The Bridge
Posted On: August 4, 2009
Posted In:
Comments:
One Response
Views: 1992
Inspired by a New Yorker story, “Jumpers,” written by Tad Friend, director Eric Steel decided to train cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge over the course of 2004 to capture the people who attempted to leap off the famed structure, the site of more suicides than anywhere else in the world. He also tracked down and interviewed the friends, family members, and eyewitnesses to further recreate the events leading up to the incident and to try to explain what led these people to want to kill themselves, especially at this specific site. The documentary’s primary subjects all struggled with mental illness, including severe depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders, and the documentary struggles to understand their illness while illuminating the anger and hurt of their loved ones.
VN:F [1.8.0_1031]
Rating: 8.7/10 (6 votes cast)
Don’t let the subject put you off as it almost did with me, because this movie handles the subject of suicide with incredible taste & tact. The filmmakers never make you feel like a voyeur & that is quite a feat given the focus of the film.
It is shocking to see actual footage of “the act” but it is never gratuitous & you don’t feel like you are violating any “code” watching it. I never felt squemish.
What follows & surrounds the shocks are the interviews & stories of people who either saw the jumps or knew the people who plunged to their deaths. Plus there is 1 big surprise in the movie which I won’t give a way here.
I saw this doc twice on consecutive nights. The last time I did that with any film was “Apollo 13″