THE BRIDGE (1959)

This is less a narrative-driven movie than an impressionistic slice-of-life story that plays out over a couple of days in April 1945, during the last days of the Second World War. In a small German village, several teenage boys are excited about being called up to serve in the army (since by this time, the military was decimated, and younger recruits were being sought after). We get to know them on their last day of school before they head off for training. Karl has a crush on his dad's housekeeper, but he is devastated to discover that she is sleeping with his father; Hans is a handsome romantic; Walter has conflicts with his father, who, despite being a Nazi party representative, is likely to clear out of town when the Allies get too close; Sigi, the youngest, has an overprotective mother; Jurgen comes from a military family and his mother gives him his late father's pistol to take with him to war. After we follow them through their last day in town, we see them next in basic training. But the troops are disorganized, with many ready to retreat, and the boys get assigned the task of guarding a bridge, which, as it happens is just outside of their village. That night, the boys do their duty, unaware that the bridge is going to be blown up by the German army when the Allies approach.

Though not strong in narrative, this is an emotionally powerful anti-war film. We know the boys have been given a useless task because their former schoolteacher wants to keep them away from the deteriorating front, hoping to spare their lives, but the boys are proud of having what seems an important mission and their enthusiasm blinds them to the real situation around them. As the night goes on, the film takes on a kind of Twilight Zone atmosphere with fog all around and a slow parade of wounded and deserters passing by. We are used to movies which promulgate a message of the terrible waste of war, so the ending is fairly predictable, but the director, Bernard Wikci, keeps the atmosphere tense. The actors, most not much older than their characters, are uniformly excellent. The only actor I’m familiar with is Fritz Wepper who went on to play Michael York’s German buddy Fritz in CABARET. But all of them are fine, not overdoing either bravado or fear. I'd never heard of this but TCM aired it recently and it’s available on a Criterion DVD. It definitely deserves a bigger audience. [TCM]