The Bridge at Remagen (1969) – Masalafied True Story

Genre – War Movie

Time: 1 Hours 55 minutes

Platform: Amazon Rent

Director: John Guillermin

Cast:  George Segal (Lt. Phil Hartman). Robert Vaughn (Maj. Paul Krueger). Ben Gazzara (Sgt. Angelo). Bradford Dillman (Maj. Barnes). E.G. Marshall (Brig. Gen. Shinner). Peter van Eyck (Gen. Von Brock)

Plot:  March 1945 and the German Army is in utter and complete retreat hotly pursued by the Western Allies. General von Brock is given the task of blowing up all the bridges on the rive Rhine – which forms the last natural barrier between the advancing Western Allies and Germany. Brigadier General Shinner is determined to be the first to cross the Rhine and he pushes his units hard. The supine Major Barnes assures him that his best unit led by Phil Hartmann would do the job. Hartmann is again upset at getting a hard task as his unit has been in continuous action without rest and has suffered casualties. He and his recce unit, led by Sergeant Angelo, reluctantly agree and go ahead with the task. At the same time Major Paul Kruger has been tasked with  Remagen’s defence, by General von Brock and tasked to demolish the bridge, even if that means leaving a sizable number of  German troops on the wrong side of the Rhine,for the Americans to capture….

In 1968, Socialist Czechoslovakia was rife with rumors that their nascent ‘Prague Spring’, where the Czechs would decide their own fate and not be dependent on ‘guidance from Moscow’ , was to be crushed. Soon ‘proof’ was provided by the Russians, that American tanks were rolling in the Czech countryside and were about to ‘invade’ Czechoslovakia , giving the Russians, the excuse to ‘restore Socialism’ and fight American backed imperialists.  

The tanks were real – they were only taking part in the shooting of the film ‘The Bridge at Remagen’.  Reality and Cold War clashed. The entire crew had to flee Czechoslovakia,  leading to the shift in the locations and the film being completed in a mix of studio, Austrian , Italian and German locations. Admirably one cant make out the difference. 

Any Czech citizen would have questioned as to why the Americans would invade with obsolete M24 Chaffee tanks but then no one did so – they were too busy, passively resisting the Soviet invasion.

The Remagen operation was one of the boldest moves of the American Army as they literally raced against time to prevent the Germans from demolishing the bridges that could provide a bridgehead in Germany. The bridge was laced with explosives. The charges were detonated. The bridge didn’t fall into the Rhine and remained standing as military grade explosives were unavailable – along with other stuff like ammunition, fuel, food – while Germany literally collapsed.

The bridge stood for ten days during which entire divisions used it to cross the Rhine and expand the fragile bridgehead. After ten days, due to the combined weight of the traffic and the earlier explosives, the weakened bridge literally fell into the Rhine with lots of American casualties. The German commanders were executed for ‘allowing the Americans to cross the Rhine’.

That is the true story.

So how does the film measure up to the history? After a good start, once the troops reach Remagen, the film looks and feels like a bad Hindi/ Indian war film.

The story arc is about the tired Hartmann dependent on the cynical Garcia to keep the unit together and in one piece while they keep pushing towards the Rhine. Garcia shamelessly loots German dead bodies for working watches and other valuables. Naturally his subordinates also do the same thing about which Hartmann does not say anything. Their fights are hard and fast. They take ghost towns and finally reach Remagen. This is where the film goes offtrack with the standard Hollywood war movie masala touch points  and standard war movie cliches such as:

• ‘Ordinary Germans being caught in the crossfire’ while not knowing what to do.
• The ‘decent German commander’.
• The tired Americans doing their duty.
• The idiotic seniors on both sides.
• The bridge being blown up while Hartmann and his troops are on it; (in the real world, it was not so).
• The sincere German officer who negotiates with the Americans.
• The die-hard Hitler Youth who is predictably killed in a bad way.
• A French woman caught in Germany as she took a German boyfriend – paving the way for a topless scene – which the oh-so-decent American officer stops and releases her from the prison which they have commandeered. After that the ‘French’ woman just vanishes from the plot.
• The ‘practical’ German who has to ‘run a hotel’ and welcomes the Americans – after tactfully replacing Hitler’s portrait at the reception and whose son is the Hitler Youth who fires at the ‘invaders’.

Cinematically, the first attack by Hartmann’s team on a farm, where the hidden German troops are giving the advancing Americans a hard time, is brilliantly done – fast in by APCs and jeeps firing on the move, fast clearance of farm room by room and quick victory.  Tactically correct. Then the capture of a town, which is decked with white flags. Rest of it is total masala.

As for the Remagen bridge, since it fell after ten days, it was not rebuilt and the towers on both banks survive, which have been converted into a museum.

Needless to say the locations for the film were very authentic . The real bridge as seen in the Black and White photo , clearly showing the damage.

The bridge in Czechoslovakia which was ‘converted’ to resemble the real bridge by adding fake towers at both ends.

Something unique about this film. This is the only film I have seen where US troops are shown looting the German dead. Most other WW2 films and other war films usually depict Americans as squeaky-clean boys, sent ‘over there’ ‘to do a job’.

As war films go, performances are average but Robert Vaughn does some weird posturing at times.  The tanks are M24 Chaffee light tanks but then you cant bring back M4 Shermans and M26 Pershings in the 1960s. The other kit and small arms, heavy weapons  pass muster.

 This could have been a great war film but settles for old fashioned masala.

Real History – 3 out of 5

Script – 3 out of 5

Direction – 4 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

Total – 3.5 out of 5