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The Bridge (2006)

tomatometer

66

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 56
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 19

Tactlessly morbid or remarkably sensitive? Deeply disturbing or viscerally fascinating? Critics are divided on Eric Steele's unique documentary on the Golden Gate Bridge, wonder of the modern world and notorious suicide destination.

88

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 2

Tactlessly morbid or remarkably sensitive? Deeply disturbing or viscerally fascinating? Critics are divided on Eric Steele's unique documentary on the Golden Gate Bridge, wonder of the modern world and notorious suicide destination.

audience

73

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 7,574

My Rating

Movie Info

The Golden Gate Bridge Is An Iconic Structure; A Symbol Of San Francisco, The West, Freedom - And Something More, Something Spiritual, Something Words Cannot Describe.

R,

Documentary, Drama, Special Interest

Feb 16, 2007

$49.3k

First Stripe Productions - Official Site External Icon

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All Critics (58) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (19) | DVD (9)

Tales are dramatic; the interviewees poignant, and the images -- often following bodies all the way down to the water -- are startling and discomfiting.

May 9, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Bridge avoids reducing its subjects to types, and if the portraits painted are often recognizable -- the person who talks so much about suicide that those around him fail to take him seriously -- they are not repetitive.

March 8, 2007 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The whole thing invokes the bodies falling from that other architectural icon on 9/11 - but it's not clear what is achieved beyond disturbance.

February 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

By his use of interviews of friends and family of jumpers, Steel reminds us that no matter how alone some of these people felt, they weren't without people who loved them. It is a tender, powerful work.

February 9, 2007 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment (1)
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Though well-meaning, hauntingly scored and artfully photographed, this strange documentary marks the bridge as a mecca for self-inflicted death, while making us helpless observers of such horrific acts.

December 29, 2006 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It may be the first poetic snuff film.

November 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic IconTop Critic

None of the insights justifies the queasiness of the project

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion | Comment (1)
CinePassion

You will never look fondly at the Golden Gate Bridge again after seeing this disturbing documentary by a filmmaker ignorant of the volatile narrative water that he dishonors.

April 24, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comment (1)
ColeSmithey.com

An eerie, haunting immersion in the near-incomprehensibility, darkness and grief rippling around suicide. With a fascinating making-of featurette.

November 23, 2007
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

Little more than a snuff film clumsily dressed up as an art house flick.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

Two dozen souls, linked by suicide as a seductive, and very visible alternative to unrelenting torment and suffering.

May 4, 2007 Full Review Source: EURWeb
EURWeb

There are harrowing moments: who could not be moved by a parent talking about a son's suicide? But you do not leave the cinema with a better understanding of suicide.

February 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK)
Sunday Times (UK)

While these interviews are affecting, and the movie talks about suicide in a refreshingly straightforward manner, it's the images of these actual deaths that induce horrified gasps.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Oregonian
Oregonian

It's gripping viewing but you feel like a voyeur of somebody else's pain. After a while you may feel that you're watching a particularly scenic snuff film.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment (1)
Times [UK]

This will get flack for being a "snuff" film - but the real tragedy is how suicide is often hidden away. This film brings it out in the open.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: thelondonpaper
thelondonpaper

This could be the most morally loathsome film ever made.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comment (1)
Guardian [UK]

The filmmakers' methods are questionable, but the power of the resulting documentary and the importance of the issues it raises are not.

February 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

Audience Reviews for The Bridge

"The Bridge" is a tough movie to watch. It's intensely somber. Debut director Eric Steel pointed his cameras at San Francisco's majestic and mysteriously powerful Golden Gate Bridge and found out something deeply disturbing. An extraordinary number of people jump off that bridge in broad daylight, and his cameras caught everything.

It must have been a tremendously difficult decision, but Steel decided to build a project around suicide and use the actual footage. He and his team tracked down the family members of some of those who jumped and gently and compassionately interviewed them, hearing the terrible stories of how their family members' lives fell apart. Most jumpers had issues with mental illness; that is the overriding theme. But not all of them.

As an artist, you can't get more meaningful material than this. This project pierces to the heart of the human experience.

Unfortunately though, "The Bridge" isn't a great work of art. It's very good, but something's missing. After about an hour of hearing the stories of broken lives, I didn't feel that I was growing substantially from the experience. I commend Steel for his bravery and compassion. I'm just not sure if he found his way to lessons that were meaningful enough to build a film around.

If you can handle looking into the face of complete despair, "The Bridge" is recommended. In some ways, I felt it was a way of honoring those who suffered so much. But it's also interesting to think about how this subject matter could have been treated in some better ways.
October 2, 2011
Bill D 2007
William Dunmyer

Super Reviewer

Eerie but completely fascinating. Like driving by a car wreck that you can't seem to take your eyes off of.
January 21, 2009
flixsterman
Randy Tippy

Super Reviewer

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