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Wednesday, May 03, 2006 The Bridge Review by Stephen Elliott I went to see The Bridge Monday at the San Francisco Film Festival. I tried to see it on Sunday, when all the protesters were out. They were from mental health groups and Christian organizations. They said it was a snuff film, a film about people jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. I wondered what they wanted. Censorship? Attention? I didn't know. But The Bridge is about people jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. In 2004 director Eric Steel and his crew caught 23 of the 24 suicides on video. The movie is an interesting meditation on the motives of these people and the romance of the bridge but it goes for too long. After an hour the movie is repetitive; we no longer need to see people jumping from the bridge. We've got that. The interviews with relatives become meaningless. The viewer grows numb. After the movie Steel said he made the movie to raise consciousness in hopes that a suicide barrier will be built to inhibit the jumpers. But this seems disingenuous. Never in this too long film do we hear from suicide barrier advocates, of which there are plenty. While there is a lot of great information about mental illness the idea of the barrier is barely mentioned. The filmmakers lied to the bridge authorities when they set up their cameras. The bridge police didn't want to publicize the jumpers for fear it would inspire more people to jump, something this film is almost certain to do. Still, the filmmakers had a story to tell. It's not the kind of thing that needs defending. But the images. The images are hard to forget. The man gripping the rail, tumbling over, smacking against the lower beam, falling, body bent like an arrow, several long seconds and then a thick white burst of water. The images are haunting, they don't want to go away. It is, after all, the most beautiful bridge in the world. Hopefully the film will result in a barrier, no matter the director's intentions. It's unfortunate it's such a romantic way to die. Michelle Orange writes more eloquently on the film posted by Stephen Elliott 2:36 PM | link | |
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"Any true love story, if told with the urgency and animal intelligence of love, isn't for the fainthearted. On every page of this profound, distilled work of art, Stephen Elliott wrestles with the unknown and unspoken essences of love, and articulates that unknown so beautifully, with such clear-eyed fearlessness... Imagine a glass of pure water with one drop of blood hanging in its center, about to dissolve... Then drink it and be transformed." -Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City "There's an emotional courage to these stories, and a sense of urgency, that are thrilling to encounter. Elliott writes as if his life depended on each sentence. It is not overstating the case to say that he does for the BDSM community in this book what Denis Johnson did for lost druggies in Jesus' Son." - Steve Almond, The Believer Magazine Best of the year: Salon.com, San Francisco Chronicle Reviews: Salon.com, LA Weekly, The Believer Excerpts: My Stripper Year, Just Always Be Good Purchase from Amazon, Powells, Cleis, and your local bookstore 
"Happy Baby is surely the most intelligent and beautiful book ever written about juvenile detention centers, sadomasochism, and drugs." - Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times Book Review Best of the year: Village Voice, Salon.com, Chicago New City, The Journal News Awards: Finalist Young Lions Award, Silver Medal California Book Award Reviews: The New York Times, Salon.com, Village Voice Excerpts: Stalking Gracie Part 3 Purchase from Amazon, Powell's, and your local bookstore 
"Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer, Richard Ben Cramer: the great, all-American genre of the political campaign in extenso (and in extremis) has had its Homers and Boswells. To that list we can now add Stephen Elliott. Hilarious, strange, electrifyingly written, and heart-pumpingly idealistic, Looking Forward to It wins every literary caucus and primary in a landslide." -Tom Bissell, author of Chasing the Sea Best of the year: Village Voice Reviews: New York Magazine, New York Times Excerpts: The Dennis Kucinich Polka, A John Edwards Almanac Purchase from Amazon, Powell's (cheap!), and your local bookstore 
"A Life Without Consequences was harrowing, hard as nails, brutal, and soaring. Stephen Elliott has to be watched, because he knows things almost no one else could." - Dave Eggers, author of A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and What Is The What Excerpt: Adlai Stevenson House Reviews: Austin American Statesman Purchase from Amazon |
