The Bridge at Remagen
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Movie Reviews of The Bridge at Remagen
Movie Review: Thoughtful, Well-Made WWII Film
Summary: 5 Stars
Sticklers for accurate portrayals of history on screen may find elements to grumble about in this terrific fact-based yarn about the taking of a key bridge into Germany over the Rhine River in early 1945. The cast is a stellar one, with George Segal and Ben Gazzara acting as the dogface principals given the assignment, along with Robert Vaughn as a valiant German officer determined to try to hold the bridge as long as possible to help save thousands of retreating German soldiers, planning to then blow the bridge up rather than letting it fall into Allied hands. Bradford Dillman plays the morally amusical American Army commander so interested in furthering his own ambitions that he routinely and recklessly endangers the welfare and safety of his men. E.G. Marshall plays the commanding general who recognizes the strategic importance of the bridge and tries to do all he can to ensure the Allies succeed in taking it. For those of us interested in such things, the film does take considerable pains to replicate both the look and the atmosphere of the events that transpired during the final Allied push into Germany, when the 27th Armored infantry attempted to seize and hold the bridge in order to cut off more than 50,000 retreating German troops over the Rhine where they could then regroup to prepare for the battle of Germany in the following months. The Allies knew the taking of the bridge could shorten the war by allowing rapid crossing of the Rhine by large number of Allied troops more forcefully than could be repelled by the retreating Germans. Time was of the essence.
All that said, this is an excellent dramatization of the actual events, although one is left at the end not understanding the bridge eventually collapsed only a few weeks after being taken. Yet by then it had been replaced for both tactical and strategic purposes by many more temporary structures hauled into place by the Army Corps of Engineers. The film is very well done, and provides a quite realistic, gritty and sympathetic portrayal of life as a soldier in the final frantic days, when millions of young Allied soldiers forced their way through the portals into the "Fatherland" to finally end the greatest armed struggle of the 20th century. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Context, folks, context
Summary: 5 Stars
Unlike most if not all of the reviewers of this film, I saw it when it first came out in 1969. I watched it again (the DVD) just this month (Nov 08). Why? Because it stuck with me and I wanted to see it again.
I submit that any film that sticks with you for almost 40 years is a good film. Not necessarily a great film, but a good one.
It falls short of greatness due to a number of flaws. As other reviewers have pointed out, the film could have been more historically accurate and maintained its theme.
Lt Hartmann's walk to "capture" the bridge at the end is a hopelessly dopey Hollywood stunt. And though Segal heroically tries to make Lt. Hartmann work, he's basically a poor copy of Vic Morrow as the cynical but very competent Sgt. Saunders in the classic TV series "Combat."
Still, what most reviewers are missing is that "The Bridge at Remagen" was a courageous and risky effort when it came out. Those who compare it with "The Longest Day" or "A Bridge Too Far" are failing to notice that the former came out in 1962 and the latter in 1977. That's a gap of 15 years. Within it, very few WAR films were made. Why? Because Vietnam had wiped out the American filmgoing public's interest in WAR films.
When "The Bridge at Remagen" came out in 1969, it was the first WAR film since the beginning of the decade, before Vietnam took over the national consciousness, except for one or two mindless John Wayne vehicles. Lt. Hartmann's (Segal) exhaustion with "his" war and cynicism were a perfect reflection of the mood of most of the American public at the time.
And this was a year before Altman's "M.A.S.H.", which is largely touted as the first anti Vietnam War film.
Is "The Bridge at Remagen" flawed? Yes. Reflective of its time, and with a timeless message? Absolutely.
To me, therefore, it ranks among the 10 best WAR films made.
Movie Review: One of the great war films of the 1960's
Summary: 5 Stars
The Bridge at Remagen is an excellent World War II movie based on a true story. Set in the closing days of the war, the story is about a battle for the last remaining bridge over the Rhine river. The Americans want it intact so they can cross over into the heart of Germany while the Germans want to blow it up to prevent the Allies a foothold. However, the Major placed in command of the bridge won't blow it up because there are still 50,000 German troops on the other side that will be captured if the bridge is destroyed. This is an excellent movie that shows the battle from both the American and German side. Excellent action sequences and great characters make this a must have. As well, the movie succeeds in showing the chaos on the German side as the Allied forces began to close in late in the war.George Segal stars as(get this) Lt. Phil Hartman, the leader of the American troops trying to take the bridge intact. He plays the role perfectly as the officer who refuses to see his men massacred in a pointless attack. Ben Gazzara is great as Sergeant Angelo, the soldier who picks valuable items off of dead soldiers for his own profit. Robert Vaughan plays Major Krueger, the German major placed in command of the bridge. He does a great job as the officer trying to buy time for the trapped German divisions. Also starring Bradford Dillman, E.G. Marshall, Peter Van Eyck, and Bo Hopkins. This is an excellent war movie that doesn't shy away from showing all aspects of war. Elmer Bernstein also gives an excellent musical score that at times sounds like The Magnificent Seven or The Great Escape. The DVD is a great buy with a collectible booklet, theatrical trailer, and widescreen presentation all included. Check out this great and true war tale set late in WWII!
Movie Review: Exceptional cast, excellent plot
Summary: 5 Stars
Unlike most WW2 movies, this movie gave exceptional portrays of personalities of the characters. This movie is also very well-balanced on both the US and the German sides.Captain Hartman, Major Kreuger and Captain Schmidt were very well portrayed as heroic and intelligent officers; during combat, they stood at the front with their men; they cared about their responsibilities and the needs of their men instead of their careers.
Captain Barnes and the nazi SS general were also well-portrayed as career-minded officers, who are yes-men to their superiors, they always avoided combat, they cared nothing about their subordinates, but only focused on blaming and demanding them instead.
This movies have done a great job in telling the tensions and politics amongst the ranks in an army (both the US and German), and the emotional aspects during a war as well, e.g. the short story of the war-torn French girl, the story inside the apartment of Mr Holzgang, Captain Hartman lost nearly all his comrades, Jeligo shot a young fanatical nazi boy, great courages of soldiers on both sides in dangerous missions.
Perhaps the most exceptional feature of this movie is that, it brought to the stage the untold humanistic stories of the war-weary German civilians and soldiers, e.g. helpless civilians under air bombardment, purges on officers by the nazi, boys and old men being deployed for city defense, trains of wounded soldiers waiting for crossing the bridge before it was demolished, exhausted soldiers trying to desert etc,
This is one of the very few movies that truly tell WW2 stories and battles.
Movie Review: One of the GREAT war movies of the 1960's.
Summary: 5 Stars
The 1960's will long be remembered for a series of extremely campy and corny WWII flicks, such as Battle of the Bulge, etc. This isn't to say that the story line in Bridge at Remangen isn't cliche'd at times, but overall, this is perhaps THE best WWII movie made in the sixties - I love this movie and have watched it at least ten or fifteen times!
The historical accuracy of this one is what seriously impresses me. They shot on location in Europe, they duplicated the full-scale look of the original bridge to perfection, and they used a lot of legit period-perfect equipment making this one. There are brief cameos by German 251 armored halftracks (very rare for that time), they make good use of a PKW staff car, (very rare then and now) and the weapons and uniforms are extremely well done. The Luftwaffe guys are even using what appear to be original 88mm flak guns (at least three of them). Typically, the Germans are a bit "too clean" for that period of the war, but the film portrays their personel and equipment problems very well. The American armored unit is equipped with M24 Chafee tanks instead of the plain old M4 Shermans as they should've been, but the M24 was entering service at about that time, so I can overlook this as I presume they found some little NATO country over there still using a lot of the M24s.
I don't particularly care for Ben Gazara's character and the movie would've been just as good (or better) without him, but all things aside, this is a MUST HAVE movie for WWII movie buffs.