E1 ENTERTAINMENT Bridge, The

I come from the corn fields….. so the idea of just jumping a huge super high bridge, in front of the public and tourists…. F’n unreal. AND!!!!! They have all this on live video. The railing is not that high, any person could easily climb or jump over. Then boom! You no longer exists. And this is…. Oh well another jumper darn! Get the body pickup boat out there. This so common I wouldn’t be surprised if this is like an official city or gov job that you apply for!?!? Crazy man! Another reason to never set foot in California.

Well, I felt very sad for Souls & the familys who took part in this Video.It makes you stop & think & evaluate & be greatful for your own surroundings that's for sure...Not for the young at heart to witness....""OR"" sad at heart....Thank you& Thank you Amazon

This documentary was recommended to me by a colleague when we were chatting about documentaries to watch. He did warn me of the nature of the documentary and what I would see. I wrestled with actually watching it because my mind kept asking, "Do I really want to watch people on what is assuredly the worst day of their life?" A review of the documentary by the late Roger Ebert was my deciding factor. With no ethical predicament, I embarked on a journey that has stayed with me since the night I watched it, now almost a month ago. By putting aside any moral or religious beliefs, you can watch this movie as a true observer - much like the Bridge itself. It passes no moral judgements - it is just there. After watching the film, I was desperate to learn more about this phenomenon, and answer questions in my head such as "Why is it so easy to jump from the Bridge?" I subsequently read the original article that inspired Eric Steel, called "Jumpers" which appeared in New Yorker Magazine. I delved into the history of the Bridge, and recently finished the book  The Final Leap: Suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge . I learned about efforts to build a Suicide Prevention Barrier at the Bridge, which has so far fallen on deaf ears, with one excuse after another. What The Bridge started, I continued in my education of a landmark that heretofore I just thought of a beautiful example of art deco. Walking down the street, we pass by 10's to 100's of people, not knowing their stories. One jumpers suicide note read "I am walking to the Bridge now. If one person smiles at me, I won't jump." He lived 28 blocks from the Bridge, and he jumped. Depression and mental illness has been a little discussed topic, and this film brings to light the dark night of the soul. "If one person smiles at me..." We as a community can help. Suicide is 100% preventable - staggering to think of that. I hope that the Bridge Rail foundation is successful in their endeavor for a suicide barrier - statistically speaking, on a follow up of people who either survived the jump (32 to date) or were prevented in making the jump, 94% were still alive, and their crisis had passed. Ken Baldwin, who survived the jump said, "I realized as soon as my hands left the railing, that all my unsolvable problems were solvable. Except for the fact that I had just jumped." The tantalizing thought of jumping from the Bridge, and in one step all problems vanishing is a compulsion that, if deterred, will most likely result in the individual realizing that tomorrow is a another day.We live in an interesting time - pressures are more intense than ever. Apathy runs rampant. Walking down the street, we are lost in thoughts of our next appointment, what to make for dinner, etc etc etc. Depression DOES exist - Mental Illness DOES exist. It's okay to make eye contact with other humans, or even give a brief smile in passing - reconnecting ourselves as a society. It could have made a difference in someone's life. "If one person smiles at me...."One thought on Gene: Gene "Thump" Sprague walked the length of the Bridge for 93 minutes before he decided to jump. Eric Steel took Gene's story and wove it through the course of the film, which clocks in at 93 minutes. Gene touched a lot of people in his life, and his death. Gene was my age, and from everything I can figure, he was someone who would have been in "my crowd". Maybe that's why his story resonated with me so much. From what I have gathered, he was a talented artist - worked in the video game industry - and just wanted to love and be loved in return. Eric Steel said he really didn't think Gene was a candidate for jumping because he looked so free. Gene's LiveJournal has been kept up as a memorial to him - I doubt anyone that reads it will not recognize something they have heard a friend say - [...] . Eric Steel humanized him by having his story the overriding thread. And it is proof that every suicide is a waste of a beautiful life, a potential unrealized.The thoughts this movie has evoked in me will stay with me forever. I waited a month before writing this review and it still jumbles all together. I encourage anyone interested in watching this to do so with an open mind. Yes the subject matter is disturbing and uncomfortable - it was the intent of the filmmaker. It is, in my opinion, Eric Steel's call to action - his statement saying - this is real - this is a problem - and we need to stop brushing it under the rug. He is right.For more info on the Bridge Rail Foundation, you can visit [...]

