Die Brücke

The original Die Brücke could be that much appreciated work of art that the fact alone presents too many demands for any conceivable remake. I however found this one surprisingly good, and it certainly was not as bad as some people have claimed it to have been. Why to make just similar movie again?

Seven poorly trained schoolboys are given a mission to hold out against a strategically important bridge. Germany has a lack of manpower by spring 1945, schoolboys fight alongside with old men: the last remaining reserves of the Reich . And the boys are too young to grasp the hopelessness of the situation, unlike their leader who runs away. Movie doesn't anywhere show that the boys were ever trained, but apparently they have some basic training because they can assemble and use several weapons and they can move under cover.

Seven schoolboys hold out against seasoned American troops? Given that they have a good position with effective weaponry (plus the suggested basic training), and the American commander does not want to fight against children, they possibly could even make it. Weapon freaks will notice hereby a plentiness of rarely seen ww2 equipment, save for the one tank whose type I didn't recognize. Some effects are rather lame too, but I have seen worse and have still forgiven them. I give a relatively high rating because I didn't suffer as much watching it than these boys depicted.

I did not realise that this was a TV remake of Berhard Wicki's 1959 classic 'Die Brucke' especially as the cover was more misleading than a James Bond movie and the credits stated that the screenplay was based upon a book by Gregor Dorfmeister (Wicki's masterpiece credited a novel by Manfred Gregor). In fact it was a remake of 'Die Bruck' albeit with the additional sub-plots of a sexual nature. I also was impressed with the attention to detail on the equipment employed and care taken with the Production set and design. Whilst it was not quite the work of art displayed by the 1959 version it was acceptable and fairly realistic. Indeed I thought that it was very well made and was to Feature Film standard. I am still working on identifying some of the kit used but it was all believable for the period. Despite the reliance upon Franke Potente as the main international 'Name' in the cast, the casting was very good and all of the characters were believable and did a grand job in telling this sad tale. I do not believe that most fans of this genre will be too disappointed with this well made little tale of the futility of war.

I noticed that all the former comments about this film were a) made by Germans, and b) they all slander it, and for me that has some weight. I don't know any German, so I can't say if the acting was good or bad, but it looked and felt at least pretty good, most of the time.

As a history buff and germanophile (who can't speak the language - perish the thought!) I found this film to be quite good in a historical context - and, I was impressed by that the equipment used by both Germans and Americans looked very authentic (with one MAJOR exception for the Americans) apart perhaps that the boys were/looked too old: they were supposed to be 16, and not a single one looked that age. Of course, that's the same thing with 25-year-olds playing high school teens in American films...

From a military point of view, this is also a pretty accurate film: The Germans did use single squads of troopers to defend small tactical objectives, as the bridge in the film. It also shows the devastating power of the Panzerfaust 100, the hand-held tank killer. Very nice, unless you are on the receiving end of it.

The sfx was OK, but absolutely nothing fancy.

However, the film has flaws that were carried over the language barrier, namely a totally unnecessary love plot and a more interesting love plot that would have done well to be better developed. Also, I didn't like that characters just vanished from the story without me getting to know of their departure.

I have to agree with some other comments about the lack of character development - it could definitely be better, that's for certain. Oddly, the best character development was done about some of the elder extras, not the main characters.

The film is also too melodramatic for my liking, so much I began thinking of the Russian film Zvesda which was just as bad in that area. Having the film maker telling me to feel sorry for the protagonists is not the way of scoring a 10 on IMDb.

... consider it an accident and look for the - really impressive - original! You will spare yourself quite a lousy piece of love story and war action rudely looted from the heritage of the 50's version by Bernhard Wicki. Even Hollywood barely could do worse twisting historical facts and life stories into some sort of spectacular fireworks performed by characters who don't really deserve this description. Good war movies (such as the original one!) should include the stories of the human beings involved, narrated in an empathic way thus helping the viewer to understand or at least imagine how it might have come to all the cruelty - and maybe even how it could be overcome. Otherwise there will be sown rather fascination than consternation. The next war will come too soon anyway. 2/10 just because of occasionally good acting (esp. by the soldier boys) and seemingly accurate requisites (uniforms, armory...).

First of all I want to say that I don't know the original movie, but I think thats not important at all. On the other hand I really hope the original movie is better. The story of 7 teenagers forced to fight in the last desperate days of nazi-germanys battle is a typical German war-film-story. Even thou it is not very impressive, it is still the best of the movie. Complains can be made about pretty much everything in the film, because everything in the film lacks sophistication. the look and the atmosphere of the movie are to clean and it feels to empty. even fighting scenes look boring and bad coordinated. the editing is terrible and features some bad continuity mistakes. the dialogs are flat and meaningless. Acting is behind the average. at no time you believe in the characters. Most characters lack a reasonable background story and side-stories that occur don't add to the characters deep at all. in general they are useless, because they don't add to the film except for the duration. the side-plots can be ignored. overall this film is unimportant, badly made and lacks in all important aspects of film-making. If you want to deal with the topic of youth in Nazi-Germany and how it suffered from the fanatical NS-education system, I recommend to see "Napola" instead. that would also spare you from some ridiculous fighting scenes...