The Bridge (1961)

Cool Story, Intense Ending

I saw this movie in my German 3 class. When I heard it was a black and white war movie made in the 60's i figured it would suck. But i was mistaken, this is actually a really cool story, and I was surprised at how well made it was for such an old film. It's so different to see a WW2 movie from the Nazi Perspective. Yes the movie starts slow but has a good story, and an amazing and intense ending. A great movie well worth seeing. April 27, 2008

Die Brücke ( The Bridge)

I had seen this film way back in the 50s in Germany with our school class and wanted to show it now to my second husband who is English. I had told him often about this particular scene on the bridge, where you can hear the American tank approach. It still left me sitting on the edge of the chair. A very powerful film, had lost nothing of it's fascination in the 50 years, since I had seen it last.
The DVD came before the estimated time, thank you very much for your prompt service. February 26, 2008

THE BEST!!!

This movie is my favorite WWII movie,it is accurate in every way,while the acting is a bit over the top at times it still hits the mark and gets the point across.
AH January 11, 2008

The futility of war

"Die Brucke" or "The Bridge" is a powerful 1959 West German anti war film directed by Austrian director Bernhard Wicki depicting the last waning days of the Third Reich. In a small provincial town a group of seven naive and idealistic 16 year old schoolboys seem unaffected by the approaching impending onslaught of the advancing American army. With great enthusiasm they're only too happy to be enlisted into the ragtag remains of the decimated German army.

The day after their conscription they are thrown into the fray without any training to defend their town against the advancing army. In a sympathetic gesture their commanding officer orders them to defend an unimportant bridge slated for subsequent demolition to keep them out of harm's way. Their protective squad leader is mistakenly killed by military police before he can order them to abandon their position.

With an unrelenting, patriotic fervor they defend the expendable bridge against a superior force that ultimately and pointlessly cuts them down.

This disturbing movie chronicles the horrific destruction of a whole generation of gullible, immature and malleable youth who were seduced by an ideology that used them as unsuspecting cannon fodder. January 1, 2008

The Bridge

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. June 28, 2007

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