Film Archive

Bridge, The (Bruecke, Die)

The shocking story of seven teenage boys who are drafted into the German army in a futile effort to stop the enemy invasion.

Germany, April 1945. Friends and schoolmates, a group of teenage boys from a small town are impatiently waiting to be drafted. Fiercely patriotic, they believe that to fight for their fatherland is the ultimate honor. When the boys are finally called to duty, they are elated, but their teacher secretly appeals to the company sergeant to spare them from the war. The company sergeant gets permission to have the boys watch a strategically useless bridge, which is going to be blown up anyway. Not aware of this, the boys take their orders very seriously. They refuse to leave their posts even when fleeing German troops retreat across the bridge. As dawn breaks, American tanks suddenly appear and try to cross the bridge. The boys fight bravely, and the Americans finally retreat, but only two of the young men survive. When German soldiers arrive to blow up the bridge, the boys realize that their friends' deaths were senseless and open fire on their countrymen.

Bernhard Wicki was born in 1919 in Austria and died in 2000 in Munich. He studied Acting and Photography in Berlin and Vienna, followed by theater work in Vienna, Munich, Salzburg and Zurich. His first film role was in Der fallende Stern (1950). Thereafter, he starred in numerous other films including Die letzte Bruecke (1954), Es geschah am 20. Juli (1955), Weil du arm bist, musst du frueher sterben (1956), Die Zuercher Verlobung, and the Italian production Die Nacht (La notte, 1961). He made his directorial debut with the documentary Warum sind sie gegen uns (1958), a film about youth problems in the Federal Republic of Germany. He went on to direct Miracle of Malachias (Das Wunder des Malachias, 1961), the Duerrenmatt-adaptation The Visit (Der Besuch,1964), Die Zitadelle (1977), The Longest Day (Der laengste Tag, 1962), Morituri (1965), Karpfs Karriere (TV, 1972), Die Gruenstein-Variante (1984), Sansibar oder der letzte Grund (1987) and Spider's Web (Das Spinnennetz, 1989), which won a German Film Award in 1990. The Bridge (Die Bruecke, 1959) was nominated in 1959 for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film.
 

Genre Drama, History
Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 1959
Director Bernhard Wicki
Screenplay Michael Mansfeld, Karl Wilhelm Vivier
Director of Photography Gerd von Bonin
Editor Carl-Otto Bartning
Music by Hans-Martin Majewski
Production Design Heinrich Graf Bruehl, Peter Scharff
Producer Hermann Schwerin
Production Company Fono Film, Berlin
Principal Cast Karl Michael Balzer, Folker Bohnet, Frank Glaubrecht, Michael Hinz, Guenther Hoffmann, Volker Lechtenbrink, Guenter Pfitzmann, Wolfgang Stumpf, Cordula Trantow, Fritz Wepper
Length 104 min, 2,825 m
Format 35 mm, b&w, 1:1.37
Dubbed Versions English, French, Italian, Spanish
Original Version German
Subtitled Versions English
Sound Technology Optical Sound
Festival Screenings Karlovy Vary 2005
Awards Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film 1960, German Film Awards 1960 in 5 categories, German Film Critics' Award 1960, Bambi 1960
German Distributor Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum fuer Film und Fernsehen/Berlin

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