The Bridge

Die Brücke (1959)

Timing: 1:43 (103 min)

7.481/10
160

7.838/10
1463

7.9/10
9300

All about film

Video 1

Photo 11

Actors and characters

Release date

1959-10-21

Country

Germany

Production

Fono Film, Taurus Produktion

Genre

Drama, History, War

Budget

$0

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

Bernhard Wicki

Actors

Folker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, Frank Glaubrecht, Karl Michael Balzer, Volker Lechtenbrink, Günther Hoffmann, Cordula Trantow, Wolfgang Stumpf, Günter Pfitzmann
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Hans Wolff

Operator

Gerd von Bonin

Composer

Hans-Martin Majewski

Artist

Audition

Editing

Carl Otto Bartning
All team (20)

• The film is based on the novel of the same name by Gregor Dorfmeister (published under the pseudonym Manfred Gregor).
• The film was released in Soviet cinemas from 1962 under the title «A Heavy Reckoning».
• The film was shot in the Bavarian town of Kam. The bridge itself was named after Florian Geyer, and in 1994 it was destroyed and a new one was built in its place.
• None of the tanks shown in the film were real. By 1959, the Bundeswehr was only just beginning to form and did not have any tanks at all. Bernhard Wicki solved this by mounting wooden models on car chassis.
• Footage from the film is often shown as wartime newsreel footage. For example, in the Soviet television film «Seventeen Moments of Spring» (episodes 7, 8).
• The original novel is largely an autobiography of Gregor himself: on May 1, 1945, Gregor (who was then 16 years old) and seven other boys were assigned to guard the Bad Tölz entrance bridge against Allied troops. During that day, five of the eight boys were killed. Gregor fled the next day, while the two remaining continued to defend the bridge. Later, Gregor returned to the bridge and discovered that they had been killed as well.
• The 336th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, in which the characters supposedly served, actually ceased to exist in 1945, ending its days in May 1944 in Sevastopol.
• The film was shown in Soviet cinemas from 1962 under the title "Heavy Reckoning".
• Footage from the film is often shown as newsreel footage of the war years. For example, in the Soviet television film "Seventeen Moments of Spring" (episodes 7, 8).