7.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
In the waning days of World War II, as American forces overtake Germany, seven teenage boys are pulled from their small town's school as emergency conscripts to repel the advancing Americans. Given almost no training, they're assigned the task of defending a small bridge that's scheduled to be demolished. But when the boys' commander is mistaken for a deserter before he can give their orders, they're stranded in front of an advancing enemy with no idea what they're supposed to do.
Starring: Folker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, Frank Glaubrecht, Karl Michael BalzerForeign | 100% |
Drama | 65% |
War | 19% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
German: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Nominated for Oscar Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Bernhard Wicki's "The Bridge" a.k.a. "Die Brücke" (1959) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an exclusive new video interview with writer Gregor Dorfmeister; excerpt from an archival episode of the German television show Das Sonntagsgesprach; new video interview with director Volker Schlöndorff; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring film critic Terrence Rafferty's essay "Cannon Fodder" and technical credits. In German, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
The young soldiers
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Bernhard Wicki's The Bridge arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the original 35mm negative and 35mm duplicate negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, and warps were manually removed using MTI's DRS, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for jitter, flicker, small dirt, grain, and noise management.
The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the optical soundtrack negative. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX4.
Transfer supervisor: Lee Kline."
Clarity and especially image depth are enormously impressive. The daylight footage, in particular, looks wonderful (see screencaptures #3, 15, and 18). During the darker/nighttime footage there is an excellent range of beautifully balanced blacks and grays (see screencapture #19). Contrast levels remain stable. Because of the high-quality scanning, grain is evenly distributed and beautifully resolved throughout the entire film. There are no traces of sharpening adjustments. Overall image stability is excellent, though I should mention that a few extremely small twitches (within the frame) can be spotted. There are no large debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, or torn frames. The encoding is excellent. All in all, this is a very beautiful technical presentation of The Bridge that makes it exceptionally easy to appreciate the aesthetic vision of its creator. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free Blu-ray player in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: German LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.
When the big trucks pass through the city and later on when the explosions are heard in the back depth, clarity, and especially balance are surprisingly good. It is easy to tell that background hiss and other age-related imperfections have been carefully removed because the dialog is very sharp and clean. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in this review.
Bernhard Wicki's The Bridge is yet another excellent reminder that war is hell. According to Volker Schlöndorff, it had a major impact on the New German Cinema auteurs and on an entire generation of young Germans who had to rebuild their country. The film has been recently restored in 2K and looks absolutely magnificent on Blu-ray. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Баллада о солдате / Ballada o soldate
1959
2019
1993
Ива́ново де́тство / Ivanovo detstvo
1962
고지전 / Go-ji-jeon
2011
南京!南京! / Nanjing! Nanjing!
2009
Летят журавли / Letyat zhuravli
1957
2009
ひろしま / Arrow Academy
1953
野火 / Nobi
1959
Sophie Scholl: Die letzten Tage | 4K Restoration
2005
红海行动 / Hong hai xing dong
2018
Дылда / Dylda
2019
ビルマの竪琴 / Biruma no tategoto
1956
春婦伝 / Shunpu den
1965
Skammen
1968
二十四の瞳 / Nijûshi no hitomi
1954
Иди и смотри / Idi i smotri
1985
Grand Illusion
1937
1975