The Bridge

I loved this movie, but I know exactly why most people wouldn't. It tells, or attempts to tell, an incredibly intricate and controversial story. The people who jump are only one part of this story. Their friends and family, devastated, relieved, and resigned, are another part. And then there are the people who saw them jump, the unsuspecting passersby who happened to witness, on one beautiful day in San Francisco, the end of another human being's life.

The woman who saw Gene, a tall man in his thirties with long black hair and a black leather jacket (who from a distance looks strikingly like my husband did 5 years ago), was listening to a song she liked on the radio as she drove across the bridge. When she looked out at the bay something caught her eye: a man was standing up on the railing. As she watched, uncertain and bewildered, he leaned backwards and disappeared.

A young family on vacation were the last people to see Lisa alive. They all remembered, even the kindergarten-aged son, the way that she had looked at them. They didn't know what she was going to do: when she climbed over the railing and just dove out into thin air, their lives changed.

All of this is recorded by the film crew's cameras. Gene's hair swirling around him as he paces, Lisa's determined plunge. The film didn't present any opinions about mental health systems in the United States, or the need for a fence on the bridge to make suicides there more difficult. All of that is beside the point. What is sad is that these people lived lives that were so unhappy, not that they chose to die or that someone else chose to film it. It seems wrong to me to begrudge someone an end to their suffering. As Lisa's sister said at one point in the film "I always thought that I was a stronger person than she was, but I could never have had the guts to do that."

No one jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge on a whim.

Lisa was a paranoid schizophrenic whose health was deteriorating. Gene had been clinically depressed essentially his whole life, and had talked of suicide often. His mother had made him promise to keep living for her, for the investment that she had made in him. When she refused treatment for her cancer and died, Gene made a few last-ditch efforts to find love. Then he jumped.

Gene's story is particularly well-told. He emerges as the central character in the film: a man who desperately needed help and couldn't get it. He kept trying until he couldn't try anymore. No fence on the bridge would have improved his life--seeking to prolong his agony without professional help and support would have been cruel. If we as a society don't feel that we can help people like Gene, then we shouldn't refuse them the right to a death of their own choosing.

What if Vitas became ill and was diagnosed with cancer? If we can't afford or aren't willing to pay for the treatment that could make her well again, then the right thing for us to do is to let her go. It's wrong to let her suffer just because it makes us feel bad to acknowledge that we can't help. Or won't help. I don't know how much could have been done for Lisa. One young man, a manic depressive who gratefully survived his jump, could have been helped by more community support for the mentally ill. He needed a stranger to notice what was wrong, to pay attention and feel just a little bit responsible for a man crying in plain view over the railing of a bridge. None of his friends knew how things could have turned out differently for Gene.

The cinematography of this film was truly amazing, the soundtrack (up until the very last song) was wonderful, and the interviews were conducted very thoughtfully. Although the premise of the film is undeniably morbid, the end result is incredibly sensitive and sad.

The Golden Gate Bridge is a beautiful place to die. At the end of my life if I am allowed to choose how I'll go, I want to jump off the bridge on a clear day at the end of summer. Take a last look around at the green and sparkling blue of the bay, watch the kite-surfers with their multi-colored sails skimming over the water and flying above it like birds. I want to lean out with the wind whipping through my hair and fall backwards, looking up at the sky.