Die Brücke (film)

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Die Brücke (English: The Bridge) is a German anti-war movie made in 1959. It was released in West Germany on October 22, 1959. It was directed by the Austrian Bernhard Wicki, and it won him international attention which resulted in his participation in co-directing the movie The Longest Day.

It was nominated in 1960 for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film and won several international awards, including the Golden Globe and the NBR Award as Best Foreign Film.

The story was based on an actual event, upon the personal report of a surviving veteran who in his own youth experienced a similar situation in World War II.

[edit] Cast

Folker Bohnet .... Hans Scholten
Fritz Wepper .... Albert Mutz
Michael Hinz .... Walter Forst
Frank Glaubrecht .... Jürgen Borchert
Karl Michael Balzer .... Karl Horber
Volker Lechtenbrink .... Klaus Hager
Günther Hoffmann .... Sigi Bernhard

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the closing days of World War II, a small German town comes into focus as American forces advance in its direction. In the town's school, seven boys - each about 16 years old - are oblivious to the seriousness and dangers of the war, feeling only excitement about how close the war is getting to them, and they live their lives as normally as they can, though they are overshadowed with personal problems: Karl, who has a crush on his hairstylist father's young assistant, is shocked to see them in an intimate situation; Klaus is oblivious to the affections of his classmate Franziska; and Walter is deeply resentful of his father, who has chosen to save his own skin under the pretense of an important Volkssturm meeting.

Unexpectedly, the boys are recruited into the local army headquarters, but after only one day the local commanders receive news that the Americans are approaching, and the garrison is called out. As they prepare to move out, the commanding officer, who has been pleaded with by the boy's teacher to keep them out of the action, decides to place the youths in 'defense' of the local bridge (which is strategically unimportant, and which is to be blown up anyway to spare the town the direct effects of the war), under the command of a veteran Unteroffizier (sergeant).

Soon after the boys have settled in, the Unteroffizier leaves to get some coffee and inform the demolition squad, but on his way he is mistaken as a deserter by a military police patrol and shot during escape, leaving the boys alone on the bridge. Still not taking the situation seriously, they are rudely awakened by the passing of a large number of trucks bearing wounded and maimed soldiers, and an officer bearing the Ritterkreuz desperate to escape the battlefront. Still the boys decide to hold their position, despite their aroused misgivings, under the codex: 'A soldier who defends just one square meter of ground defends Germany'.

Dawn comes, and with it an American fighter plane which fires its machine guns, killing the youngest of their number, Sigi. Enraged, the boys take up the fight against a trio of American tanks and their support personnel, but one by one they die, shaking their comrades with the true horrors of war.

In the end, the last remaining tank retreats, and of the boys only Hans and Albert are left. As they return to the town, they run into the demolition squad, whose leader immediately begins to criticize them, calling them nincompoops and would-be-heroes. Going mad with disbelief and despair, Hans threatens them with his rifle, but as the officer prepares to fire his submachine gun, he is shot from behind by Albert. The survivors of the squad turn tail, but not without firing a submachine gun burst which hits Hans fatally, leaving only a broken Albert to return home.

A line inserted just before the end credits soberly reads: 'This event occurred on April 27, 1945. It was so unimportant that it was never mentioned in any war communique.'