Movie Review - The Bridge

I've always had a great fascination for things unexplained, and for very large structures. Bridges, in particular. Maybe it's from my years working in a civil engineering firm, although that particular firm didn't design bridges.

I dream about bridges frequently. I lived in a city - Jacksonville, Florida - which had a lot of bridges, several of which I crossed every day to go to and from work. When I first moved there, I was afraid to cross the bridges, but then it became a joy to ride with the windows down over the bridges, especially at night when they are lit up. It made for quite an adrenaline rush. My bridge dreams are filled with driving up toward a particularly high bridge and feeling the butterflies in my stomach before crossing, looking down through the grate as I pass over to the water below.

Budd, king of documentary film renting from Netflix, found a film that came out last year called The Bridge. It documents 365 days out of 2004 filming continuously at the Golden Gate Bridge, which I learned was the most popular suicide magnet in the world. More than 1,200 have plunged to their deaths since the Golden Gate opened in 1937, after the engineer proclaimed the bridge was "suicide-proof", and then the next group of engineers/contractors came in and lowered the railing to four feet in height.

The Bridge captured 23 of the 24 suicides in 2004, and actually shows 6 of them in progress. Three of the suicides are at pretty close range, and three are at a distance. The filmmaker, Eric Steele, then tracked down the family members, and without telling them he had footage of their loved one's demise, interviewed them about their thoughts and feelings toward their loved one and their suicide. I must admit I was more shocked by the reactions of friends and family than by the actual suicide footage itself; some cried, but most had the attitude of "so be it". A father from Virginia, whose son jumped in 2004, noted that his son had said to him, "Well, Dad, I may come back, and if I do, I'll see you, and if not, you'll know I'm at peace." I was also struck by the woman who said the planning involved in a suicide of any type is very lengthy and drawn out, and she likened the amount of preparation to trying to get into college.

The Golden Gate Bridge, although a monstrous structure, never held much fascination for me in the past. I think it was because it is one of the most photographed man-made objects in the world, and tons of information about the bridge is readily available. I never knew this very interesting history prior to watching this film, and I must admit it made me obsess about it for several days afterward, reading articles about preventing suicide from the bridge, how there's been a push to put up a suicide barrier since the first suicide in 1938, a year after the bridge opened. I just read in an October newspaper clipping where the plans for a suicide barrier have been delayed for about 9 months, in a year when more than 33 people have jumped from the bridge. The average for previous years is about 20 jumpers.

I've read reviews of this film that called it "gruesome," which it is not, and "ghastly." I've also read scathing remarks about how the filmmaker, in order to get the permits to film the bridge, had to "omit" information about what he was really filming, and angered the people who run the bridge. My personal opinion is that Steele and his crew recorded history and were very courageous to bring this issue to a larger audience, creating awareness that this is happening.

I found it particularly interesting when the filmmaker, in the "making of" extra on the DVD, noted that it takes quite a walk to get to the point on the bridge where most people jump off, and that the duration of that walk is usually the lowest point in a jumper's life. Do I think they should put up a suicide barrier at the cost of $15 to $20 million? It's a lot of money, and of course, the question of aesthetics always comes into play. But if the life of one person who impulsively decided to jump could be saved, wouldn't we say it was worth it? I don't know. I think suicide is a very personal decision, and people should have a right to die as they choose, although a swan dive off the Golden Gate Bridge is not as simple and painless as one might think. I also found it interesting that the majority of jumpers are white males from the Bay Area.

The Bridge is beautifully filmed with some incredible photography, and the score is haunting, reminiscent of American Beauty. Deeper digging into articles about the subject are equally as fascinating. The Bridge is an excellent documentary that can actually provoke some meaningful dialogue around a very difficult subject.

Some interesting links about the subject:

http://www.bridgerail.org/
http://www.sfgate.com/lethalbeauty/
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fa_fact