Dir.
Eric Steel, 2005, UK/US, 95 mins approx
Review by Martyn Bamber
Focusing on the suicides that occurred on
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in 2004, The Bridge is
a documentary that shows footage of the iconic structure
from numerous angles, and for extended periods. The result
of this comprehensive coverage of the bridge is that the
cameras capture footage of some people who decide to take
their own life by throwing themselves off the bridge.
The approach that The Bridge takes to the subject of suicide
does raise some questions, the first of which must be this:
did the filmmakers alert the authorities if they suspected
someone would jump? (The filmmakers did contact the emergency
services to try and stop the suicides from occurring and
prevented several.) In addition, it doesn't seem possible
that the friends and relatives of those who committed suicide
would allow footage of their loved ones' last moments to
be included in a film without their consent.
Interspersed with the various shots of the Golden Gate Bridge
(which seems majestic on a clear day and eerie when shrouded
in fog), are a series of excerpts from interviews with the
friends and family of the people who jumped. In these sequences,
we get a sense of what the people who killed themselves were
like, and how their death has affected their friends and
families.
Unfortunately, the filmmakers – intentionally or unintentionally – create
a perverse suspense throughout the film, as they repeatedly
cut away from the interviewees to show various people walking
across the bridge or peering over the side, and then cutting
away from them and back to the interviewees. The result of
this editing strategy is that it makes us wonder which one
of the people on the bridge that we've cut away from will
be the one who jumps. This sense of dread is set up from
the beginning, and by structuring the footage in this way,
the film feels unnecessarily manipulative.
Although The Bridge clearly strives to understand both why
certain people commit suicide, and why these particular individuals
chose to take their lives by throwing themselves over the
side at this particular location, the inclusion of the suicide
footage feels unnecessary. Unlike the moving interview sequences
in the film, which includes the remarkable testimony of one
young man who jumped and miraculously survived, the film
of people jumping doesn't illuminate the lives of the people
who committed suicide.
There is a telling moment in the film when one passer-by,
a photographer, briefly loses himself in the moment, seems
to divorce himself from the reality in front of him and takes
pictures of a girl who is clearly contemplating suicide.
This sequence feels similar to what the filmmakers are doing
by including the footage of real suicides, and like that
footage, it creates a queasy, uneasy feeling.
Seeing the suicides recorded on camera
does not – at
least for this reviewer – illuminate the issue of suicide
or appropriately honour the memory of people who committed
suicide. The heartfelt testimonies from the various interviewees
in the film stand as far better tributes to – and records
of – the people who, for whatever reason, decided to
end their life by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge.
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