This is a remake of the 1959 film of the same name. The remake is in wide screen, is in color, has a bigger budget, is gorier, and has an international star in a prominent role.
Yet, I wouldn't say it was better. The original was shorter, more raw and schematic, made its point more clearly, and gave both the Wehrmacht and the American soldiers a bit of humanity. This one meanders around, gives much more time to the Franka Potente character, and spends more time with the American infantrymen. The German soldiers, by and large, get short shrift. They're all a bunch of weaselly cowards or arrogant slobs.
Except, of course, for the handful of high school youngsters who are drafted and immediately assigned to defend a bridge. I was able to keep their identities straight in the first version but not here. After a heroic last stand, which only one of the kids survives, the Amis roll slowly across the body-strewn bridge.
I haven't seen the first version in years but if I remember correctly, the kids don't "lose" the bridge to the Americans. The Americans simply decide to pull out and use their resources elsewhere. When the Wehrmacht tries to destroy the bridge, the surviving kids prevent it.
There is one major difference that rather spoils this remake. In the original, a non-commissioned officer, Gunther Pfitzmann, is assigned to see that the boys get some duty that keeps them out of danger, some out of the way place where they'll be safe. The bridge is supposed to be safe. Pfitzmann is not at all like the fat, loud corporal in this movie. Pfitzmann has a kindly face, full of experience, and the compassionate demeanor to go with it. When he's killed while trying to save the school boys, it's a moving moment captured dramatically.
I didn't particularly mind the extra time given to the international star, Franke Potente. Her attempts to have the kids withdrawn are futile and she doesn't give an especially memorable performance but I don't care. I like her face. She has the kind of features that will last beyond her reproductive period. She'll be great playing old ladies.
The American soldiers don't really have much to say, and what they say is dubbed. I preferred the first version, in which there is a scene that has an American coming out into the open and shouting for the kids to surrender and go back to Kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN! A word that means the same in both German and English and is taken as an insult by one of the more ideologically rabid kids, who then shoots the American, who dies in agony with his intestines exposed. Here, the Americans talk about not wanting to make war on children. In the original, I recall only one such sentiment, brutally expressed: "What are you kids doing in this frigging war anyway?" My judgment is infallible, as my shrink has told me many times. "Your judgment is infallible," he always says, then, "Now please write out the check." Given that infallibility, you can rely on my word when I recommend watching the original, if you can find it anywhere. The director was Bernhard Wicki.
Yet, I wouldn't say it was better. The original was shorter, more raw and schematic, made its point more clearly, and gave both the Wehrmacht and the American soldiers a bit of humanity. This one meanders around, gives much more time to the Franka Potente character, and spends more time with the American infantrymen. The German soldiers, by and large, get short shrift. They're all a bunch of weaselly cowards or arrogant slobs.
Except, of course, for the handful of high school youngsters who are drafted and immediately assigned to defend a bridge. I was able to keep their identities straight in the first version but not here. After a heroic last stand, which only one of the kids survives, the Amis roll slowly across the body-strewn bridge.
I haven't seen the first version in years but if I remember correctly, the kids don't "lose" the bridge to the Americans. The Americans simply decide to pull out and use their resources elsewhere. When the Wehrmacht tries to destroy the bridge, the surviving kids prevent it.
There is one major difference that rather spoils this remake. In the original, a non-commissioned officer, Gunther Pfitzmann, is assigned to see that the boys get some duty that keeps them out of danger, some out of the way place where they'll be safe. The bridge is supposed to be safe. Pfitzmann is not at all like the fat, loud corporal in this movie. Pfitzmann has a kindly face, full of experience, and the compassionate demeanor to go with it. When he's killed while trying to save the school boys, it's a moving moment captured dramatically.
I didn't particularly mind the extra time given to the international star, Franke Potente. Her attempts to have the kids withdrawn are futile and she doesn't give an especially memorable performance but I don't care. I like her face. She has the kind of features that will last beyond her reproductive period. She'll be great playing old ladies.
The American soldiers don't really have much to say, and what they say is dubbed. I preferred the first version, in which there is a scene that has an American coming out into the open and shouting for the kids to surrender and go back to Kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN! A word that means the same in both German and English and is taken as an insult by one of the more ideologically rabid kids, who then shoots the American, who dies in agony with his intestines exposed. Here, the Americans talk about not wanting to make war on children. In the original, I recall only one such sentiment, brutally expressed: "What are you kids doing in this frigging war anyway?" My judgment is infallible, as my shrink has told me many times. "Your judgment is infallible," he always says, then, "Now please write out the check." Given that infallibility, you can rely on my word when I recommend watching the original, if you can find it anywhere. The director was Bernhard Wicki.