AMD 5, Gabrielle Lewis

For this AMD, I watched Die Brucke, 1929.  It was disturbing to watch this film, as the boys were just a little younger than I am now. It is sad how political leaders can take advantage of the idealism of youth, to enlist them into committing horrorific crimes on behalf of their country. Whether it was WW II, or the more recent Vietnam war, an entire generation of young men can be sacrificed on the whims of political policy, as though the lives were nothing more than cannon fodder. I watched this movie in German, but now and then, engaged the sub-titles so I could test my understanding of the plot, and to my surprise, found that I could follow the action quite well. So often, true heroes emerge from a war story, but not in this case. These poor forgotten young men were not even recognized by their war leaders, and I cannot begin to imagine the shame and guilt of the author, who actually survived an episode such as this one. A unique twist of this movie, is that I found myself on the side of the boys, and regarded the approaching Americans as the "enemy", which I suppose, means that the writer and director did a great job in making me sympathize with the German youths.