I’m not sure if its totally reader friendly to be blogging so frequently about suicide. Again I would justify it by saying that these bright and sunny summer months are almost peak suicide season, so the Wikipedia statistics tell me. Before you start wondering don’t worry… its not something that I am considering at present!
To stay on topic I watched The Bridge by Eric Steel last night. Its a documentary shot on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The camera crew captured 23 of the 24 people who jumped from the bridge in that year. Its is the most popular suicide destination in the world.
Although its an outsider documenting the suicide jump and isn’t shot as a ‘point of view’ as some self documented suicides might be, it definitely relates somehow to themes of grandiosity or what is referred to in the marketing copy for the film as ‘The Fatal Grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge.’ A life spent in torment can perhaps be redeemed by inventing a sensational or glamorous death? If you don’t want to document your own suicide then why not jump at the most notorious suicide location in the world?
Not only did the directors document all of the jumps, but they managed to catch up with eyewitnesses and the friends and families of their suicidal subjects. The perspective that this gives the viewer is harrowing.
So much of the footage is utterly sublime, but there is one particular protagonist who stands out. He is called Gene Sprague and his long hair silhouetted against in the sun almost turns him into a living ghost, even before he jumps. His story runs throughout the film and reaches a crescendo with his jump, which is also spellbinding. Watch it:
The Bridge – clip