Over the course of this documentary you will meet family and friends of people who have died by suicide. They run the gamut in their reactions to suicide. Some blame themselves, some blame the one who has died for being (in their opinion) weak and selfish and some are at a total loss as to understand what in the world happened. Some are in deep denial. The fact of the matter is, suicide is almost always the result of some form of a real medical illness called depression. It can be attached to someone with bi-polar disorder. It can also be tied to a person who is terminally ill or someone who has lost all hope for relief from a life situation, or situations, that cause them deep and dreadful pain. It is not the result of a character defect or an act of selfishness. Without exception, every person I've ever met who survived an attempt have said they didn't want to die, they only needed the pain to stop.I found the film to be respectful of both the jumpers and the ones left behind. Some call those left behind, Survivors. I find this inaccurate and somewhat disrespectful of those who have died. I feel they/we are more like the collateral damaged. I have lost loved ones to suicide, so I speak from my heart about how I feel.The film makes no judgmental statements of those on either side of this tragedy. It only puts it all out there and leaves the viewer to decide what they may or may not have learned. It's not like watching a documentary on, say, the horror of the Holocaust or the massacre at Columbine High School. Death by suicide (unless it's a suicide bomber) is an intimate and personal thing because it takes root in the mind of an individual human being. For me, the most compelling stories were those of the first jumper, Lisa (whose family is in deep denial), Kevin Hines (who survived), the man called Ruby by his friends (I identify with him), and, of course, Gene Sprague, whose story runs through the entire narrative of the film and provides the final climax. In all of these cases, so different from each other in their circumstances and final journey to the Bridge, the signs and foreshadowing of suicide were there for all to see. In some cases, there were concerted attempts to avert suicide. But in two particular cases, Ruby and Gene, it was a deep loneliness and absence of love in their lives, that finally made it too hard and too painful to live.The Golden Gate Bridge is the most frequently used public venue for suicide. I think it's a desperate cry of pain from someone who has dwelt in a private hell for a long time. Only the Sea of Trees, the dense forest in Japan, comes close to the same amount of suicides. The Bridge is easy to get to, no need to stockpile pills or buy a gun. People travel from all over the world to die there. I think that says a great deal about the state of mental health across the globe. Teen suicide gets a great deal of press. But in actuality, the demographic most at risk for suicide are men over the age of 50. We live in a youth obsessed culture. Older men are no longer useful or valued.A suicide barrier is being funded and will be erected in the near future. Mental health professionals have finally convinced the bureaucrats that statistics show once a person has decided on a method for suicide, only that method will do. The argument was "why spend all of this money? If someone is determined to kill them self, they'll just shoot or hang themselves if we take away the GGB" If someone is prevented from jumping, it is a rare occurrence for them to die by another method. People think jumping is a quick 4-7 seconds and it's over, painless and quick. Wrong. Death occurs fairly quickly (within a few minutes) but is far from painless. Think of it this way, you hit the water at the speed of a downhill racer. The body stops falling after a few feet, but the internal organs do not. The internal physical damage is intense. You drown and succumb to hypothermia. It is not an easy death.If you, or a loved one, are impacted by suicide, this film can help you understand some things and it just might help save a life or two.

The Bridge is a fascinating if morbid documentary looking at the record breaking Golden Gate bridge which has supposedly witnessed more suicides than any other place in the world. It was really quite eerie watching people calmly jump over the barrier and fall to their deaths. Ironically this footage, although macabre, was the highlight of the film. The stories behind the suicides (although the point of the documentary) I found less interesting since the same story seemed to be repeated over and over again. Mental illness, disaffection and feelings of worthlessness were characteristic of pretty much all the deaths and although I appreciate this was pretty much bound to be the case it still didn't make it that interesting to watch. In fact I have to be honest and say that I felt little sympathy for any of the the jumpers in the end. Most of the victims seemed to have come to a well thought out and rational (for someone with mental illness anyway) decision so perhaps it was for the best. Who knows? The film cleverly built up to the final voyeuristic footage which was nothing if not worth the wait. Sorry but I'm just being honest and if this was not the case why was it left until last?

I knew little about 'The Bridge', save the basic premise of the documentary. I don't know quite what I expected. What I didn't expect was what I got. Within minutes of the film starting, I was watching a person jump to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge. I was stunned, uncertain to begin with whether I'd just watched an incredibly well-staged re-enactment, or the actual ending of someone's life. Naively, perhaps, I'd subconsciously imagined that Eric Steel's film was a retrospective: I'd had no idea that Mr Steel had shot 10,000 hours of footage at the bridge, and so had captured a number of similar suicides, and - in one incredibly uplifting episode - the saving of one vulnerable person's life.Suicide is such a divisive subject. There are those who steadfastly defend the right of people to choose the timing and manner of how their lives come to an end, and there are those who believe that it is the act of a coward, someone who has taken the easy way out, often leaving traumatised loved ones, emergency workers and members of the public in their wake. Fortunately, Mr Steel doesn't offer any thoughts as to which mindset is the right one. His film is content to act as a memorial both to this world-famous landmark which acts as a magnet for those people who - for whatever reason - have reached the end of their tether, and to the poor souls whose ends he happened to capture.This is not an easy watch by any means. But it is an atmospheric, emotionally intense and thought-provoking film, one that will linger long after it has finished, reminding you just how fragile a thing the human spirit can be.

This is a difficult film to watch and the certificate is only given due to the nature of the subject, not because of explicit content. I personally would have liked a little more insight from psychologists etc rather than just a compendium of people who have taken their lives and the thoughts of the family. I watched this while combatting severe depression and not sure that's a good idea. This was of course very controversial as it shows people leaping off the bridge, no doubt there was much moral conflict within the film-makers but it remains an important piece of hard-hitting work.

Don't know why I bought and watched this because not only is it harrowing and unsettling its also very depressing. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid.

I've rarely watched a documentary that is as haunting as this.The grandeur and beauty of the bridge itself is contrasted with the harrowing stories and suicides of the people for whom life offers nothing more.Was absolutely in awe of this production,and found it bizarre, beautiful, disturbing and uplifting. All at once , which when you think about it is some feat.