DVD Review: The Bridge

This documentary is not for the easily-disturbed. Filmmaker Eric Steel and his crew spend the entire year of 2004 filming San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge, capturing 24 people commit suicide by jumping off. It's morbid and dark to say the least. Surviving family and friends are interviewed to try to give more insight and one actual survivor (God knows how he survived the jump) is interviewed. As you can imagine, most of the jumpers had some mental illness, whether it was depression, schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder.

The most disconcerting scenes are obviously the ones where you actually see people climb over the railing and jump. Each time it happened, even though I knew it was coming, was shocking and disturbing. Some people are saved by the bridge patrol and one woman is saved by a tourist. Another aspect that is sad and strange is how many people/tourists walk by someone on the rails and ignore them.

While the documentary is very sad, it's also interesting to see how surviving family members and friends feel. Some are angry and confused, some are relieved. It's heartbreaking to hear a parent share that they knew their son was going to commit suicide, that it was only a matter of time, and that although he knew his parents loved him, he was hurting so much all the time, that they knew he'd be better off dead. Accepting your child's desire to kill himself must be extremely difficult - does it make you a good or bad parent? Do you give up trying to convince your child to live because you're exhausted or because you truly want him to be happy, and being happy means being dead?

FYI - more people commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge than any other place on earth.