The premise of this movie is simple: cameras recorded people walking on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, for a whole year. Some of those people committed suicide by jumping off the bridge and their last moments were recorded on film. Relatives and friends of some of the jumpers were interviewed. One survivor also gives his testimony. That's "The Bridge" in a nutshell.
Aside from the morbid fascination of watching people plummet to their deaths and the dramatic jump at the end, this movie really doesn't add much to the discussion about suicide. The testimonials don't say anything that common sense wouldn't already let you know. There is no analysis whatsoever of the phenomenon and they tackle the names of the jumpers and a few (rushed) statistics at the end of the movie because the movie itself doesn't elucidate you about anything. It basically says that a) these people had personal demons of their own and b) they committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. I think I didn't need to watch this movie to be aware of this.
If not for the lack of discussion of the subject and the MTV-styled ending, this could've been a very interesting movie (the premise sure is). I felt disappointed after watching it, because it wasn't even that shocking (considering that we all witnessed unfortunate people tumbling down on live television during the WTC attacks) and it didn't seem to have a message that would reveal something new, a new angle on the topic of suicide, something that would make me think about it in a different light. If the point was to give faces to the anonymous people who died there, it even did poorly in that respect, I didn't feel like I knew that much about these people afterwards. The one thing that I did like is that, for the most part, the interviews were very dignified, they didn't resort to turning it into a melodramatic sob fest. The suspense of the footage following different people, walking back and forth and making you think "will this person jump or move along?", was also effective.
About the controversy of the filming process, I'd think that by now we would all be used to having other people's privacy exploited for profit and voyeuristic demands. It makes me wonder if the people who committed suicide would be bothered by it or if they'd approve of having their final message to the world made public, for all to see.
Aside from the morbid fascination of watching people plummet to their deaths and the dramatic jump at the end, this movie really doesn't add much to the discussion about suicide. The testimonials don't say anything that common sense wouldn't already let you know. There is no analysis whatsoever of the phenomenon and they tackle the names of the jumpers and a few (rushed) statistics at the end of the movie because the movie itself doesn't elucidate you about anything. It basically says that a) these people had personal demons of their own and b) they committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. I think I didn't need to watch this movie to be aware of this.
If not for the lack of discussion of the subject and the MTV-styled ending, this could've been a very interesting movie (the premise sure is). I felt disappointed after watching it, because it wasn't even that shocking (considering that we all witnessed unfortunate people tumbling down on live television during the WTC attacks) and it didn't seem to have a message that would reveal something new, a new angle on the topic of suicide, something that would make me think about it in a different light. If the point was to give faces to the anonymous people who died there, it even did poorly in that respect, I didn't feel like I knew that much about these people afterwards. The one thing that I did like is that, for the most part, the interviews were very dignified, they didn't resort to turning it into a melodramatic sob fest. The suspense of the footage following different people, walking back and forth and making you think "will this person jump or move along?", was also effective.
About the controversy of the filming process, I'd think that by now we would all be used to having other people's privacy exploited for profit and voyeuristic demands. It makes me wonder if the people who committed suicide would be bothered by it or if they'd approve of having their final message to the world made public, for all to see.