This article is about the movie. For the book with the same name, see The Bridge at Remagen (book).

The Bridge at Remagen is loosely based on the book with the same name by Ken Hechler. The 9th Armored Division reached the Rhine river on March 7th, 1945 and to their surprise the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen was still standing. Due a chain of events the Allied forces are able to capture the bridge and get over the Rhine with dry feet. This is often referred to as the “Miracle of Remagen”, but this movie does not do the historical battle justice.

After reading the book I was surprised at how much was changed in the movie, most of it without any real reason. The characters are only half based on their real counterparts, all names are changed etc. They include most of the officers that were present at Remagen on the 7th of March 1945, such as the German Major, the two German captains and the American Lieutenant and Major — but most of them do not resemble the real men who fought at all. I think it’s a bad move to do this sort of thing, the real men with their characteristics would have added a lot more to the movie, now it feels too stereotypical and stiff.

There are several battle sequences added in the movie that didn’t actually occur, and then there are several action sequences that occurred in real life that isn’t shown in the movie. The fighting over the bridge is stretched out, and there’s a whole sequence added about the barge (which was used by a few German snipers, but not at all in the way it’s represented in this movie) that is invented. Then you have the capturing of the two towers, major strongholds for the Germans, that aren’t shown at all in this movie. We have the set up, when the Germans talk about setting up defense in the towers but the American forces capturing them is not shown (real life Sgt Joseph DeLisio took out one of them almost single handedly). After the bridge was captured the 9th Armored had to capture the hill on the east (German) side of the Rhine, the hill became known as “Flak Hill”, with dug in German anti-aircraft defenses. None of this is shown in the movie, but it would have added a great deal of both action and story.

These are just a few of the many things changed in the movie, and I personally think the movie would have been a better movie if it had been more authentic. The real battles that took place would actually make better scenes than the ones added by the movie team. The movie does a good job of showing the German viewpoint of the preparations and action as well as the American, which is a bit uncommon and greatly appreciated, and as a whole it’s an okay movie with a good cast but the movie could have been so much more. I would recommend everybody to read the book instead, a book that I without a doubt calls a masterpiece, this movie however is not.