Die Brücke
Bernhard Wicki
April, 1945. Germany's defeat is imminent. Seven patriotic high school students are ordered to report for basic training before being sent off to the front lines To spare them, the commander assigns them a low-level mission: controlling the village bridge.
With : Volker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, Volker Lechtenbrink, Cordula Trantow, Günter Pfitzmann
Screenplay : Bernhard Wicki, d'après le roman de Manfred Gregor
Editing : C.O Bartning
Music : Hans-Martin Majewski
Screenplay : Bernhard Wicki, d'après le roman de Manfred Gregor
Editing : C.O Bartning
Music : Hans-Martin Majewski
Production : Fono-Film, Jochen Severin
Distribution: Institut Goethe
Distribution: Institut Goethe
The Bridge, Bernhard Wicki's second feature film, shot only fourteen years after the end of the war, was one of the first German films to expose the stupidity of a collapsing army set on mobilizing the young generation. His straightforward script, skirting political conflicts and military operations, concentrates on the tragic destinies of seven teenagers. The film ends soberly on astoundingly realistic and technically mastered combat scenes. He would subsequently shoot the German scenes in the film "The Longest Day" (1962)