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I’d heard about this documentary last summer when I was in the states and had wanted to see it for some time. I finally had the chance last night.
But I can’t recommend watching The Bridge. It’s unforgettable, yes. It’s interesting, yes. Do people need to see others committing suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge? I don’t think so.
But the film ignites a great discussion related to YouTube and others of its kind. Personally, I’m not one of those who watched the video of Nick Berg being beheaded, just as I didn’t like to see the Faces of Death movies when I was sleeping over at friend’s houses. I avoid this stuff as a rule because it contributes nothing to me.
The Bridge is not a comment on suicide. It simply watches and interviews those touched by incidents related to the film. It is interesting and moving. The fact that so many people have committed suicide in such a beautiful location is fascinating.
It raises a lot of interesting questions. How does suicide is fit into a society? Do you have the right to end your own life? 30,000 people have committed suicide in Japan every year for the past decade. How is their view of suicide come to be so different to that of Westerners?
But The Bridge doesn’t address any of this. It titillates by showing tourists walking on the bridge, and juxtaposing that with people who almost jump, and those who finally do jump. To no surprise the final jumper is an eye-catching tall, rocker guy with hair down to his butt, shown anguishing throughout the entire film. In the end he stands on the railing and impressively falls end over end toward his watery grave.
I was left, first and foremost, missing my birth city of San Francisco, but also feeling unsettled about the film in general. I realize this was not because of suicide itself, which I believe is often times a very Nobel and brave choice to make, but because I felt a little manipulated. The director has no visible opinion here, so what are we left with? A Golden Gate Bridge enthusiast? A meditation on suicide in contemporary society? Or is it a voyeuristic reel of people plummeting to their deaths? I have to say it’s the latter. Is there anything wrong with that? Maybe not. Did the director take the easy way out? Absolutely.