Die Brücke
Lang is a 1959 West German anti-war film directed by Austrian filmmaker Bernhard Wicki. It is based on the 1958 novel of the same name by journalist and writer Gregor Dorfmeister (published under the pseudonym Manfred Gregor). The story was based on an actual event, upon the personal report of a surviving veteran who in his own youth experienced a similar situation in World War II.
Plot
In the closing days of World War II, a small German town comes into focus as U.S. Army forces advance in its direction. In the town's school, seven boys—each about 16 years old—are oblivious to the seriousness and dangers of the war, feeling excitement about how close the fighting is getting to them, and they live their lives as normally as they can, though they are overshadowed with personal problems: Karl, who has a crush on his hairstylist father's young assistant, is shocked to see them in an intimate situation; Klaus is oblivious to the affections of his classmate Franziska; and Walter is deeply resentful of his father, the local Nazi Party Ortsgruppenleiter, who has chosen to save his own skin under the pretense of an important Volkssturm meeting. Jürgen is the son of a German officer who has been killed in action, and hopes to live up to his father's reputation.
Awards
Cast
- Alexander Hunzinger
- Alfons Teuber
- Buck Henry
- Cordula Trantow
- Edeltraut Elsner
- Edith Schultze-Westrum
- Eva Vaitl
- Folker Bohnet
- Frank Glaubrecht
- Fritz Wepper
- Georg Lehn
- Günter Pfitzmann
- Günther Hoffmann
- Hans Elwenspoek
- Heini Göbel
- Heinz Spitzner
- Ira Lewis
- Johannes Buzalski
- Loriot
- Michael Hinz
- Michael Mechel
- Ruth Hausmeister
- Siegfried Schürenberg
- Til Kiwe
- Trude Breitschopf
- Volker Lechtenbrink
- Wolfgang Stumpf