krista4 said:
OK, so last night I watched The Bridge in part so that El Floppo (or maybe it was Sweet J) would have someone with whom to talk about it.
This movie really pissed me off.
What should/could have been an interesting documentary about why people are attracted to the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide locale, or why the bridge isn't protected from such attempts, or how the people who fish these folks out of the water deal with their jobs, or simply an in-depth look at suicide and mental illness, was instead what appeared to be just a way to appeal to the basest and most prurient instincts we might have. Don't get me wrong--the documentary was compelling and kept me completely rapt, but I felt like there was no good reason that it should have been made. It was a horribly superficial look at mental illness, meant only to titillate. And watching people hurl themselves off a bridge is...well, I certainly shouldn't have watched this right before bed.
I also thought there was some very questionable musical selections--parts that were a bit too upbeat for the situation, or in some cases simply too earnest.
The cinematography of the bridge and juxtaposition of tourist and happy folks enjoying it with those who choose to end their lives there were very well done.
Can't recommend this to anyone unless you just like watching horribly troubled people kill themselves. 1/5
Yeah... that was me.I actually liked that it didn't get too much more than a lay-perspective into the mental illness. Certainly couldve gone further in depth into bi-polar disorder (the leitmotif of those killing themselves), but he seemed to make a conscious decision to just keep with the families and their perspectives, which is a more personal, less clinical approach. But I hear ya on feeling like it was an avenue that could/should've been explored, considering that leitmotif.
I think the director made the movie as a response to an article about how easy it is to jump from there, and how it has become a suicide mecca, of sorts (IIRC, it was a New Yorker article). IIRC, he started the project as a protest effort to try and get the fence built, and then it turned into what it became.
You are dead on about the music... but it almost seems like ANY music would be inapprorpirate for that movie.
I seem to recall that my main objection upon watching it was how much direction/editing went into it- particularly with the long-haired "featured actor" jumper. The pacing felt almost like a thriller... which also felt somehow inappropriate, yet still worked to tell the story.
I don't kow that I'd recommend it to anybody other than you lot- and even then only so I had somebody to discuss it with... very, very disturbing movie.