The Bridge at Remagen
| The Bridge at Remagen | |
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 DVD cover |
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| Directed by | John Guillermin |
| Produced by | David L. Wolper |
| Written by | Roger O. Hirson (story) William Roberts Richard Yates |
| Starring | George Segal Robert Vaughn Ben Gazzara Bradford Dillman E. G. Marshall |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein |
| Cinematography | Stanley Cortez |
| Editing by | William Cartwright |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | June 25, 1969 |
| Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Bridge at Remagen is a 1969 war film starring George Segal, Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn. It was directed by John Guillermin and was shot on location in Czechoslovakia.
The film is based on the book The Bridge at Remagen: The Amazing Story of March 7, 1945 by writer and U. S. Representative, Ken Hechler. It was adapted into a screenplay by Richard Yates and William Roberts.
The film is a highly-fictionalized version of actual events during the last months of World War II when the U.S. 9th Armored Division approached Remagen and found the Ludendorff Bridge still intact. The movie re-enacts the week-long battle, and several artillery duels, that the Americans fought before gaining a bridgehead across the Rhine for the final push into Germany.
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[edit] Plot
Lieutenant Hartman (George Segal) is an experienced combat team leader who is becoming weary of the war in Europe. After he is promoted to company commander following the reckless death of the previous officer, he is given orders to advance to the Rhine River at Remagen where he is promised a rest for his men. At the same time, Major Paul Krüger (Robert Vaughn), an honorable Wehrmacht officer, is given the job of destroying the bridge there by his friend and superior, Colonel General von Brock (Peter van Eyck) who has been given a written order to do it immediately. But the staff officer appeals to Krüger's sense of honour, giving him a verbal command to defend the bridge for as long as possible to allow the 15th Army trapped on the west bank of the river to escape.
After capturing the undefended town of Meckenheim four miles from Remagen, Hartman is ordered by his battalion commander, Major Barnes (Bradford Dillman), to continue the advance until encountering resistance. Hartman is disgusted because Barnes is using the men's lives to further his own military career. Krüger, meanwhile, has been touring the defences above the town of Remagen. He assures the handful of troops, which are just old veterans and boys, that he has a personal guarantee from the general that tank reserves are on the way. But when Hartman's troops attack the town, Krüger is shown the reality when he calls for the promised tanks and is told they have been sent "elsewhere".
On finding the bridge intact, General Shinner (E.G. Marshall) orders Major Barnes to secure its capture, saying: "It's a crap shoot, Major . . . We're risking one hundred men, but you may save ten thousand". With only momentary hesitation, Barnes agrees to send in Hartman's company. He then orders the troops to gain a foothold across the Rhine River, thus avoiding a costly assault-crossing elsewhere. Sergeant Angelo (Ben Gazzara), one of Hartman's squad leaders and friend, highlights the mood of the war-weary men by striking Barnes after being ordered onto the bridge.
On the other side, as the American soldiers rush the bridge, Krüger along with explosives engineer, Captain Baumann (Joachim Hansen), and Captain Schmidt (Hans Christian Blech) from Remagen Bridge Security Command, try to blow up the bridge, but the explosives they have been provided with prove to be not the high-yield military grade charges needed for the job but weaker industrial explosives, which fail to destroy the superstructure. Hartman's troops then dig in to consolidate their hold on the intact bridge.
Krüger, who still believes in victory, shoots two soldiers as they try to desert. He then realises that the futility of the situation has turned him "on his own" troops, and the defensive position has becomes untenable. In desperation, Krüger returns to HQ to make a personal appeal to the general for more reinforcements, but on arrival he finds that the building has been taken over by the SS and Von Brock has been arrested for being "defeatist". Krüger is then questioned about the delay before blowing up the bridge. Unable to present a written order, he is not able to justify his actions and is arrested.
Back at Remagen, Hartman leads a raid against a machine gun nest installed by Krüger on board a barge moored to the bridge, but while taking its crew out, Angelo is hit and falls into the river. Despondent, Hartman marches on foot towards the bridge defenders' post at the same time as a squad of M24 Chaffee light tanks cross the bridge. The remaining German soldiers surrender to the Americans. Hartman then discovers that Angelo has survived after all. The next day, Krüger is led out for execution by SS firing squad. With the sounds of many planes overhead, Krüger asks: "Ours or theirs?". The SS officer attending him replies, "Enemy planes, Sir!". "But who is the enemy?" muses Krüger before he is shot.
The film concludes with scenes on the bridge, and a screen crawl informing the viewer that the actual structure collapsed into the Rhine 10 days after its capture.
[edit] Cast
- George Segal - Lieutenant Phil Hartman
- Robert Vaughn - Major Paul Krüger
- Ben Gazzara - Sergeant Angelo
- Bradford Dillman - Major Barnes
- E. G. Marshall - General Shinner
- Peter van Eyck - Generaloberst von Brock
- Hans Christian Blech - Hauptmann Karl Schmidt
- Heinz Reincke - Holzgang, the Mayor
- Joachim Hansen - Captain Otto Baumann
- Bo Hopkins - Corporal Grebs
- Robert Logan - Private Bissell
- Matt Clark - Corporal Jellicoe
- Steve Sandor - Private Slavek
- Richard Münch - General von Sturmer
- Günter Meisner - Oberstgruppenführer Gerlach
- Vít Olmer - Sergeant Zimring
- Rudolf Jelínek - Private Manfred
[edit] Filming in Czechoslovakia
Because of shipping traffic on the River Rhine, West German officials did not allow the production of the film in that country.[clarification needed] The film company then secured permission to shoot at Davle, a town in Czechoslovakia that straddled the Vltava River, and possessed a suitable bridge structure. During filming, the Soviet Army invaded Czechoslovakia to reinstall a hard-line Communist government, causing the film company to flee to the West in taxis.
Robert Vaughn appeared as himself narrating and being a character in Solo behind the Iron Curtain, a radio play broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2007 about making the film in Prague, during the Russian invasion of August 1968 in response to the Prague Spring earlier in the year.[1]
[edit] Did you know?
The shots of house bombing were made at demolitions in Czech city Starý Most. The bridge used in the film had to be elevated by 3 meters, the bridge towers were additionally built and the tunnel dug. The tunnel was then bricked up in 1972-1974. After the attack of Soviet Army in 1968, the shots of tanks, Wehrmacht and Americans made by the film crew and Soviet soldires were used in propaganda justifying the occupation.
[edit] References
- Hyams, Lee. War Movies
- Hechler, Ken. The Bridge at Remagen (Updated version by Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Missoula, Montana, including chapter on the film.)
[edit] External links
- The Bridge at Remagen at the Internet Movie Database
- The Bridge at Remagen at AllRovi
- Illustrated article on the Bridge at Remagen at 'Battlefields Europe'
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