Die Brücke tells the story of seven 16 years old boys in Germany. The end of the war is near and American troops are approaching the town. The boys spend their afternoons playing war games around the local bridge leading into town, chasing girls and are just being kids. All the boys are exhilarated when they learn that they have all been recruited to join the Wehrmacht — much to their parents and teachers horror.

After only one day in the army the garrison is called into action on the front line, but fearing that the boys would run away at the first sight of an enemy leads to the commander ordering them to stay behind and guard the town bridge, which is of no strategic purpose. The bridge is in fact scheduled to be blown up.

The movie is based on actual events, and it’s one of the first anti-war movies produced in (West) Germany after the war. This movie is heartbreaking, honest and very emotional. The anticipation of the battle, the battle itself and the after match, is all very well done on every stage. Cinematography, sound, editing, acting, props; everything is at it’s finest in this movie. I would recommend everybody to watch the original version with German dialog since so much of the greatness of this movie is in the spoken word, I doubt the dubbed version can do it justice (I haven’t seen that version myself). This is one of the best WWII movies I’ve seen, it’s a shame that so few outside of Europe have seen it.