Dumbarton Bridge (1999)

See this deeply poignant and powerful film!

I am spurred to write this review in response to the ignorant and useless review posted below. Dumbarton Bridge is a marvelous film, one of that rare breed of films that tells a wonderful story while also grappling with something deeply important. John Shed has tried to forget his past as a sniper in Vietnam and the daughter he fathered and then abandoned there. John's life seems settled, if tenuous: working on the salt ponds around the Dumbarton Bridge, listening to jazz with his girlfriend (she works at Sun Microsystems, a nice touch), shooting skeet. Then his abandoned daughter shows up from Vietnam, trying to figure out her life. She is black and Vietnamese, and doesn't quite fit in anywhere. How the daughter, the father, and the girlfriend work out their relationship is the story of the film and it is beautifully done. Audiences at film festivals agreed, awarding this the fan favorite prize at more than one.

I particularly appreciate the film's attempt to get under the skin of Silicon Valley. Remember this was released in 1999 at the height of the bubble. But the landscapes Koppelman portrays are the "other" Silicon Valley: the working class homes between the highways and the bay, the black and Vietnamese communities of East Palo Alto and Hayward, and the bay itself, dominated by the salt ponds carved from its marshes. This is a profoundly important and beautiful film, and for me, a bay area native, this ranks at the top of my list of important Northern California films. See it! January 22, 2005

The best part is the salt

Anyone who's spent any time around the salt ponds in the SF Bay Area know that they are lovely and under-appreciated. But that's no reason to buy this film. I did, and I feel pretty silly about it.

The movie has a predictable, un-enlightening and mild-mannered script, that really makes the whole thing look like a class exercise, rather than a movie. There's some talented actors -- but they have nothing to do.

The thing that really surprised me was how bad the cinematography was. The salt marshes were pretty enough --although, having spent much time there, I was surprised at how much of the real beauty of the place was missed. But the filming of people was terrible -- nothing was either stimulating or natural.

It looks like an honest effort: this is not a hollywood film. So I hope the people involved work harder and think more deeply about their next project. October 24, 2002

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