The Bridge (Die Brucke)

War

Eagle Entertainment

R4

German with English subtitles or English overdub

Way back in 1959 Manfred Gregor’s novel Die Brucke was made into a black and white film by the recovering West German film industry. I saw it on TV and it struck me as a particularly powerful anti-war film, one of the best I have seen and easily equal to All Quiet On The Western Front. It was a courageous film for its time since memories of the war were still fresh. Then the film seemed to disappear off the face of the earth although ideas from it turned up in a number of later films, the best of which was Saving Private Ryan.

In the last weeks of World War II a group of seven 16-year-old schoolboys is taken from their school in a quiet country town and conscripted into the army. The army is in disarray. Troops are absconding as the Americans advance, others are fleeing west to the Americans to avoid the advancing Russians. The town has so far been spared the full horror of war so the schoolboys are enjoying their lives to the fullest. In the army that changes quickly.

At the “training” camp they are placed under the command of a blustering corporal. They are put into uniform and given rifles, then shipped off to fight with no training at all. The corporal puts them off at the bridge in their own home town, tells them to guard it so the convoys of injured soldiers can cross it, then he absconds.

The boys are leaderless. They don’t know what to do or how to do it. A passing general gives them quick instructions on how to set up a defensive position then once again they are left to themselves. Fortunately they are well armed. The general has told them of a stores and supply depot nearby and they load up with machine guns and anti-tank weapons. This has all happened within twenty four hours and it takes a while for their town to find out that they are back. Then their parents put pressure to bear on them to give it up and return to being schoolboys. The boys, however, now have a purpose in life and a responsibility. They have been indoctrinated for years about the “blood and honour” of fighting for their country and Fuhrer. They are united in their mission to guard the bridge at all costs.

An American patrol reinforced by a tank is the first to make contact. Although completely untrained the boys put up a creditable defence and the tank is destroyed. Another tank sent to reinforce the patrol suffers the same fate. The boys are overjoyed – it all seems so easy at first – but one by one their numbers are whittled down. Each loss is taken personally by the rest and their morale begins to suffer.

Unknown to them, a group of German engineers has been given orders to blow up the bridge to hold back the American or Russian advance. While the boys have been fighting, the engineers have completed their work. The boys were supposed to be withdrawn when the bridge was ready to be blown but, leaderless, they knew nothing of this. They take it very personally when the engineers announce their intention. They were ordered to save the bridge and they WILL save it even if it now means fighting against their own side.

The director, Wolfgang Panzer, has given us a superb remake of this important film. He has managed without the massive budget of Saving Private Ryan and with a minimum of special effects. He has concentrated on the people of the town and how their personalities change when the war comes to them. Some, like the boys, become heroes. Far too many become dead. At the end of the film we are left to ask what was the point of wasting so many young lives in a war that was already lost?

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