The Bridge (2006)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Once a fortnight on average, someone jumps to their death from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, the most popular suicide spot in the western world. In 2004, Eric Steel decided to film the bridge for a solid year, in the hopes of capturing actual footage of people taking the plunge. To get permission from the National Park Service, he pretended he wanted to make a nature film. Well, we could say he succeeded, as the film reveals much about human nature, although we can sympathise with the protests of the NPS at this apparently shabby betrayal.The pre-title sequence, which actually looks not unlike a nature film full of beaches and seagulls, ends dramatically with a middle-aged man suddenly leaping from the bridge, though we don't catch more than about the first second of the four-second descent. For the rest of the film, we are kept wondering whether they ever did manage to shoot an entire jump, to be rewarded right at the end with a startling clip of a young man falling slowly backwards from the bridge and plummeting all the way to the water.Not surprisingly, the film divided critical opinion sharply. It was called everything from 'morally loathsome' to 'brutally honest', and someone even dubbed it an 'aesthetic whirlpool of horror, fascination, beauty, and resignation'. Many objected to the interviewing of the bereaved families before they were notified that their late kinsmen had been filmed in the act. But Steel claims that the families themselves were all in harmony with the project.My own feeling is that it was a cinematic moment that had to come sometime. Suicide is a curious taboo topic, sometimes treated as an obscenity. But this film might be viewed as a healthy airing of the subject. All the familiar themes are here, from pretend-suicide (the cry for help) to survivor-guilt, outright denial ("She must have tripped"), debate about suicide as a mortal sin, and the usual rather unedifying suicide notes. One of the mothers tells her son "You don't have a right to kill yourself while I'm alive." And he doesn't - until after her own death, when he says to a friend "Now I can end it all." And he does. There is also an interesting slant on the sheer notoriety of the location, 'a false romantic promise' that your death-leap will place you among the legendary figures of America. One reason why Scott kept his project secret is that he didn't want to attract attention-seekers trying to get their suicides immortalised, though one later jump was actually blamed on the film. On the other hand, the publicity caused the authorities to install a safety net, which may reduce both the casualty-count and the notoriety. The main, glaring fault is the overlapping of the stories, so that we often don't know which case (out of 24) is being discussed. Towards the end, there is an overlong and over-indulgent lament from one girl about some male victim, with no name to keep us in the loop - or not that I heard.Finally, against the odds, one of the 24 actually lived to tell the tale, apparently saved by a seal that buoyed-up his body at the crucial moment. He remains convinced that this was a biblical miracle in the full sense, and has been devoutly religious ever since.

I don't recall having heard about this documentary previously, but I just discovered it on Netflix, and immediately started watching it. It was very chilling seeing actual footage of suicides occurring from the Golden Gate Bridge, in particular that of Gene, whose footage we saw interspersed throughout the entire film.These people - who I mistakenly think of as characters, until I remember that they were real people and I was really seeing footage of them in their last moments - are people that anyone could know in their everyday life. And most of us have known at least someone who has made this sort of choice, so can relate to the pain those left behind are going through.This film seems to be not just about the suicides, but about the bridge itself - the bridge is almost a character in itself, and some of the footage of fog rolling in and obscuring the bridge is pretty eerie and haunting. It was very well done, and the subjects of the film were treated with respect and dignity.I found this film to be haunting, disturbing, upsetting, and also moving. I really felt for those who were interviewed in the aftermath, and could relate to their feelings.

Honestly, you would feel sick after watching those poor individuals jump to their deaths and see how their grieving families have nothing but praise for their loved ones. I kept trying to find out answers in my head on why these people have chosen the Golden Gate Bridge? I'm guessing they probably just use that bridge because of how many feet it was from the bridge to the river. I mean, it is after all 4,200 feet!It just breaks me heart to think these people have ended their lives so suddenly. I know life isn't hunky dory but at the same time, it would've been 10 times better to talk to someone. Unfortunately they had went to the most devastating route that any other human being could experience of being in especially their families. If you ever feel suicidal, please please for your own sake, get help from someone because there is support waiting to hear from you ♡

Yes, this film is mesmerizing and beautifully shot, but mostly this film comes off as exploitive and morbid. I can't abide by film makers standing by with cameras rolling while people are positioning themselves to end their lives.And while I can't hate this film entirely, I did soon grow very weary of it and I was able to realize why one of the suicide jumpers jump was being held off shown until the very end of the film. For that reason alone I should hate this film, but I am cynical enough to realize why the film was made this way and to some extent I accept it. However, that does not mean that I have to admire or like it.I can't recommend this film, but I believe that the morbid curiosity that exists within got the better of me, but I am certainly no better now because of it.