'The Bridge'

‘The Bridge’ is a 2006 documentary, which captures suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge, by Eric Steel. The documentary was filmed in 2003, it shows suicides and attempted suicides along with interviews of the victim’s family and friends talking of them and discussing possible explanations to their actions. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhARXu3wWDc

The documentary also follows a survivor of a suicide attempt (Kevin Hines), who tells the crew how he realised he wanted to live only as he fell towards the water. In the end, he was rescued by a seal that swam beneath him, which he describes as a sign from God.

Throughout the documentary we are shown footage of Gene Sprague’s final day along with interviews with his close friends. We are enabled to connect with him and understand what he must have been going through, by getting an insight into his life. We learn of his mother and how she originally didn’t want children, but when she fell pregnant, became the most important person in his life. He had agreed to his mother that he would not kill himself until she had died; when she did eventually lose her battle with cancer he became obsessed. Friends of his said he often spoke of death and yet they always thought he was joking. Sprague suffered from depressed throughout adolescence and planned his death. Like in ‘The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off’, although we knew they would both die, we still resented the thought by the end as we had the ability to connect to them. Gene Sprague died May 11 2004.

Like all documentaries, this raises many issues and questions.

Should they be filming this?

Do they have a responsibility to step in?

How did it handle the issue of suicide?

Should they be filming it?

I don’t think filming the people jumping were particularly respectful or pleasant, however, when put into context (with the interviews with family) I can understand their reasoning’s for it. It was much better that we (the audience) had an insight into why these people jumped and contextualised suicide. I also think it was good, seeing a women being saved on two occasions and hearing of a survivors story.

Do they have a responsibility to step in?

Initially, when I first heard of the documentary I thought it was cruel they did not step in and instead sat filming strangers as the plummeted to their death. But actually after watching the documentary, I now disagree. I don’t think they could of done much to of helped these people. It isn’t obvious any of them would have jumped until it happened. I do, however, believe the passerby’s had an element of responsibility to stop them if they had seen. So I think its good they showed the women being saved on two occasions. Although it was shocking how little people were helped, this isn’t a responsibility of the crew. Admittedly the crew could have done more if they saw signs of people contemplating suicide but at the end of the day, they were there to film suicides not prevent them. It’s a tricky topic to discus, as there are so many reasoning’s behind each argument (of should they have stepped in or not). So many that I cannot draw a conclusion and decide. I am torn between both arguments, I know that there was very little they could of done, but perhaps that they still could of.

How did it handle the issue of suicide?

I think it’s respectful of the issue in the way it contextualised why each person we see has committed suicide, with their friends and family explaining their reasoning’s and thoughts. Many of which had mental illnesses. Also by showing a survivor who now has a different view on suicide and realised he now want to live, it portrays how death is not always the answer. Ken Baldwin said: “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.” which Kevin Hines also agreed with. The documentary also shows a woman who was stopped from committing suicide on two occasions over the year. It portrays, although we can stop people from physically committing suicide, that doesn’t always change their cognitions.

The documentary was based upon Tad Friend’s article ‘Jumpers’ in the New Yorker back in 2003, the article deals with the issues of attempted suicide survivors who regretted their decisions. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/10/13/031013fa_fact

I looked into other articles discussing suicide and why people commit suicide. I found that 30% to 70% of suicide victims suffer from depression and eight out of ten suicidal people give signs of their intentions http://www.capefearhealthyminds.org/library.cgi?article=1115921805. This statistic struck me as surprising, maybe a lot of suicidal people are still searching for help and by people not picking up these signs and acting on them lives are lost. Maybe the suicides we saw could of been prevented.