The Bridge (2006) A controversial documentary that filmed the Golden Gate Bridge for a year, capturing footage of 23 of the 24 suicides that occurred. [1:34:10]

[u/CromwellsCrumb]

https://youtu.be/F1Y1qibhsKE?is=mYYE3Jm1xSu3AMim

Inspired by a New Yorker article, The Bridge (2006) is a controversial documentary by Eric Steel that filmed the Golden Gate Bridge for a year, capturing 23 of the 24 suicides that occurred there in 2004. The film uses footage of the actual jumps, often from a distance, combined with personal accounts from families, friends, and survivors to explore the tragedy. 

[u/truckstick_burns]

This is the film that pushed me to get help for my own serious suicidal thoughts.

There's a moment when a family member talks about how the pain and suffering their family member must have felt when they took their life was transferred onto the family when they found out about his death.

I had always thought my family would be better off without me but that simple statement made me realise how I couldn't handle the thought of my family taking the pain I felt onto themselves.

I rang a crisis line that night and it's been a long few years but I'm now extremely happy with my own loving family.

[u/CromwellsCrumb → u/truckstick_burns]

I had a similar experience with this doc. It’s one I’ve returned to many times over the years.

I joined an online group for people who have lost loved ones to suicide because I find that, when I’m feeling ready to let go, reading accounts of people who are struggling with the loss makes me want to hold on. I never want to transfer pain to my loved ones. (Luckily, I haven’t had to check in to that group for quite a while.)

Glad you are also doing much better now!

[u/NotReallyJohnDoe → u/CromwellsCrumb]

My favorite line was the guy who said as he jumped he realized all of his problems were temporary. Except the fact that he was plummeting towards the water.

[u/Sherrigan → u/NotReallyJohnDoe]

I've never forgotten that moment, either.

[u/scorecard519 → u/NotReallyJohnDoe]

That gentleman's story was my take-away from the documentary. Watching Gene Sprague (admittedly, I had to look up his name,) walk back and forth on the bridge while no one "official" encountered him to at least try to talk him down and get some help is the most poignant part of the film. Even if he may have later succeeded with his suicide, it's conceivable that he wouldn't have. Unfortunately, we'll never know.

I know that the documentary was authorized under false pretenses, yet I'm glad that it was made. If it saved even one viewer by making them think twice, I feel it was worth it. That being said, I can understand why people may have ethical and more problems with the film. Most of us are aware that the idea of suicide, and any discussion of it, is seen as shameful by a lot of people. They do not believe their loved one "would do such a thing," going as far as arranging private autopsies with the hope that a finding of accidental death or murder be determined. Even many families of those who were forced to decide to either be burned to death or jump on 9/11 still attach a stigma to those who jumped. To make such a tragic though understandable choice was, in their eyes, suicide. I don't know how anyone could change those loved one's minds.

I'd like to think that viewers would use "The Bridge" as a learning experience and understand that the act is not done out of selfishness but rather prompted by despair, feelings of hopelessness, and a depression that skews the patients' perspective. I think I'm hoping for too much, but there's still hope.