The Bridge at Remagen (1969)

As the Allied armies close in, the Germans decide to blow up the last Rhine bridge, trapping their own men on the wrong side. But will it happen?

Director:

John Guillermin

Writers:

Richard Yates (screenplay), William Roberts (screenplay)

Stars:

George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
George Segal	...	Lt. Phil Hartman
Robert Vaughn	...	Maj. Paul Krueger
Ben Gazzara	...	Sgt. Angelo
Bradford Dillman	...	Maj. Barnes
E.G. Marshall	...	Brig. Gen. Shinner
Peter van Eyck	...	Gen. Von Brock (as Peter Van Eyck)
Hans Christian Blech	...	Capt. Carl Schmidt
Heinz Reincke	...	Holzgang
Joachim Hansen	...	Capt. Otto Baumann
Sonja Ziemann	...	Greta Holzgang
Anna Gaël	...	French Girl (as Anna Gael)
Vít Olmer	...	Lt. Zimring (as Vit Olmer)
Bo Hopkins	...	Cpl. Grebs
Robert Logan	...	Pvt. Bissell
Matt Clark	...	Cpl. Jellicoe

Storyline

In the last days of World War II, the Allied Army desperately searched for a bridgehead across the impenetrable Rhine River, in order to launch a major assault into the center of Germany. "Bridge at Remagen" tells the true story of the battle for this last bridgehead, from both the German and American perspective.

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Plot Keywords:

river rhine | world war two | based on true story | year 1945 | u.s. military | 

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Taglines:

A dot on the map. A motion picture adventure as big as history.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some war violence and brief nudity.

Did You Know?

Trivia

The producers were granted the right to blow up large parts of the town of Most, but they decided not to blow up the local Communist party headquarters building. Soviet forces were already preparing to invade Czechoslovakia at the time, and the producers didn't want to offend the soon-to-be-arriving Russians.

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Goofs

When the Wehrmacht Engineer Hauptmann blames the poor grade of explosives for the failure of the bridge to collapse he names the explosives as "Donerit". Donerit was (& still is) a manufacturer of commercial & military explosives, the actual explosive supplied was marked on the boxes as Gelignite - a commercial blasting product that would indeed have been less effective than the usual RDX compounds in military use.

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Quotes

Capt. Otto Baumann: Farce! Where are the bombers? Our reinforcements? This is the most important place in Germany, and what do we have to fight with? Old men, riff-raff, the sweepings from the road.
Major Paul Kreuger: And you, Baumann. Will you fight as hard as you talk?
Capt. Otto Baumann: You will find out when we attack.

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Connections

Referenced in Guns for Hire: The Making of 'The Magnificent Seven' (2000)

User Reviews

One of the most intelligent and best of the sixties war movies , well performed and finely directed

Spectacular and exciting warlike movie based on famous event about the Bridge at Remagen . This Blockbuster is one of the biggest war films ever made. It's a magnificent film, recreating the known offensive by Allied army on the German front during 1945 .What happened during those desperate days that could have changed the course of war is now history . It's well recreated by John Guillermin for United Artists, with Technicolor cinematography by Stanley Cortez. The producer, David L Wolper was well-qualified for his job as he made documentary as ¨D-Day ,6 June, 1944¨ and produced ¨The Devil's brigade¨ , among others. Stirring images accompanied with roaring battle noises it quite possible for the sound effects you heard today to be as realistic as those he heard when was listening to them whining overhead.Furthermore , it packs a moving musical score in military parade style composed by the master Elmer Berstein. The making was a logistical problem as almost that of setting up a campaign and putting a film together under any circumstances was very difficult because working under pretty bad conditions. So this whole film was put together, photographed and edited, scored and prepared for release in a matter of about various months. After a daring escape from Czechoslovakia where was shot at Davle and Most , filming was resumed near Hamburg, Germany and closely the Pope's summer house, Castelgondolfo, Italy.

The film is based on real events, though the characters are fictitious, those are the following : The Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen—the last standing on the Rhine was captured by soldiers of the U.S. 9th Armored Division on 7 March 1945, during Operation Lumberjack. Although German engineers had mined the bridge before the American approach, the fuses had been cut by two Polish engineers forcibly conscripted to the Wehrmacht. On 7 March 1945, soldiers of the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, led by Lieutenant Karl H. Timmermann,(at the movie Phil Hartman well played by George Segal) approached the bridge, and found it standing. The first American soldier across the bridge was Sergeant Alex Drabik (at the film bears similar role played by Ben Gazzara as corrupt sergeant Angelo) ; Lt. Timmermann was the first officer across. Although the bridge's capture is sometimes regarded as the "Miracle of Remagen" in U.S. histories, historians debate the strategic importance of the capture of the bridge at Remagen. General Eisenhower ( in the movie a similar character is played by E.G. Marshall as General Shinner) said that "the bridge is worth its weight in gold". However, few U.S. units were able to operate east of the Rhine ahead of the main crossings in the south, under Gens. Patton and Bradley, and in the north, under Gen. Montgomery . Ultimately, only a limited number of troops were able to cross the Rhine before the bridge's collapse. However, the psychological advantage of having crossed the Rhine in force and in pursuit of the retreating Wehrmacht, improved Allied morale while communicating disaster to the retreating Germans. Hitler ordered a flying courts-martial that condemned five officers to death. Captain Bratge, who was in American hands, was sentenced in absentia while the other four (Majors Scheller, Kraft, and Strobel, and Captain Peters , respectively played by Robert Vaughan as Major Kruger and Hans Chritian Blech as Captain Carl Schmidt ) were subsequently executed . Soldiers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked long hours to stabilize and repair the bridge . However, despite the best U.S. efforts, on 17 March 1945, ten days after its capture, the Bridge at Remagen succumbed to the cumulative damage from German bombing and collapsed, killing twenty-eight soldiers of the Army Corps of Engineers. However, because the pontoon bridges and other secured crossing points had supplanted the bridge, its loss was neither tactically nor strategically significant. Still, the Ludendorff Bridge remained important as the first point at which Allies crossed the Rhine.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

23 October 1969 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

The Bridge at Remagen

Filming Locations:

Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wolper Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1