| |  | Actor: Bridge
Studio: United Home
List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $5.95
You Save: $9.04 (60%)
New (7) Used (7) Collectible (1) from $5.95
Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 23215
Format: Black & White, Ntsc
Language: English (Dubbed)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
UPC: 089859469732
EAN: 0072254802358
ASIN: B00000JPGP
Theatrical Release Date: 1959
Release Date: July 28, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 28
 Good little German Movie August 14, 2003
Peter E. Mcreynolds (Brisbane, CA United States)
14 out of 29 found this review helpful
THE BRIDGE is a fine B&W WWII movie that is set in a village deep in Western Germany. All of the action occurs the last week of April, 1945.
This Movie is unique because of the time, location, and entirely German perspective of this tiny War story.
The eight kids who are assigned to guard, then defend, the bridge are 16 year olds. The climatic battle with the American Armored patrol is very well done (for the most part). What is interesting is that, because this is a German made film, the American soldiers and Sherman Tank gunners are all very bad shots (except for an American sniper with a scoped rifle). Where as in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (an American made film), the German Wafen SS troops and Tiger Tank gunners who attack the bridge at Ramelle are also very bad shots!
Still the action is riveting for a low budget, foreign film. Unfortunately, the viewer has to wait an hour for the final battle, because most of the picture is character development, and it consists largely of teenagers yelling at their parents, which can be very obnoxious to listen in German dialouge.
 What about the DVD itself? October 2, 2006
Tryavna (North Carolina)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
Other reviewers have praised this film at length, so I don't have much to add there. However, none of the other reviews addresses the question of how the DVD itself looks. Here are my impressions:
This DVD was made by a small company called Belle & Blade, which mainly distributes war movies released by other home video companies. I'm a little apprehensive of buying DVDs from such companies because they sometimes border on bootleg quality. (I won't name names.) Happily, this release of "The Bridge" is a pleasant surprise. While not in pristine condition, the print is very good, with excellent contrast and sharpness. The DVD is not progressively encoded, but it looks fine on regular tube TVs. (You may see some blurriness during action sequences if you watch it on a computer or another HD source.) For a DVD originally released in 1998, it holds up well.
It's worth pointing out that Belle & Blade has transferred two separate versions of "The Bridge": the original 102-minute German-language cut and the slighly abbreviated 100-minute English dub. There are some differences between the two, and I prefer the German-language original. My biggest complaint is that you can't turn off the subtitles when you watch the German-language version. In my opinion, all subtitles ought to be optional -- that's simply one of the advantages of the DVD medium. (And other reviews are correct: the subtitling is not completely accurate. But it's not bad.)
Furthermore, "The Bridge" has been such an important and influential movie (particularly in Germany) that it deserves an extra feature or two. Belle & Blade has thoughtfully included the intro by Chet Huntley that accompanied the film's showings in the United States in 1960. (It's of historical interest because Huntley sets the film up as a rejection of totalitarian government, with anti-Communist overtones. That's an obvious misreading. "The Bridge" is primarily about the contrast between youthful idealism and the brutal reality of war, and it can be read as an out-and-out anti-war film.) Still, it would have been nice to hear a military historian provide a commentary track, or perhaps a current German director or critic could have been interviewed about the film's importance. Not to mention that most of the actors who portrayed the boys are still alive and working.
With the above caveats, I recommend this DVD. I don't know if Belle & Blade's other releases are of similar quality, but you should have no worries about this one. I do think that the Amazon price is much too high, though, so keep an eye on the Marketplace sellers.
A very good German war film August 24, 2000
Ron C. (Marietta, GA USA)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
One of the few post-war (1959) German films to depict actual combat against the Americans, "Die Bruecke" (The Bridge) was shot on location in Bavaria in black-and-white with a low budget and mostly local actors. Still, it tells its story well and avoids the blah-blah, angst-ridden, self-psychoanalysis that plagues much German cinema. Set in the last days of World War Two, the film tells the story of a group of teenage schoolmates drafted into the home guard and assigned to defend the bridge into their village against the approaching Americans. Their leaders are middle-aged WW1 veterans (who recall their own combat experiences with bitterness) and die-hard Nazi fanatics (who can't admit the war is already lost). In simple, realistic scenes the director portrays the futility, confusion, terror and waste of all war, and the hopeless anarchy that existed in 1945 Germany. A well-wrought little gem. Too bad it hasn't found a larger American audience. Compares favorably with "A Walk in the Sun," which is at least available on VHS.
 Excellent Perspective December 27, 2003
11 out of 14 found this review helpful
I won't give a whole summary of the movie, but this movie is amazing.... you can see a completely different side of what we as Americans are used to. It shows sympathetic Amercian soldiers and the way a war and your pride can bring so much courage to a battle not meant for people this young. I don't think it really has anything else to say but PROPAGANDA, they wanted to fight becuase of what they saw and thier innocence is what held them together. Excellent film.
Essential for naughty boys...and politicians August 16, 2005
K. alattar (Kuwait)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
I first saw this great movie in one my senior political science classes in college. I remember most of the guys laughed, others were bored, until the end came.
I doubt anyone who reaches the end will have the same view of war, no matter what it is.
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