The Bridge at Remagen (1969)

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  • THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN


    DIRECTED BY JOHN GUILLERMIN
    PRODUCED BY JULIAN LUDWIG/ THEODORE STRAUSS/ DAVID L. WOLPER
    WOLPER PICTURES
    UNITED ARTISTS



    Information from IMDb


    Plot Summary
    In the last days of World War II, the Allied Army desperatly searched for a bridgehead
    across the impenetrable Rhein River,
    in order to launch a major assault into the center of Germany. "Bridge at Remagen"
    tells the true story of the battle for this last bridgehead, from both the German
    and American perspective.
    Written by Anthony Hughes


    Full Cast
    George Segal ... Lieutenant Phil Hartman
    Robert Vaughn ... Major Paul Kreuger
    Ben Gazzara ... Sgt. Angelo
    Bradford Dillman ... Major Barnes
    E.G. Marshall ... Brig. Gen. Shinner
    Peter van Eyck ... Gen. Von Brock (as Peter Van Eyck)
    Hans Christian Blech ... Capt. Carl Schmidt
    Heinz Reincke ... Holzgang
    Joachim Hansen ... Capt. Otto Baumann
    Sonja Ziemann ... Greta Holzgang
    Anna Gaël ... French Girl (as Anna Gael)
    Vít Olmer ... Lt. Zimring (as Vit Olmer)
    Bo Hopkins ... Corp. Grebs
    Robert Logan ... Pvt. Bissell
    Matt Clark ... Corp. Jellicoe
    Steve Sandor ... Pvt. Slavek
    Frank Webb ... Pvt. Glover
    Tom Heaton ... Lt. Pattison
    Paul Prokop ... Capt. John Colt
    Richard Münch ... Gen. Von Sturmer (as Richard Munch)
    Günter Meisner ... SS Gen. Gerlach (as Gunter Meisner)
    Rudolf Kalina ... SS Corporal
    Rudolf Jelínek ... Pvt. Manfred (as Rudolf Jelinek)
    Fritz Ford ... Col. Dent
    Pavel Solty ... Rudi
    Rolf Jahncke ... Kreuger's Driver
    Zdenek Braunschläger ... German Lieutenant (as Zdenek Braunschlager)
    Jan Schánilec ... Lt. Eckert (as Jan Schanilec)
    Václav Neuzil ... Sgt. Becker (as Vaclav Neuzil)
    Vladimír T. Gottwald ... Volkssturm Soldier (uncredited)
    Karel Mares ... German Mounted Infantry Lieutenant (uncredited)


    Writing Credits
    Richard Yates (screenplay) &
    William Roberts (screenplay)
    Roger O. Hirson (story) (as Roger Hirson)


    Original Music
    Elmer Bernstein


    Cinematography
    Stanley Cortez


    Trivia
    Filming in Czechoslovakia was interrupted by the Soviet invasion of August 1968. Cast and crew were taken to safety in a convoy of 28 taxis, except for Robert Logan, who stayed behind with film gear in order to capture the invasion on film and photo. The movie was completed in Italy and Austria.


    Peter van Eyck's last completed movie before his death.


    At a cost of $250,000, the movie company, United Artists, blasted a tunnel on the east side of the river Vltava in the town of Davle, Czech Republic.


    Because of the heavy river traffic of coal barges, tourist boats and other ships, the Germans did not allow United artists and David Wolper to make the movie at Remagen.


    After their daring escape from Czechoslovakia filming was resumed near Hamburg, Germany and near the Pope's summer house, Castelgondolfo, Italy.


    The producers were granted the right to blow up large parts of the town of Most, but they decided not to blow up the local communist party headquarters building, in order not to cause trouble with the Russians who were already preparing to invade Czechoslovakia during the filming in 1968.


    One of the first films to be shot behind the Iron Curtain. Czechoslovakia was seen by Russia as becoming too liberal in its values. In attempting to justify the forthcoming invasion by the USSR, Soviet agents spread the rumor that the American soldiers were real. Actually most of them were played by Czech students. Pictures of stored movie props were published as "proofs" of weapons shipments from the United States to arm local "reactionaries". It was even reported that American tanks were rolling through the streets and occupying the towns.


    Average Shot Length = ~6.4 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~6.3 seconds.


    Some of the Jeeps in this film have a vertical bar on the front. This was to cut invisible wires set between two trees by the enemy to decapitate the soldiers.


    The tanks used by the Americans in the film are M24 Chaffee light tanks appropriate for the era.


