The Bridge
All actors and roles (10)
All team (20)
Short description
Set during the final months of the Second World War in 1945, this drama follows a group of German schoolboys ordered to defend a bridge in their small town against approaching American forces. While experienced soldiers retreat from the conflict, the teenagers are driven by Nazi ideology and a desire to prove themselves. They remain determined to hold their position, despite the bridge having no strategic importance, eventually facing the lethal consequences of their blind obedience.
Directed by Bernhard Wicki, the film is based on an anti-war novel by Gregor Dorfmeister. Wicki also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Michael Mansfeld and Karl-Wilhelm Vivier. This production marks the start of a listed sequence of films directed by Wicki, followed by The Longest Day in 1962 and Morituri in 1965. The cast features Folker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, Frank Glaubrecht, Karl Michael Balzer, and Volker Lechtenbrink, among a total of 27 credited performers.
The film was well received by both audiences and professionals. It holds a rating of 7.9/10 on IMDb from 9,300 votes and 7.6/10 on TMDB from 203 votes. Film critics provided a slightly higher score of 8.1/10 based on 9 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The original novel is largely an autobiography of Gregor himself: on May 1, 1945, Gregor (who was then 16 years old) and seven other boys were assigned to guard the Bad Tölz entrance bridge against Allied troops. During that day, five of the eight boys were killed. Gregor fled the next day, while the two remaining continued to defend the bridge. Later, Gregor returned to the bridge and discovered that they had been killed as well.
- The film was shot in the Bavarian town of Kam. The bridge itself was named after Florian Geyer, and in 1994 it was destroyed and a new one was built in its place.
- The film is based on the novel of the same name by Gregor Dorfmeister (published under the pseudonym Manfred Gregor).
- The film was shown in Soviet cinemas from 1962 under the title "Heavy Reckoning".
- None of the tanks shown in the film were real. By 1959, the Bundeswehr was only just beginning to form and did not have any tanks at all. Bernhard Wicki solved this by mounting wooden models on car chassis.
- The 336th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, in which the characters supposedly served, actually ceased to exist in 1945, ending its days in May 1944 in Sevastopol.
- Footage from the film is often shown as newsreel footage of the war years. For example, in the Soviet television film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" (episodes 7, 8).
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