By Steven Snyder
Back in August or September of 2006, a publicist made an unusual announcement to a smattering of film critics gathered in a small midtown screening room: The director would be available after the movie to talk about the work. And while that atypical announcement (directors usually only appear at larger, pulbic screenings) did not strike anyone in room as earth-shattering news, what did come as a surprise was how few questions the crowd could muster for director Eric Steel, left stunned by a film unlike any other ever made.
For a year, the director had camped out with a crew on the banks of San Francisco Bay, cameras pointed at the Golden Gate Bridge, determined to capture the dozens of suicides that take place every year at one of the world’s preferred sites to end one’s life. With each jumper, Steel would try to identify the person and investigate and their back story, tracking down friends and loved ones who could shed light not only on why he or she chose to end their life, but why they chose to end it here, on the bridge.
Packaging it together, he titled the documentary “The Bridge,” and brought it to the Tribeca Film Festival, and he marveled in that screening room about how little people want to discuss the concept of suicide – how American society brushes this epidemic aside as if it didn’t exist. Much like the daily commuters who passed these jumpers on the bridge without a second thought, or the tourists who didn’t notice someone ending their life only a few feet away, he said the Golden Gate Bridge itself evoked this paradox of life and death, of splendor and depravity.
The film opened in New York City a few weeks later to strong reviews, as critics found themselves intrigued, fascinated and horrified by the specter, but the movie quickly evaporated from the mainstream conversation, making only $200,000 at the box office (that translates roughly to 20,000 purchased tickets). Rather than emerging as one of the great triumphs of Tribeca, alongside the likes of “Transamerica” or this year’s “2 Days In Paris,” as one of the festival’s best draws, it faded away, much like the traffic buzzing by the jumpers.
A few weeks ago, though, the film was finally released on DVD, and for those who are sick of this summer’s mindless choices, from the superficial “Ocean’s Thirteen” to the stupid “Fantastic Four” and the silly “Transformers,” “The Bridge” offers a sobering and poignant alternative – a documentary that’s guaranteed to make you think about life and death, as well as those treading the fine line between the two, as few movies have.
My only question back in that hushed screening room had to do with the jumpers: Did Steel or his associates come to recognize the behavior of those in the crowd about to end it all? Yes, he replied, they were the ones who walked back and forth across the bridge for hours, deep in contemplation before lifting their legs over the rail and taking the plunge. It was not a rash decision, he seemed to say of those he witnessed in their final moments, but a calculated decision to end it all. And in the DVD’s fascinating special features, the director details not only how the film was made, and how these horrific images were captured, but also how this gut-wrenching experience affected the crew that bore witness to these tragedies.
It’s easily one of the most haunting films of the century.
