The Bridge (1959)

In 1945, Germany is being overrun, and nobody is left to fight but teenagers.

Director:

Bernhard Wicki

Writers:

Manfred Gregor (novel), Michael Mansfeld

Stars:

Folker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 15 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Folker Bohnet	...	Hans Scholten
Fritz Wepper	...	Albert Mutz
Michael Hinz	...	Walter Forst
Frank Glaubrecht	...	Jurgen Borchert
Karl Michael Balzer	...	Karl Horber
Volker Lechtenbrink	...	Klaus Hager
Günther Hoffmann	...	Sigi Bernhard
Cordula Trantow	...	Franziska
Wolfgang Stumpf	...	Stern
Günter Pfitzmann	...	Heilmann
Heinz Spitzner	...	Fröhlich
Siegfried Schürenberg	...	Lt. Colonel
Ruth Hausmeister	...	Mrs. Mutz
Eva Vaitl	...	Mrs. Borchert
Edith Schultze-Westrum	...	Mother Bernhard

Storyline

A group of German boys is ordered to protect a small bridge in their home village during the waning months of the second world war. Truckloads of defeated, cynical Wehrmacht soldiers flee the approaching American troops, but the boys, full of enthusiasm for the "blood and honor" Nazi ideology, stay to defend the useless bridge.

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Plot Keywords:

bridge | boy soldier | american soldier | american abroad | military training | 

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Taglines:

They look for love in a world of violence!

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German English

Release Date:

1 May 1961 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Bridge

Filming Locations:

Cham, Bavaria, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fono Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The end credits assert that the script relates true facts which happened on April 27 1945.

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Goofs

The wheels can clearly been seen under the "tank" body.

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Alternate Versions

An English dubbed version was released in the USA in 1963.

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Connections

Featured in Loriots 80. Geburtstag (2003)

User Reviews

Etched in the Mind

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. 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.

A tiny band of boys, holding weapons as big as they, their bodies and faces still soft and fresh and tight, facing the juggernaut of tanks and artillery and machine guns which we know will soon tear them to pieces. And for what? An ideal?

I suspect that The Bridge was the basis for the Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn vehicle, "Taps". However, The Bridge is the starker and more brutal treatment because, unlike the what-if story of Taps, the what-if does not apply to The Bridge. In fact, throughout history, the use of children in furtherance of warfare has a sickening frequency, the earliest I know of being the Children's Crusade, and now we have the Tamil Tigers (little girls with lockets of cyanide vials) and Palestinian boy bombs.

The Bridge deserves to be revived and shown to as wide an audience as possible in this Dastardly New World we live in.