What makes it different from others?

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

A documentary that deals with a theme that is certainly sad and delicate but also very interesting that can provide many food for thought that can open endless narrative ways but it is as if for the whole time the film tries to chase a goal unknown to it, to follow one of these roads but never succeed in deciding which: in which key I want to tell these stories, with what spirit, intention and to get to what end. Questions that the director continually sets up without ever knowing how to respond, so for an hour and a half he runs empty and in a very impersonal and lazy way lets the film be created by the people interviewed and by the victims themselves taking them back into the act of suicide without moving a finger. This not only indicates a certain lack of preparation (the subject is not enough to make a documentary) but also an annoying, irritating and unjust sense of instrumentalization of feelings, emotions, pain, all things that the same direction seem to lack, with his coldly way of dealing with everything. There is not even the attempt to feel compassion or understanding towards the victims, it never comes to conclude anything that can be called "purpose". Instead of creating a powerful and strong (not thanks to videos of the act, as instead made the film with zero compared to only those used to try to capture the viewer), and introspective, thoughtful documentary that tries to find an answer, to try to understand what can push a person to make such a gesture or if you can avoid in some way or a documentary about the people who saved or at least try to who was going to end his life or why that place attracts them; instead of all this they have made a documentary that only interests attention and does not want to make sense of the story that is not simply to let it be told by other people who should instead be helped and supported. In short, an abused subject that deserved to be treated differently from an inconclusive and irritating documentary that lacks heart and substance.

Turning the cameras on the suicide magnet that is the Golden Gate Bridge, we get to witness suicides with the added benefit of multiple camera angles, music and turning these people's unfortunate choice into a viewing experience for all to see - just as I'm sure they wished. This material is presented in a way a war photographer would approach deadly situations, watch, record, get out of the way and don't get involved. Except that mentality just comes across cruel and exploitative here. Perhaps the filmmaker's efforts would have been better spent in a more positive proactive way than just wait around for someone to off themselves and keeping them in the frame as they drop to their death. I wouldn't go so far as to call The Bridge a snuff film, it's far from it - just a misguided film. Perhaps the filmmaker's intentions were noble, but the result on screen is shameless.

A film about suicide... sounds enthralling? Its actually depressing. Bleak. Colourless. Tasteless. But interesting.As a South African I know the bridge purely as the bridge in San Fran so above anything else this film told a grim story that is never told. Some may find the lack of intervention a problem but in terms of wildlife filmmaking we are to believe that we are merely there to film, not get involved. Should they have gotten involved? It would have changed the documentary from a showcase of the dreary side of a magnificent structure to that of human beings lending a helping hand to other humans. However, personally I agree with not getting involved. Suicide is not as easy as lending a helping hand. When a person does not want to live, they don't want to live and no matter what you do they will continue to entertain the idea of taking their own life. Psychology will tell us that its actually a survival technique - which is none the clearer than from the one survivor - where the brain convinces that all the wrong the person is doing is a result of the body. Therefore the brain wants to cut itself off from what it deems as the problem. After my fiancé committed suicide I was plagued with ideas of how i could have helped, of what i did wrong and how I was a terrible person to not see how bad things were. But after getting out of bed and talking to friends I found out that this was the eight attempt over the last ten years. There were no other attempts when I was around (I came along in the last two) except for the one at the end, so how was I to know? And I felt this documentary showcased that incredibly, the helplessness felt from the friends and family left behind along with the acceptance of "they were going to do what they were going to do."Its dark, heavy, sad, shocking but interesting... and not once did it pull at my tear ducts (not so difficult to do considering the subject matter) and i appreciated that fact which allowed me to think more about suicide rather than just feel it.

I was drawn to this film as it looked an interesting topic and whilst it had it's moments, I found it a strangely shallow and at times tedious documentary. I had expected to find out a bit more about the history of the bridge and it's relationship with suicide attempts. Instead it is just a few stories of survivors and the families of victims. Some of these are moderately interesting and some of them aren't. I found the lack of a narrator to be a major flaw with this film. It was really crying out for someone to narrate it and pull it all together instead it's just random clips jumbled together in no order. There are also too many shots of the bridge with music playing which just seems to be time-filling. This isn't a documentary I enjoyed which is disappointing as I was expecting to like it. There is some dramatic footage but this is not enough to cover the flaws with the film.