Bridge, The

TV Guide Ken Fox

The film avoids theorizing about why the bridge should exert such a hold over the imaginations of suicides all over the world, but Steel's dramatic cinematography, particularly the distorted telephoto shots that make the bridge loom even larger than it already does in life, provide one answer.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Both a beautiful film and a disturbing one, and the connection between those two characteristics makes it the most disquieting of documentaries.

Premiere Ethan Alter

This is one movie that's guaranteed to linger in your mind after you leave the theater, whether you want it to or not.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A serious, wrenching and oddly poetic documentary.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The real item under consideration here is the movie itself, and the bottom line is that it lands in a humane place. True, any viewer will go in with a certain curiosity, ghoulish or otherwise, about what it's like to jump off a bridge, and yet the overall effect of the film is broadening. To see it is to dread the bridge jumps and to come away with a feeling of compassion and empathy.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

While these interviews are affecting, and the movie talks about suicide in a refreshingly straightforward manner, it's the images of these actual deaths that induce horrified gasps.

Slate Dana Stevens

You leave The Bridge with a new appreciation for your (relative) mental stability and a vow to make the most of your brief, ephemeral life.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

This eerie and indelible documentary about suicide juxtaposes transcendent beauty with personal tragedy.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

I still have unanswered moral questions about the film -- unanswered because unanswerable, I suspect -- but it's a beautiful, wrenching, horrifying work of cinema, unlike anything I have ever seen or will see again.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Compelling result is handled with enough dignified artistry to quell most fears of exploitation.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

The Bridge packs a visceral emotional wallop. How could it not? But along with plenty of difficult questions, Steel's film leaves a sour, disturbing aftertaste.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The Bridge crosses a disquieting line.

Austin Chronicle Josh Rosenblatt

The results are striking: an emotional and aesthetic whirlpool of horror, fascination, beauty (it's hard not to feel a bit guilty – even morbid - enjoying such beauty), and resignation that would probably drown lesser movies but that gives The Bridge an eerie power.

Village Voice Jim Ridley

Ghoulish documentary.

LA Weekly James C. Taylor

The result is an attractive, well-intentioned film that is surprisingly dull and uninvolving.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Despite the proficient technique, after a while you may feel you're watching a particularly scenic snuff film.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Eric Steel's documentary has more than a whiff of exploitation about it.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This is a new form of obscenity that might be called suicide porn. It's not just the voyeuristic surveillance that's obscene, but the use of suicide footage as counterpoint to other stories as they're told. Steel shows no special insight into the subject, though even that couldn't justify such hideousness.