{"id":15918,"date":"2015-06-23T16:12:53","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T20:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=15918"},"modified":"2015-06-23T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T20:28:09","slug":"bernhard-wicki-the-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2015\/06\/23\/bernhard-wicki-the-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernhard Wicki: The Bridge<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
Review of The Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition.\r\n\r\nThe Bridge<\/strong><\/em>\r\nd. Bernhard Wicki\r\nSpine: #763\r\nBlu-ray Release Date: June 23, 2015\r\n\r\nScreen captures below are taken from The Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc, but resolution has been reduced from 1920x1080 to 900x506 and slightly compressed. You may click on them to view the 900x506 image. Because my own Blu-ray drive broke this past week, Gary Tooze of DVD Beaver has kindly granted me permission to use stills he posted on his website DVD Beaver (here<\/a>) until I get my drive fixed.<\/pre>\n
When Bernhard Wicki’s adaptation of Gregor Dorfmeister’s The Bridge<\/em> was released in 1959, German cinema was going through a fallow period, at least on the international stage. Despite such a strong tradition that includes many of the masterpieces of the silent and early sound era, events of the 1930s and 1940s pushed out many of their greatest filmmakers, and state policies did little to encourage new growth. Over at his blog Criterion Reflections, where he reviews films from The Criterion Collection in chronological order, David Blakeslee recently reviewed Volker Schl\u00f6ndorff’s 1966 film Young T\u00f6rless<\/em> and noted that the most recent German film he’d reviewed — at that time the most recent German film in The Criterion Collection — was 1933’s The Testament of Dr. Mabuse<\/em>. True, The Criterion Collection is not charged with and does not release every noteworthy film, but it is a telling detail. German cinema was relatively dormant for many years. One of the great films made during this time, though, is now available from The Criterion Collection and breaks that 33-year gap between The Testament of Dr. Mabuse<\/em> and Young T\u00f6rless<\/em>: The Bridge<\/em>.<\/p>\n
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Fittingly, The Bridge<\/em> addresses the cataclysmic world shattering events and mentalities that played a role in Germany’s cinematic decline. Based on Dorfmeister’s own experiences,\u00a0the film\u00a0is set in a\u00a0quiet, German\u00a0village during\u00a0the final days of World War II. Formerly quiet is a better word, though, because the front is getting close, so close that aggressive enemy fly-overs are now a part of everyday life.\u00a0As the film begins, most of the characters are reacting to a\u00a0disappointing crater out by the bridge where a bomb was dropped.<\/p>\n
A group of seven school boys — “average age is sixteen” — have spent\u00a0most of their conscious\u00a0years knowing no other reality than war. They have no idea the war is almost over, and they look forward to the day they get their draft papers. They must have seen dozens of their friends leave over the years, and the tragedy has not yet quite taken prominence over excitement and heroism.<\/p>\n
Yet within that perverse reality, these boys\u00a0nevertheless have\u00a0had a very human adolescence. Wicki spends the first forty or so minutes dwelling on things that might seem mundane and\u00a0misplaced\u00a0in the context of a war film, things like pranks,\u00a0young love and lust,\u00a0or\u00a0hidden booze. Despite the world around them, these are recognizably — and recognizable — children.<\/p>\n
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Naturally, this is all a lead up to another tragedy that first shows its head when the boys receive their draft notices.<\/p>\n
Of course, we’ve seen other films with a similar premise, and we know that war is hell, tragic. Yet The Bridge<\/em> remains fresh and even, if I may, particularly tragic. Right after the boys are drafted, the front moves even closer. It’s time for battle. Because they actually managed to have some caring authority figures, though, the boys are relegated the task of defending the bridge in their home town. No one thought the bridge was strategically important. No one actually thought the boys could do anything about the advancing American army. Rather, they hoped it would keep the boys out of trouble. If the Americans got to the bridge, the German army was just going to blow it up. But, due to some extra tragedy, the boys didn’t know this and are left ignorantly fighting for meaningless ground.<\/p>\n
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The acting is astonishing. These are young boys playing the parts, young boys who had little experience actually living during the war, and yet their performances are uniformly mature and nuanced. At once, they play the childish, the\u00a0patriotic, and the terrified school boy. They remind us at every corner that they’re real and that they’re worth saving. The bridge is just meaningless concrete.<\/p>\n
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When Criterion announced that they’d be releasing this title, most people were pleasantly surprised. I myself had never heard of it. At this point, though, it’s one of their best releases of the year.<\/p>\n
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Supplements:<\/p>\n