    The Remagen of the film's title refers to a town in Germany called Remagen. It is in the Rhineland-Palatinate which is in the district of Ahrweiler. The town is actually located on the Rhine river as was the Bridge at Remagen referred to in this movie.


    The specific Bridge at Remagen which is this film's title, The Bridge at Remagen, is actually the bridge known as Ludendorff Bridge as in the movie and in real life. The bridge was frequently known as the Bridge at Remagen during World War II. It was a railway bridge that ran across the River Rhine at Remagen in Germany. The bridge connected the town of Remagen with the town of Erpel, situated between two ridge lines of hills which flanked the Rhine River. In 1945, during the Second War War, the Allies captured the Ludendorff Bridge between March 7 and March 8 of that year. Today, the remaining towers of the bridge house a museum.


    The name of the real life bridge that portrayed The Bridge at Remagen (i.e. the Ludendorff Bridge) was the Davle Bridge aka the Davelským Old Bridge. This bridge is situated in the town of Davle and located over the River Vltava in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. Filming at the bridge occurred during the summer of 1968.


    According to the book 'Bill Collins presents The Golden Years of Hollywood' by Bill Collins, "Apart from three or four large interiors, the film was shot entirely on location . . . The film's producer 'David l. Wolper', obtained permission to use the Davle Bridge, 24 kilometers south of Prague on the Ultava River. Much of the filming, however was carried out in the Czechoslovakia town of Most, 100 kilometers north-west of Prague."


    "There was an unexpected halt to filming in August 1968, when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia, and all American and British cast and crews members had to be evacuated" according to the book, 'Bill Collins presents The Golden Years of Hollywood' by Bill Collins. Collins adds that "A half-replica of the bridge was built near Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer residence south of Rome, and the film was completed in Hamburg and various Italian locations."


    The name of the Second World War's mission to capture the Ludendorff Bridge aka The Bridge at Remagen was Operation Lumberjack. This mission was initiated by the US Army in March 1945 with an aim to capture German cities such as Cologne and to create a foothold in the Rhine region. The US 9th Armored Division entered the town of Remagen on 7 March 1945, arriving under fire in the afternoon at the Ludendorff Bridge at 3.50 pm. The capture of this bridge was critical and pivotal to the Allies invading Germany. It was the only bridge whereby the soldiers could accessibly cross over the River Rhine, 8,000 of them doing so. Adolf Hitler had German soldiers responsible for the bridge shot by firing squad.


    The Bridge at Remagen aka the Ludendorff Bridge can also been seen portrayed in the video-games Call of Duty: Finest Hour and "Panzer Front".


    According to the book 'The United Artists Story' by Ronald Bergan, "The Bridge at Remagen was the last bridge standing over the Rhine [River] in 1945, which both German and American forces fought to control."


    After the August 1968 Russian Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia when the film unit had to leave the country, apparently communist newspapers of the day alleged that the production of this movie was none other than a CIA project.


    This movie's closing epilogue states that "on March 17, 1945, ten days after its capture, the battle-torn bridge at Remagen collapsed into the Rhine."


    Goofs
    Audio/visual unsynchronised
    Then the American troops are moving through a narrow street, behind a tank a soldier is firing his machine gun, but no sound can be heard


    In the battle at the west ridge, a German gun crew is shown firing an MG42 but its making the traditional *rata-tata-tat* sound rather than the buzz saw/ripping-cloth sound distinctive to the MG42's very high rate of fire.


    Continuity
    The superstructure is intact again in a general view of the bridge a few seconds later, and in all subsequent scenes.


    The same overweight German soldier with his arm in a sling is seen to exit the tunnel at least five times.


    Early in the movie, Lt. Phil Hartman and Cpl. Grebs try a daring run toward a farmhouse which is occupied by an enemy anti-tank troop. They start the run in a captured German vehicle, equipped with a rear mounted machine gun. The car also has a very distinctive pair of red lamps on the front. As the car speeds into battle with the German defenses, it is somehow transformed into a different vehicle, for when it arrives at the farmhouse yard we see it has lost the gun mount, gained a wiper on the driver's side, and the red lamps have disappeared.


    During the beginning scenes, you see the train approaching the Obercassel Bridge in a gentle right curve. Then you see the M24 Chaffee tanks and their support running for the Bridge. Then the error appears: The armor is seen on the river road, but the negative is reversed. Names on the tanks are reversed, the truck's steering wheel is on the right side, and the train is now making a gentle *left* curve onto the bridge. Reversal ends as the sequence ends with the explosion/destruction of the bridge.


    In a shot from an approaching aircraft during the U.S. bombing attack the barge is clearly directly under the bridge and alongside the central pier. However, all other shots of the barge show it moored to the pier and down river from the bridge.


