Across the Bridge (2005) User Reviews

Pleasantly surprised

[cinemamore-1 · 7/10 · 6 June 2006]

I have seen this film on festival in Vermont. I was pleasantly surprised as I was expecting some propaganda. Usually films with such a theme or in that fact, from that region (Balkans) are in my opinion, full of misinformation's, half-truths etc. The background story is love between pilot and ordinary girl. The very first title card stated that this is indeed love story. As film progress one can see that actors are not professionals but rather commonplace people. All of it takes place in Canada (I guess) and on the Balkans, as pilot chooses to go into war and leaves his pregnant wife. In war he deliberately bombs the bridge with the passenger train on it and from that point develops nightmares and bridge crossing fear. He returns back home but is unable to locate his wife as she wanted. He deals with his war nightmare and tries to overcome his bridge fears with help of the professional. I assume that this film was shoot on small or no budget at all. Later I've founded that film was on couple dozen festivals around and won some. Also, film is a bit long (35 minutes) for my taste but generally, not bad anti-war documentary with sort off happy end.

Not a documentary in any sense of the word

[redlinoleum · 1/10 · 2 April 2006]

This movie was absolutely horrible. The only marginally affecting part was the stock footage, which was bookended by terrible acting, cheesy effects, and an absolutely ridiculous story. Instead of documenting a tragic and immoral bombing of a civilian train, the bulk of the movie is spent following a veteran's struggle to cross a bridge after coming home from the war and losing his wife. Whether this character is based on a real person is never explained, but I sure hope not. After working through his bridge fears with a bizarre psychiatrist, he seems to take up bridge crossing as a hobby. He eventually runs into his missing wife, and everything is miraculously resolved with several minutes of what looks like a home movie of a fireworks show. I assume it's meant to be an anti-war piece, but the message it conveys is more along the lines of "Civilian casualties sure are bad, but everything will work out in the end!"

Excellent documentary!

[moonbluee111 · 10/10 · 13 June 2006]

True to the bone documentary that shows real side of the "humanitarian" bombing of Serbia. Of course, bombing, in this documentary drama is a backdrop of the real love story, true story. Pilot meets a Serbian girl and falls in love with her. They soon get married but he got called for duty and goes in NATO war against Serbia. She begs him not to go, but he refuses and that almost costs him his life, kid and wife. This documentary drama won several festivals abroad, in Mexico, India, etc. Too bad that more of the films like this are not showed on TV as a excellent example. Congratulations to the director and to the crew for a guts to do this documentary drama!