The Bridge (Bernhard Wicki, 1959)

***½
Germany


Bernhard Wicki's account of an overlooked battle in the closing days of WWII, which resulted in the senseless deaths of seven schoolboy soldiers. The first hour, charting the psychological state of rural Germany in April 1945, is undermined by weak acting. But the battle scene that takes up the closing half-hour is vivid, confronting, shattering.