 6, 1999
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305339783
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,796 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Five people die when a rope bridge collapses in Peru. A local priest, perplexed why God chose these five to die, goes to town to investigate who the five were. Because the film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Thornton Wilder, it's easy to assume that some very existential questions, and maybe some answers, will be forthcoming. Nope. What the good priest does find is the hothouse Micaela (Lynn Bari), a stage actress and partial bad girl, who is wooed by a sailor, a theater gadfly, and the local viceroy. This leads to court intrigue, some incongruous song and dance numbers, and a trip to that fateful bridge. When the old bridge does snap and we know who is lying at the bottom of that Peruvian ravine, it's fair to wonder if the local priest didn't waste his time asking about the wrong people or whether it's just been a waste of time altogether. --Keith Simanton

Product Description

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Thornton Wilder, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" tells the story of a rickety bridge that has spanned a deep gorge for ages. When the bridge suddenly collapses--plunging five people to their deaths--the tragedy causes a wave of superstition to engulf the villagers as they believe they are destined for continued misfortune. Only a priest can find the connections to divine intervention that will quell the townspeople's fears.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A bland movie that loosely follows the book, March 14, 2004

By 

gac1003 "gac1003" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (DVD)

In 1774 Peru, five people are crossing the hundred-year-old bridge of San Luis Rey when it suddenly collapses, plunging the five to their deaths. Witness to this startling event is Brother Juniper who decides to find out why God has chosen those particular five people to bring into His realm. He travels to Lima to meet with Uncle Pio, a local character who knows everyone and everything surrounding Lima. From Pio, Brother Juniper learns how the lives of the five were connected to one another.

Sort of. The movie focuses on only four of the characters, and three of them in a very secondary sort of way. The fifth character, an old man who was transporting grain, is mentioned only in passing. To me that was disappointing, after having read the book, because each of the characters has his or her own unique story which connects with the others. The acting is very wooden, with too many varying accents and some with no accents at all, so it's difficult to believe the film takes place in Peru. (The Spanish viceroy looks and talks decidedly British, whereas Micaela has an American accent, and Uncle Pio sounds Russian when he speaks.)

The one good aspect from this film is the score by Dimitri Tiomkin, which was nominated for an Academy Award. However, even that gets marred by the poor sound quality of this DVD transfer. It fades in and out too much, and at times, I could not hear what was being said.

See this movie if you must, but the book is better.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth Watching Even In Truncated Form, May 16, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (DVD)

Rowland V. Lee screwed up many motion pictures but this isn't one of them. How often do you see the screen legends Akim Tamiroff and Nazimova together in one film? At the very end of her long, illustrious career, Nazimova girded her loins and lent her indelible presence to a final bunch of films (after what amounted to a blacklist on account of her wayward sexuality). THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY is one of her better projects and its decadent sensibility is a good match for the cagaries of her screen image. As he did his later novel, THE EIGHTH DAY, Thornton Wilder used the apparently simple story of five people meeting by accident and dying together to ask some thought-provoking questions about fate and chance. Why do we do the things we do? Are we moved by some higher (or lower) purpose? Is destiny irreversible? If we all meet the same death, what is the sense in leading a good life? Do individual lives have any meaning? Wilder's themes spoke to a wartime audience as few other authors. (His play OUR TOWN was the most performed American play during World War II.)

Lynn Bari is just as lovely here as she was in HELLO, FRISCO, HELLO. I never could understand why she never became a bigger star! Now we remember her only vaguely as the woman who married Sid Luft before Judy Garland did. In THE BRIDGE ON SAN LUIS REY she has what amounts to the leading part, and she acquits herself admirably, her Spanish accent soft but convincing. Watch for Abner Biberman in a small part. Biberman's name doesn't mean much now as an actor, but after the actual, McCarthy inspired blacklist, he rose to the occasion and directed the notorious SALT OF THE EARTH, one of the few independent pictures of the early 1950s worth watching today.

This DVD edition is nothing to write home about; it has long been rumored that more of Wilder's novel was actually filmed, then cut to keep the movie under a trim 90 minutes. But lovers of the novel have never felt Lee's film version to be an adequate representation of the rich character development of the book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars meaningful film, June 1, 2003

By 

Edward J. Miller (ventura, ca United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (DVD)

When I was growing up, this was the first movie other than superficial entertainment that I ever saw. I was so impressed with all the moral implications and human emotions, that I never forgot it ! Seeing it again, after all these years, I found itevery bit as gripping, and the D V D made it even more enjoyable. Of special note is the acting of a great actor, Francis Lederer.