A review of the 1959 movie The Bridge directed by Bernhard Wicki and starring Folker Bohnet on the 20/20 Movie Reviews website. Very riveting and fantastic performances from the teens. One of the best anti-war movies ever ... it's unusual to see German soldiers portrayed in a human light, much less courageous teenagers who think they are doing the right thing. And he was absolutely right. Coming Soon. The enemy, the Americans, have no myths in this movie. We also see in the film how they are just boys growing up, sometimes hard enough in itself without a war going on. They have no real understanding of the fact that, for Germany, the war is all but lost and that they are the last desperate option for a defeated country on the brink of capitulation. Indeed, war is a game, but harrowing, arousing and bitter which has lost all gaily playfulness. Most impressive : The GI being killed with his guts wrapping out after he yells to the "Kindergarten" to go home and the mortal bravery of the smallest boy, who will not hit the deck for an arriving Pursuit Fighter strafing him, after he was laughed a coward for ducking needlessly the first time. Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email.

On that, I suppose one could complain about the early scenes(and their lack of tension), as at least one reviewer does, however, apart from that, it's invariably spot-on, both physically and psychologically speaking. The enemy is on German soil, yet they are willing to fight for final victory. "The Bridge" brings home more than most films the madness of it all.

This has extraordinarily high realism. What counts is the script. I really connected with the kids and found myself pleading that the Americans would'nt come over the bridge, even though I'm British. Schoolboys defend a village bridge in falling Nazi Germany. But as soon as the war collides with the life of the boys, the contrast between those close-ups of round-eyed, innocent child's faces and the churned up mud of the battlefield, as well as the bookish discourses of "courage" and "cowardice" makes the absurdity of the war pretty damn clear. (E.g. But, in the end the german boy kills the german soldier who has to blow up the bridge. But it does not matter. The heavy armed Americans got to withdraw (!).

All Critics (8) When the American soldiers shouts: 'Kintergarten!' |, July 3, 2015 Much to their disappointment, the bridge the boys are sent to defend turns out to be the one in the home town they have just left. The use of the Hitler Jugend was not only a well-organised last attempt to turn the tide, but became also a myth in german society in 1945, and everybody in Germany interprets it in his/her own way. Considering the difficulties and limitations and shortages he faced during the making of this film, Bernhard Wicki, according to my opinion, has made the impossible.
In both cases, young "true believers" were used as cannon fodder by cynical adults in their futile power games, which they had disguised as moral crusades. |, June 23, 2015 The whole film is to be highly recommended but there is one sequence that stands out (***SPOILERS AHEAD***): Trucks with hundreds of frightened, wounded German soldiers pass the bridge. All rights reserved. They are a mixture of real innocence and innocence trying to fill the role of men (since everyman over 16 is at the front). Don't have an account?

When I saw in news accounts the lovely yet fearful face of a 16 year-old, who had defected from the Taliban during the campaign against terrorists in Afghanistan, in the aftermath of the 9/11, I was taken back to Bernhard Wicki's Die Brücke (The Bridge), to the faces of young German boys who were recruited by the Nazis to defend a "last" bridgehead, in the final days of World War II in Europe.

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Discharged in 1964, I slowly woke up and participated in the protests of the late '60s. They were just boys, dreaming to be heroes and now they had to face the bloody reality of WWII. I won't reveal anything else.