This is a remake of the 1959 film of the same name. The remake is in wide screen, is in color, has a bigger budget, is gorier, and has an international star in a prominent role.Yet, I wouldn't say it was better. The original was shorter, more raw and schematic, made its point more clearly, and gave both the Wehrmacht and the American soldiers a bit of humanity. This one meanders around, gives much more time to the Franka Potente character, and spends more time with the American infantrymen. The German soldiers, by and large, get short shrift. They're all a bunch of weaselly cowards or arrogant slobs.Except, of course, for the handful of high school youngsters who are drafted and immediately assigned to defend a bridge. I was able to keep their identities straight in the first version but not here. After a heroic last stand, which only one of the kids survives, the Amis roll slowly across the body-strewn bridge.I haven't seen the first version in years but if I remember correctly, the kids don't "lose" the bridge to the Americans. The Americans simply decide to pull out and use their resources elsewhere. When the Wehrmacht tries to destroy the bridge, the surviving kids prevent it.There is one major difference that rather spoils this remake. In the original, a non-commissioned officer, Gunther Pfitzmann, is assigned to see that the boys get some duty that keeps them out of danger, some out of the way place where they'll be safe. The bridge is supposed to be safe. Pfitzmann is not at all like the fat, loud corporal in this movie. Pfitzmann has a kindly face, full of experience, and the compassionate demeanor to go with it. When he's killed while trying to save the school boys, it's a moving moment captured dramatically.I didn't particularly mind the extra time given to the international star, Franke Potente. Her attempts to have the kids withdrawn are futile and she doesn't give an especially memorable performance but I don't care. I like her face. She has the kind of features that will last beyond her reproductive period. She'll be great playing old ladies.The American soldiers don't really have much to say, and what they say is dubbed. I preferred the first version, in which there is a scene that has an American coming out into the open and shouting for the kids to surrender and go back to Kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN! A word that means the same in both German and English and is taken as an insult by one of the more ideologically rabid kids, who then shoots the American, who dies in agony with his intestines exposed. Here, the Americans talk about not wanting to make war on children. In the original, I recall only one such sentiment, brutally expressed: "What are you kids doing in this frigging war anyway?" My judgment is infallible, as my shrink has told me many times. "Your judgment is infallible," he always says, then, "Now please write out the check." Given that infallibility, you can rely on my word when I recommend watching the original, if you can find it anywhere. The director was Bernhard Wicki.

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.

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.