"I don't know why people kill themselves. And yet, it's a small step to empathize... to say... well, because I think we all experience moments of despair. That, ah, it would be so much easier not to do this anymore. But for most of us, the sun comes out, and then "Oh well, Tomorrow is another day". Why he chose the Bridge? I don't know. Maybe there was a certain amount of release from pain, by pain. Maybe he just wanted to fly one time."

I don't know how to properly rate The Bridge especially after reading this: Steel interviewed relatives and friends of the suicide victims, but did not inform them that he had footage of their loved ones' deaths.

Which to me feels kind of weird. Did he tell them after the interview? Did they see the footage while watching the documentary?

It's tough to see Gene fall to his death at the end. You see his friends and family talk about him throughout the documentary while seeing Gene pacing around the Golden Gate Bridge. It's tough to watch. You see someone getting saved though but many jump to his or her demise. I'm happy they at least are installing suicide nets now. I hope they prevent people from jumping.

I do know that when I finally walk over the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time this september that it'll be with a different look at it then when I hadn't seen this documentary before hand.

Anyway I don't recommend watching this one.

Films that make me feel strong emotions are the reason I enjoy watching them so much. Even the films that knock me on my knees and make me feel despair or uncomfortable I enjoy as they created a powerful response within me. Its rare for a film to make me feel such intense emotions like The Bridge as it is an objectively moving documentary, but that does not forgive how unethical it’s footage is.

Minus the final shot of the film where a title card reads “more people have chosen to end their lives at the Golden Gate Bridge than anywhere else in the world,” there is not any other contextualization to why the film was made. Is the goal to bring awareness for the need of taller barriers and safety measures on the Golden Gate Bridge to discourage people from jumping? If so, that was not explained or suggested at all.

I understand that suicide is tragic and seeing the deep sadness in friends and family can help in creating awareness to suicide prevention efforts but filming people committing the act is extreme.

Throughout the film there are many wide angle shots of the Golden Gate Bridge used as transitions between scenes. The films holds on these shots for a while, much longer than a typical scenic shot and some of them end with a visible and audible splash indicating that someone jumped. Every time one of these wide shots lingered on the screen I scanned for a falling spec and waited for a splash, but often there wasn’t one. Using real footage of suicide to build tension in transition shots is grossly exploitative.

The film uses one specific jumper named Gene as a framing device to organize the film around. He receives more back story than the other people filmed and shots of him pacing on the bridge building up the courage to jump are included all throughout the documentary. The final scene of the film is of Gene finally standing on top of the railing and falling backwards with his arms spread out wide as he fell. Audio of Gene’s grandmother speculating on why he chose to jump off the bridge as his method for suicide, “maybe he just wanted to fly one time” was edited in right before he swiftly climbed the rail, stood up straight, and fell backwards. The scene is objectively captivating and emotional but also brutally tasteless.

I do believe the filmmakers had good intentions in developing and creating this project, but it is more of a eloquent snuff film than it is a documentary.

An expectedly sober documentary that concerns itself with the unsettling allure of the Golden Gate Bridge as a popular suicide destination. It's sad but not mopey, interspersing long, lingering frames of the bridge in various weather conditions (often punctuated by a sudden, jarring splash beneath the span) with reflections upon the jumpers' troubled lives by their friends and family members. In a way it's heartening that so many of the subjects are calm, collected and rational about the event, having properly worked their way through the various stages of grief and come out the other side. They're changed, but they're also intact.

Footage of the jumps themselves, collected through a year-long observation via telephoto lens, offer a vivid glimpse into these poor souls' most private moments. They vary from startling to heartbreaking, and often border on the voyeuristic. In one sense, it feels improper to share that intimate moment of climactic decision with strangers, but in another it lends their stories a sense of magnitude. These aren't just names in a list, empty faceless stories without a tether to our own reality - they're distinct individuals, emotively struggling to cope with something that's too large for their own conscience. As we hear the tale that led them to such a dark pit of despair, we see them quite physically grappling with that maddening choice.

It's some of the most inarguably real footage I've ever seen on film, but I guess the greatest question here is; how real is too real?