Don't worry about reading the spoilers: the film was spoiled before it was ever made. During the last days of WW2 a small riverside town in Germany is threatened by advancing US forces. Overzealous local officials press a class of schoolboys into uniform in a last ditch attempt to protect the bridge long enough for retreating German units. But then the story turns into absurdity. Within a few hours of recruitment the boys are treated like criminals hounded and abused by older soldiers and officers who apparently have absolutely no regard for these kids at all. Every single adult German male under the age of 90 (excepting the schoolmaster) is depicted as overbearing, abusive, aggressive, selfish, depraved or simply drunken.This production is an utter insult to German war veterans who are depicted here as monsters. It perpetuates the propaganda that every single Nazi official was sub human and that the Germans are highly susceptible to control by lunatics. Even the Americans are ridiculously portrayed. A fighter plane spots a young couple by the river and sprays them with bullets. The pilot even returns for another attempt when he misses them. A bomber pilot spots the boys on the bridge and discharges a 2 ton bomb in an effort to clear them. The fact that the bridge might be useful for his own advancing troops never occurs to him. The advancing column has a single tank which once destroyed has no backup to take out the defenders. An entire company of trained soldiers is quite unable to deal with 6 schoolboys who have made themselves a simple dug out behind a small wall. A few grenades or mortars would have finished the boys in ten minutes but after a two day engagement in which the Americans lose at least 5 soldiers they eventually pull back for reinforcements. But it gets worse. The boys are portrayed by actors as old as 23 and only one has a voice remotely like a 16 year old. They all speak and behave just like 21st century lads who have just had a night on the city club scene rather than simple country schoolboys from the time of their grandfathers. One of them even uses American style yells of joy when killing a soldier. The only trained lad amongst them (who had been to Napola military school) blows himself up because he doesn't know how to check safety catches on anti tank rockets. And when told to withdraw so another unit can destroy the bridge and thereby delay the advance these fantasy kids aim their guns at their own comrades in an attempt to continue their mission to protect it. Rather than arresting them, the German unit, obviously beaten by two insane schoolboys, simply abandons the bridge and sprays them with bullets as they leave. The original 1959 version is a masterpiece of German cinema. Every reader is recommended to watch it. But this remake is simply a waste of your time unless such propaganda has any appeal.

I did not realise that this was a TV remake of Berhard Wicki's 1959 classic 'Die Brucke' especially as the cover was more misleading than a James Bond movie and the credits stated that the screenplay was based upon a book by Gregor Dorfmeister (Wicki's masterpiece credited a novel by Manfred Gregor). In fact it was a remake of 'Die Bruck' albeit with the additional sub-plots of a sexual nature. I also was impressed with the attention to detail on the equipment employed and care taken with the Production set and design. Whilst it was not quite the work of art displayed by the 1959 version it was acceptable and fairly realistic. Indeed I thought that it was very well made and was to Feature Film standard. I am still working on identifying some of the kit used but it was all believable for the period. Despite the reliance upon Franke Potente as the main international 'Name' in the cast, the casting was very good and all of the characters were believable and did a grand job in telling this sad tale. I do not believe that most fans of this genre will be too disappointed with this well made little tale of the futility of war.

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.

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.