Rent The Bridge at Remagen (1969)

An excellent WWII film pitching US soldiers against a collapsing German Army on the Rhine - The Bridge at Remagen review by Philip in Paradiso

This is a war film about the Second World War focused on a bridge crossing the Rhine - the bridge at Remagen. An advance party of war-weary and battle-hardened American soldiers are racing towards the bridge. Both the Americans and the Germans have conflicting interests regarding the last bridge still standing, which crosses the River Rhine at Remagen. On the one hand, the Americans are keen to destroy the bridge, as this would prevent the 15th German Army, stranded on the Western side of the river, from retreating further East into Germany; on the other hand, if the bridge is saved, Allied troops will be able to use it to cross the Rhine, which would speed up the Allied campaign across Nazi Germany and shorten the war. As for the Germans, on the one hand, some of them would like their 15th Army to be able to retreat across the bridge, if there is still time, while the Nazi high command orders the bridge's destruction in order to prevent the Americans from crossing the Rhine quickly and easily.

Against this backdrop - and the movie is generally historically accurate, it would appear - we are given both the perspective of the Americans and that of the Germans, which makes the story particularly interesting. We are also shown the tensions existing within the 2 armies - tensions between headquarters and the units in the field, and tensions between officers and ordinary infantrymen, among others. This gives a realistic texture to the film, helped by the excellent acting, the good dialogues and the powerful score. We experience the battle for Remagen through the eyes of Lieutenant Phil Hartman (George Segal), an experienced platoon leader in the US 9th Armored Division, and his men, who are spearheading the American advance towards the Rhine; facing the US troops are the remnants of the Nazi war machine - and the movie is very good in this respect, showing graphically to what extent the German Army is collapsing across the front line. However, the Nazi zealots are certainly not prepared to give up the fight. Major Paul Krueger (Robert Vaughn) is in charge of the German units tasked with defending the bridge and preventing the Americans from crossing the river.

I have read that the film has a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes: I find this truly surprising. It actually is an excellent war film, in my view (the fact all the actors speak English is not too much of a distraction, incidentally). The script is never simplistic, also in relation to what it means to be a soldier in battle. If you look at the review on Wikipedia (after seeing the movie), you will see that the shooting of the film was caught up in the events of 1968-1969 in Central Europe (namely, the Prague Spring): this is, in itself, an amazing story, and it must be one of the biggest achievements in the history of film making that they succeeded, against all odds, in completing the making of the movie. (See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_at_Remagen .)