THE BRIDGE
The depths of human despair, as seen from a premature pearly (Golden) Gate
(Bridge)
PopcornReel.com Film Review: "The Bridge"
By Omar P.L. Moore/originally written on September 23, 2006 -- published October
27, 2006
"Crossing that bridge with lessons I've learned/Playing with fire and not
getting burned/I may not know what you're going through/
But time is the space between me and you/There is a light through that
window/Hold-ons say 'yes', while people say 'no'."
-- Seal, "Prayer For The Dying"
While the above lyrics are from a song about living (and dying) with HIV/AIDS,
they could well apply to this mordant, deeply distressing and troubling
documentary from Eric Steel, who makes one of the eight wonders of the world
seem like a horrific death trap for suicide exhibitions. In 2004, a total
of 24 people jumped to their deaths from the Golden Gate Bridge, which traverses
the Northern California locales of San Francisco and Marin County. Mr.
Steel happened to have his cameras film several of these despondent human beings
jumping from the bridge into the water below to their deaths. We are
witness to at least seven people ending their lives. Their final seconds
on Earth are disturbing to watch. Steel's camera straddles a fine line
between helpless observer and entranced voyeur. Perhaps most skillfully
and yet most controversially the final jump to death that we see is from Gene
Sprague, a 34-year-old who considers himself an unabashed failure in life and in
his relationships with women.
The word "controversial" is fitting where Mr. Steel's technique is concerned
regarding Sprague because the camera seems to linger almost voyeuristically with
Mr. Sprague's agony. It is as if, even from afar, the camera is searching
the inside of Sprague's mind to find out what he is thinking in his last moments
as he paces back and forth across the bridge, eyes hidden by dark glasses, wild
long black hair blowing angrily in the wind, clad in black leather jacket and
pants, searching for the right spot on the bridge from which to jump. Over
and over and over and over again throughout "The Bridge" we see Sprague, a
faint, haunting figure gazing out over the bridge in eerie fashion, pacing back
and forth repeatedly on a sunny day. There are people who see him.
There are those who don't. There are those who ignore him. Even more
than the lingering camera on Sprague however, some viewers will hear the
nervous, uncomfortable and "evil" voice within them that says, "why doesn't he
just jump and get it over with?"
Throughout this tense 93-minute ordeal (and it
is a grim, painful ordeal) we endure and empathize with families, friends and
witnesses who knew or saw in the flesh those who ended their own lives on the
Golden Gate Bridge. The interviews with them are poignant, heartbreaking,
devastating, chilling, and, in a rare, ever-so-fleeting moment in one interview
there's an awkward, uncomfortable bit of unexpected humor, all the more
disturbing as it comes from a very young child who observed one person jumping
to her death. And none of the departed who are recalled by loved ones are
"bad" people. They are people who have lost their way, convinced that no
one or no thing can rescue them from the harsh pitfalls of life. Society
hasn't necessarily rejected these individuals, and in all cases they haven't
necessarily rejected society -- but it is clear that they think that society
would be better off without them in it. Mental illness and American
society's ignorance of the issues faced by those afflicted with it, is explored
via the interviews with those who are left in pain, traumatized by a friend or
loved one's death. Mr. Steel is to be lauded for looking at mental illness
in this way. Credit him also for not even
focusing much at all on the low height of the Golden Gate Bridge's fence that
makes it astonishingly easy to climb over and begin a descent to death.
(The American media took care of that conversation regarding the Golden Gate
Bridge.) For the individuals who are here no longer, it would probably
have made little difference how high or low the barrier was. One interview
in particular is riveting and powerful -- a jumping survivor Kevin Hines, in his early-20's, who described the feeling as he plunged
in the San Francisco Bay at the tender age of 18, realizing as he jumped that he
did not want to die. His account is
indescribable. He recalls the specific details of the events as if they
happened just seconds, or days before he tells them on camera.
At some point during "The Bridge" even the most mentally healthy person is
forced to think about what his or her breaking point would be as they listen to
Hines' account and those of loved ones who are pained and angered by a
prematurely departed family member's actions.
Even if some debate whether Mr. Steel (who makes his directing and documentary
debut here) is behaving in a morally abject way by capturing these jumpers on
camera, if nothing else he engages us with an honest, sincere examination of
mental state and depression, and suicide as taboo in the world's richest nation.
The Golden Gate Bridge itself is more or less a backdrop to this examination, a
landmark of breathtaking beauty that ironically serenades or at least is a
"gracious" host to such tragedy (more people commit suicide from it than from
any other landmark in the world, the end credits tell us.) We are also
shown the names of all 24 jumpers who took the fateful four-second plunge from
the Golden Gate Bridge two years ago. In each and every month of 2004
someone jumped from it to their death, some on consecutive days.
There is a problem deep within the human heart and if America's politicians
won't deal with it, Mr. Steel may be saying, then I will show America just how
severe the problem of depression is.
"The Bridge" plays like a wildlife documentary as we eyeball the behavior of
these human beings as they plot and stake out their final resting place.
Indeed, one witness who was photographing a woman who was about to jump to her
death describes the feeling of watching a National Geographic documentary as he
was taking pictures of her. Realizing that he was engaging in cruel
voyeurism, he rescued her and we see this riveting rescue. As the
photographer recalls, the look the rescued woman gives him as she is being
handcuffed by Bridge Patrol police is piercing, powerful and unforgettable.
And we get to see this for ourselves.
Filmed from every conceivable angle both close
up and at distance, this majestic bridge never looks uglier nor more ominous.
Though this film is uncomfortable, it needs to be seen. It is being
released near Halloween just prior to the holiday season for a very pertinent
reason, for these next few months are often the most trying times in many
peoples' lives. Ever since seeing "The Bridge" back in late September,
this reviewer has swayed back and forth engaging in the most trivial of
exercises -- that of deciding whether to give it a high recommendation.
"The Bridge" has to be the longest 93 minutes that you will ever spend in a
movie theater, longer than some three-hour long films. In fact, Eric
Steel's documentary seems longer than that.
This film will impact you.
And you may never look at the Golden Gate Bridge quite the same way again.
When and if you do decide to walk across it, spare a thought for those who
didn't make it. Mr. Steel's unabashed fearlessness and adult examination
of issues that most of American society and its government would rather not
address makes this film indispensable in the debate on the mentally ill and
deeply depressed. Such was the impact of this film on this reviewer that
he feels the need to leave the reader of this review with lyrics from a song
about the razor-thin line between success and failure and the will to carry on
even when things in life become very rough. Lest there be any
misinterpretation, "Crossing the bridge" in the lyrics is in no way to be
confused with jumping off it.
I've seen the bridge/And the bridge is long/And they built it high/And they
built it strong/
Strong enough to hold/The weight of time/Long enough to leave/Some of us behind
And every one of us/Has to face that day/Do you cross the bridge/Or do you fade
away?
-- Elton John, "The Bridge"
Copyright 2006. PopcornReel.com. All Rights Reserved.
"The Bridge" opens
today in New York
City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago. As has been pointed out, it
is distressing. It is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of
America for disturbing content involving suicide, and for some language. People everywhere should see it. Eric Steel's documentary
was inspired by Tad Friend's "Jumpers", a feature story that appeared in The New
Yorker magazine on October 13, 2003.
(Photograph of the Golden Gate Bridge: Omar P.L. Moore)