Film: The Bridge
Release date: 5th April 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 100 mins
Director: Wolfgang Panzer
Starring: Franka Potente, Francois Goeske, Lars Steinhofel
Genre: War/Drama
Studio: Metrodome
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
The 1929 novel All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and its subsequent film adaptations, most notably Lewis Mileston’s 1930 Best Picture winning effort told the story of the loss of innocence and the realisation of the true nature of life on the front lines from the perspective of drafted idealistic German school boys. Convinced by their elders that serving in the infantry for the fatherland is the most noble and honourable path to take, the young protagonists embark on a harrowing journey until their inevitable yet glorious end. The Bridge, a 2008 made-for-TV movie directed by Wolfgang Panzer, is a direct remake of a 1959 film of the same name by Bernhard Wicki. They both draw heavy inspiration from that highly influential text that was once banned by the Nazi’s. However, Panzer’s film largely fails to provoke the same emotional response, and comes across more as a plagiaristic imitation than the affectionate homage it clearly intended to be.
The setting is transported to rural Germany just as the final days of the Second World War are fast approaching. The American troops are on the advance, and morale within the military has crumbled beyond repair. Once indoctrinated, our heroes are not sent to the invading front lines, but are enlisted to secure the titular bridge of their local town, defending a pivotal position and supply route, preventing the Americans the opportunity to advance…
The plot itself, simplistic as it is, is fairly solid. It is a believable tale which has good intentions of portraying the desperation felt by Hitler’s forces as they know defeat is imminent.
Taken at face value, The Bridge is a perfectly serviceable piece of escapist afternoon entertainment, but with serious subject matter comes a certain amount of responsibility and maturity, which the film never realises. It is naive in its convictions, and suffers from an overwhelming amount of clichés. A love story sub plot distracts from the action, and is played out with such bile inducing melodrama that you almost wish the Americans would hurry up and get their invasion over with. Elsewhere, the token fat kid struggles to follow orders and is predictably the first to go.
When the Americans finally arrive, melodrama turns into unintentional comedy, as the soldiers shout orders at each other in bad accents and perform some of the worst choreographed stunts ever seen in a WW2 film. Cheap pyrotechnics explode, blood that closely resembles Ribena squash spurts, and emotionally manipulative death scenes all contribute to a chaotic comedic mess.
The one saving grace of this film is the always reliable Franka Potente, returning to home produced efforts after her brilliant star turn in Che and the Bourne films. Playing the promiscuous school teacher indulging in an affair with one of her students, Potente brings a touch of professionalism and quality in a film dominated by weak performances from the supporting cast of SS officers to the lead roles of our heroes in the Hitler youth.
There is an underlying problem both in the script and the acting - the lack of range of character personalities on display seriously detracts from any sense of realism, and as a result, this tears down any empathy for these people unlike in previous German contributions to the genre, such as Das Boot or Downfall where we can see the real individuals underneath the uniform. Whether for good or evil, we at least understand their machinations. The Bridge has no such complexity and centres around a bunch of one dimensional caricatures that have no relation to the real lives that experienced these events. Typically for a German production, the film also shies away from tackling the true atrocities inflicted on the world by the Nazi’s and the axis. The concentration camp at Dachau is mentioned when Potente’s character is condemned to serve punishment there, but the notion is never explored and soon forgotten when she unconvincingly escapes her captors. With the exception of a valiant few, there seems to be an understandable trend in the national ideology to avoid the issue of genocide on film.
Cultural differences, ideologies and elements lost in translation, not withstanding it is clear that it is unfair though to compare The Bridge to something like Downfall with its large budget and cast of high profile German stars. It is undeniably an inferior piece, but with a slightly inflated budget, and a little more creative thought, it could have gotten closer to attaining its ambitious aspirations. An admirable failure. AB
