The original Die Brücke could be that much appreciated work of art that the fact alone presents too many demands for any conceivable remake. I however found this one surprisingly good, and it certainly was not as bad as some people have claimed it to have been. Why to make just similar movie again?Seven poorly trained schoolboys are given a mission to hold out against a strategically important bridge. Germany has a lack of manpower by spring 1945, schoolboys fight alongside with old men: the last remaining reserves of the Reich . And the boys are too young to grasp the hopelessness of the situation, unlike their leader who runs away. Movie doesn't anywhere show that the boys were ever trained, but apparently they have some basic training because they can assemble and use several weapons and they can move under cover.Seven schoolboys hold out against seasoned American troops? Given that they have a good position with effective weaponry (plus the suggested basic training), and the American commander does not want to fight against children, they possibly could even make it. Weapon freaks will notice hereby a plentiness of rarely seen ww2 equipment, save for the one tank whose type I didn't recognize. Some effects are rather lame too, but I have seen worse and have still forgiven them. I give a relatively high rating because I didn't suffer as much watching it than these boys depicted.

I noticed that all the former comments about this film were a) made by Germans, and b) they all slander it, and for me that has some weight. I don't know any German, so I can't say if the acting was good or bad, but it looked and felt at least pretty good, most of the time.As a history buff and germanophile (who can't speak the language - perish the thought!) I found this film to be quite good in a historical context - and, I was impressed by that the equipment used by both Germans and Americans looked very authentic (with one MAJOR exception for the Americans) apart perhaps that the boys were/looked too old: they were supposed to be 16, and not a single one looked that age. Of course, that's the same thing with 25-year-olds playing high school teens in American films...From a military point of view, this is also a pretty accurate film: The Germans did use single squads of troopers to defend small tactical objectives, as the bridge in the film. It also shows the devastating power of the Panzerfaust 100, the hand-held tank killer. Very nice, unless you are on the receiving end of it.The sfx was OK, but absolutely nothing fancy.However, the film has flaws that were carried over the language barrier, namely a totally unnecessary love plot and a more interesting love plot that would have done well to be better developed. Also, I didn't like that characters just vanished from the story without me getting to know of their departure.I have to agree with some other comments about the lack of character development - it could definitely be better, that's for certain. Oddly, the best character development was done about some of the elder extras, not the main characters.The film is also too melodramatic for my liking, so much I began thinking of the Russian film Zvesda which was just as bad in that area. Having the film maker telling me to feel sorry for the protagonists is not the way of scoring a 10 on IMDb.

You don't have to know the original to dislike this version of "Die Brücke." It is what its producers wanted it to be: filled with more action and romance than the original, more "modern" (whatever that means), in color and whathaveyounot. What lacks is any sense of reality, any understanding of the time or the people. The romance is unmotivated, that action has no impact at all, and music and slo-mo-shots are overused and abused to imply epic qualities or sadness (passing trucks with wounded German soldiers, dying American tank driver). All in all this looks like a bigger budgeted WWII-film in the vein of the many amateur videos you can see on Youtube, where teenagers dress up in uniforms, wield plastic gun replicas and insert lots of muzzle flash effects over the action scenes.

I finished watching the movie just 10 minutes ago and i have to say I'm speechless and shocked about this horrible caricature of the great 1958 movie "Die brücke". Im actually that shocked that i had to call a friend while watching it and look it up on IMDb to see about any commentary or review of it but there was no comment yet so i feel the urgent need to speak out my opinion about this 2 hours wastes time of my life that will never come back. First of all the German characters. the boy which should protect the bridge are grossly stupid and act like idiots (attend to throw brown-shirt from the bridge). almost all characters, especially German soldiers are caricatures of the stereotypical "evil Nazi soldier" and not humans. dialogs try to be meaningful in a pathetic way. but funny sometimes but not because they are intended to be funny. just because they are so horrendously atrocious. to me this seems like the script was written by totally far from any reality living 8th grade students which had to write a political correct theater-play for school. the action scenes are cartoonish, lack any realism (the 1958 version is far superior about that. watch both and decide for yourself), poorly cut and more funny than scary or sad. but i have to admit that equipment and uniforms are well done and mostly historical correct, except the Russian T-72 tank as American Sherman double. this movie is is exactly your intellectual level if you like the "bildzeitung" and love TV-shows like "punkt12", "sam" or "taff". (germans know what i mean o.o) otherwise go and see the 1958 version of the movie "die brücke"