    Errors in geography
    The movie makes it look like the Rhine river near Remagen is floating through a steep sloped valley. The town of Remagen however is built on the flat bank of the river.


    Factual errors
    While the Remagen Bridge is full of defending German troops and fleeing civilian refugees, it is attacked by several American B-25 medium bombers. In actuality, B-25's were not used in this area of the European Theater of Operations.


    Most of the helmets worn by the German army troops have decals on their sides (national colors on one side, Army insignia on the other). However, the German army stopped using helmet decals in 1942 or 1943. By the time of the Remagen battle in March of 1945, few, if any, German helmets with these insignia would still be in use.


    Toward the end of the film Maj. Paul Krüger makes his way back to army high command to speak with Generaloberst von Brock when he arrested by the SS. Outside the Wehrmacht (Army) HQ, Several SS officers are seen wearing the famous 1930's era black SS uniforms. This is very common mistake in many WW2 films. The Black SS uniforms were discontinued at the start of the war in 1939 and replaced by the green/grey uniform. Only Waffen SS tank crews wore black uniforms in combat. This was not, however, the all-black uniform worn by the pre-war SS, but rather a short, black waist-cut coat similar in style to that worn by tank crews in the Wehrmacht.


    The blond SS man wears an arm band with the word "Germania", indicating his regiment. The SS Regiment "Germania" was on the Eastern Front in 1945, not the west.


    In the air raid on the bridge, the B-25 has the pre World War II markings with the red "meatball" in the star. By 1945, the U.S. aircraft marking was a white star, on a blue disc, with white bars on either side.


    Kreuger says to Von Brock that he heard the Russians were at the Elbe River. The Russians didn't get there until April, after the Remagen bridge was taken. Kreuger should have said the Russians were at the Oder River, which would have been correct for Jan.-Feb. 1945.


    Several American infantrymen are correctly armed with M1 Carbines. However, the weapons are equipped with long 30-round magazines, which did not reach troops in the field until the very end of World War II. None were available in time for the Remagen Bridge battle. Some carbines are also equipped with bayonet mounts, which were not added until the carbines were refurbished after the war.


    All of the American hand grenades are painted a solid olive drab color. Real grenades also had a narrow yellow band around the upper (fuse) section to denote that they were live fragmentation grenades, as opposed to practice types.


    Revealing mistakes
    Throughout the movie, hundreds of rifles, pistols, and machine guns are fired by both sides. However, none are shown to eject empty shell casings as they are being fired.


    During several quiet night scenes near the end of the movie, crickets can be clearly heard. However, in Germany in the month of March, the weather would still be too cold for crickets to be present.


    When a line of American tanks are shelling German positions, none of the tanks' cannon barrels recoil when they are fired.


    In the scene where a German firing squad is shooting a victim near a checkpoint, none of the bullets are seen to impact the wall behind the victim. In actuality, all the bullets would have passed through the victim and made noticeable explosions in the wall.


    As the bridge comes under fire, there is a German train approaching the bridge from one side as American tanks approach from the other. The American tanks open fire on the train and it explodes. However, the train then comes to an immediate halt. Real trains have an immense amount of momentum and require a considerable distance to come to a complete stop. The train we see explode is undoubtedly a scale model, but it should have been allowed to continue moving forward after having been hit.


    Memorable Quotes


    Filming Locations
    Davle, Czech Republic
    Hamburg, Germany
    Most, Czech Republic

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited 2 times, last by ethanedwards ().

  • The Bridge at Remagen is a 1969 war film starring George Segal,
    Ben Gazzara and Robert Vaughn.
    It was directed by John Guillermin
    and was shot on location in Czechoslovakia.


    The film is based on the book The Bridge at Remagen: The Amazing Story of March 7, 1945
    by writer and U. S. Representative, Ken Hechler.
    It was adapted into a screenplay by Richard Yates and William Roberts.


    The film is a highly-fictionalized version of actual events during the last months of World War II
    when the U.S. 9th Armored Division approached Remagen and found the Ludendorff Bridge still intact.
    The movie re-enacts the week-long battle, and several artillery duels,
    that the Americans fought before gaining a bridgehead across the Rhine
    for the final push into Germany.



    User Review

    Best Wishes
    Keith
    London- England

    Edited once, last by ethanedwards ().

  • Great movie and, I dont even want to begin on correcting the above ""Errors"" on type of uniforms worn as well as helmet decals and the like.

    Es Ist Verboten Mit Gefangenen In Einzelhaft Zu Sprechen..