9.04.2007

"The Bridge"



I just finished the documentary called "The Bridge."

I think I'm kind of disturbed by it - but for reasons different than I expected. Basically, the director rolls tape on the Golden Gate bridge for a year and catches footage of several people leaping off. (90% of the film consists of interviews with friends and family members of the dead.) It was so disturbingly riveting to see people (up close - thanks to a high zoom lens) pace up and down the bridge before going over the rail onto another platform and then leaping over the edge.

But after a while I was kind of caught up with the ethics of the whole movie. Cops and emergency personnel are always nearby because it is apparently the suicide capital of the country. (We see the cops talk at least two people off the ledge.) So the camera man watches a guy climb over the rail and sit there for 15 minutes and they don't call anyone to help the despondent guy before he jumps? Time and time again? They're more interested in getting the footage?

Dark.