The Bridge (Die Brucke) (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	War	Gallery-Photo Trailer-x 5 but not one for this film
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	101:11
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Wolfgang Panzer
Studio Distributor	Eagle Entertainment	Starring	François Goeske Franka Potente Lars Steinhöfel Robert Höller Florian Heppert Daniel Axt Toni Deutsch Alexander Becht Paula Schramm Michael Lott
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Filippo Trecca

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	German Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Late in World War II, sixteen year old Albert Mutz (Francois Goeske) and his mother are evacuated to a small village after their house was destroyed in a bombing raid. They are billeted in the home of the Fink family, where Albert and Paula Fink (Paula Schramm) form an immediate bond. Albert attends the local school, where teacher Elfie (Franka Potente) is having an affair with Walter (Lars Steinhofel), one of Albert’s classmates and son of the local SS captain. When the village proves to be in the path of the advancing Americans, Albert and six classmates are pulled out of school and drafted into the German army. With no training and meagre weapons, the seven youths are ordered to defend a bridge to the death, keeping it open so that retreating soldiers can cross. Abandoned by their superior officers, and with the village inhabitants making their own plans, the teenagers believe they must do their duty for Germany. They remain at the bridge, awaiting the arrival of the America forces despite Elfie’s frantic efforts to make them see sense. Then, when the Americans arrive with tanks, all hell breaks loose.

     The Bridge (Die Brucke) is a German TV remake of a 1959 film of the same name. It has obvious TV production values and, although there are a couple of decent explosions, there is a lot of firing of machine guns and automatic weapons for little result, few hits and few squibs; Saving Private Ryan these battle scenes are not! Yet, the film holds some interest because it goes beyond the seven teenaged soldiers, who in fact are difficult to tell apart especially in uniforms and helmets, to include vignettes about the activities of others in the village, especially the authorities who Elfie contacts in her attempts to save her students. The American attackers are perhaps more considerate of German civilians than one would expect, gently moving elderly people out of harm’s way in the midst of an attack and at one stage refusing to fire upon the children soldiers. The Americans, who are supposed to be professional soldiers, are also incompetent; although they are supported by tanks they fail to launch any sort of co-ordinated attack upon the few youthful soldiers. There is certainly fanaticism on show from a couple of the German boys, but it is muted and juxtaposed, somewhat gratingly, against the suggestion that the battle is all a game. In the end, betrayed and abandoned by their superiors, the surviving boys face one final challenge.

     In The Bridge the acting and scripting is muddled and it is not a realistic war film. The action is old fashioned with lots of shooting but few impacts, the horrors of war and the disillusionment of youth is not examined in any cogent way unlike, say, it was in All Quiet on the Western Front. I have not seen the 1959 film version of The Bridge, but reviews indicate that it is a very good film, showing civilian families trying to cope in a rubble strewn village, the cynical exploitation of idealistic German youths by the military hierarchy and the impact of National Socialist fanaticism on young impressionable minds. The village in this TV version is almost idyllically pristine, the civilians are pretty much ignored and the film adds the romantic subplots. While it moves along well, it is far too sanitised and does not leave the impact it could.

Video

    The Bridge is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the original ratio. This is a made for TV film. It can be soft looking but generally is reasonably sharp, blacks solid and shadow detail good. Colours are muted, but natural, brightness and contrast consistent. There is some evidence of edge enhancement and blurring during motion but otherwise the print was fine with no obvious film artefacts.

     The English subtitles were in a clear white font. I did not notice any grammatical or spelling errors.

     The layer change at 55:57 resulted in a slight pause.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice between German Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps or an English Dolby Digital 2.0 dub, also at 224 Kbps. Both are surround encoded and provide a surprising amount of effects, explosions and music in the surrounds, but without panning effects of course. Dialogue is clear and music and explosions did get support from my subwoofer. The English dub is there for those who need one and is what one should expect. Lip Synchronisation for the German track was fine; the English of course is another matter, the dialogue obviously not matching the words.

     The music by Filippo Trecca was functional, neither memorable nor distracting.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailers

     Trailers play on start up and need to be skipped. They can also be selected from “Extras” in the Main Menu. Included is Pathfinders: In the Company of Strangers (2:18), The Airlift (3:51), Manolete (1:43), The Trial (2:03) and Like Dandelion Dust (2:25).

Image Gallery

     20 film stills – silent, use the remote to advance.

     The film does not seem to have been released in Region 1. The Region 2 UK version appears identical to this Region 4 release.

     The Bridge is a German TV remake of a 1959 film of the same name. The action is quite old fashioned with lots of shooting but few impacts, the acting and scripting is muddled. The 1959 film version shows civilian families trying to cope with the impact of war, the cynical exploitation of German youth by the military hierarchy and the impact of National Socialist fanaticism on young impressionable minds. This TV version is far too sanitised and does not leave the impact it could.

     The video is adequate, the audio good. Extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall