NEWS: Movie Preview : An Unflinching Look at Suicide from "The Bridge"

CULTURE: Movie Preview : An Unflinching Look at Suicide from "The Bridge"

Opening this Friday in select theaters is a controversial new documentary, The Bridge - a film showing 23 of the 24 suicides that took place at San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in the year 2004. Director Eric Steel assembled a dedicated crew who set up a camera every day for a year and caught video of everyday people coolly stepping over the railing and jumping to their deaths. The footage is possessed of an eerie calm, a profound stillness, and is ultimately a stunning portrayal of some lonely souls' final seconds on Earth.

Not surprisingly, The Bridge has been drawing the fire of suicide prevention groups who see the film as glorifying the allure of this already alarmingly popular suicide site. Since the bridge's construction in 1937, over 1,300 suicides have taken place. One about every two weeks.

Steel has been accused of serving up suicide as entertainment, misleading the city about his project to gain filming access and callously using the lives of the jumpers for his own gain.

Steel says:

The Bridge opens in select theaters Friday October 27th.
Hi Quality Quicktime Trailer

1. That looks like a beautifully shot film.

2. He had to have a good line of BS to get permission to shoot it. "I wanna show people offing themselves" probably wouldn't cut it.

wow, what an interesting idea. how sad and eerie, though.

is it legal to just film a suicide like that?

it also seems just a little bit exploitative, has it been verified as authentic?

i figure as long as someone wasn't watching WHILE the people were offing themselves, there isn't much anyone could do about it.

i didn't think that it was that Easy to jump off the bridge. especially after 9/11. wow. i'm oddly drawn and greatly disturbed. this reminds me of a crimescenes photo collection, of the 30's and 40's, that i keep seeing at the bookstore.

Hmmm. Part of me wants to see it, part of me wonders why it's alright to promote this, and part of me wonders why THIS seems more sinister than "Faces of Death"...which was pulled, although all those deaths were accidental/unplanned. These are obviously planned in advance, and to me, to film it, that makes a bad situation for a desperate person cheap, and life's not cheap.

Seems interesting, but I could never watch it.

Here is the fraking impossible to find website for the movie:

http://www.thebridge-themovie.com/

It has the list of the few select theaters it will be opening in.

Mostly in the bay area and a few in LA, 2 in Chicago and 3 in Manhattan.

Most of the online ticket sites say it just isn't available unless you put in the specific theater, which is retarded, because if you knew the theater, you wouldn't be going to the ticket search site to begin with.

I think this is one of those things that falls into an ethical gray area. Sure, maybe you want to produce something like this, and you can, but should you? It's not as though these were all from people's home videos or something. The crew had to wait for this exact thing to happen. I think that's the part that makes it feel very exploitative.

That's exactly what I thought, yeah.

interesting idea , but i don't think i could watch that though

I just read an interview with the director of The Bridge and he said that the purpose of the film is to make people take a harder look at the world around them.
His crew called authorities with every attempted suicide and saved 6 lives. Eric Steel also said that he wants a barrier built on the bridge to make it harder for people to jump. Hopefully this movie will help get that accomplished.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Entertainment/story?id=1896367&page=2

If this was some big-budget bloated exploitive Hollywood piece of shit I'd be angry. But it's not, it seems the filmmakers have handled their subjects with care and compassion. If the film is anything like the trailer it'll be quite haunting and thought provoking. If I can get to NYC while it's still showing I'll probably see it.

I heard it will be on IFC in a few months for anyone who can't catch it in the theaters.

If you look at the camera movements while someone's climbing over the rail, it does look like someone is simply watching and takeing video WHILE the people are preparing to jump.

If the trailer is any indication of what's in the film, I'm not too sure this glorifies suicide at all. In fact, I'm sure it may make people think twice about their options when facing a crisis and comtemplating suicide.

wow.
looks like it's filmed really well.
don't know if i'd watch it though.

Don't suppose you know the name of the book? Right up my ally...

i SO want to see this in theatre, I doubt it'll make it to france though.
anyway the trailer is brilliant, eerie and beautiful. it's such a great idea, so strong and beautiful statement just to catch those moments.

I sincerely doubt anyone was ever just in their car driving along the bridge and decided to stop and jump and end their life. This is a well-planned and thought out approach to suicide. That wouldn't make it okay to stand by and watch, but it might explain the lack of interference on the part of the production crew as these men and women contemplated on the bridge. I've never made the effort to drive to a bridge with the intention of jumping off to end my life, but I bet if I did it would mean that I was too far gone for a trite "someone somewhere needs you, you have so much to live for" (from a guy with a camera I've never seen before in my life) to matter much to me.

To me this is in much better taste than Faces of Death...those were accidental deaths of unassuming individuals turned into a cult classic for shock, horror, thrills and even twisted laughs.

I seriously doubt anyone who goes to see this film is looking to laugh (and if they are, shame on them). Hell, it might even make some people reconsider. You never know.

From what I heard, plenty of the cases were people pacing back and forth or just staring out over the water and then all of a sudden decided to climb over the railing and immediately jump. Maybe if you are really going to do it you don't crawl over the railing and stand there making a big spectacle like in the movies.
Its kind of hard to call the cops on every person on a bridge who paces back and forth, or stops to look out over the water...

Should this not be explored then? Should we just cover our eyes and pretend this doesn't happen?

when we decide to go, we go. it looks like this film handled the subject well and tastefully, i'd very much like to see it.