'THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN'......AMERICAN SOLDIERS BATTLE TRUMP'S BEST BUDS......

The Bridge At Remagen (1969)    We simply had to satisfy our burning desire to watch American G.I.'s deliver an old-fashioned,  tank-and-machine-gun ass wuppin' to our President's favorite 'good' people.....Nazis.....

            This one's a brutally efficient re-enactment of a pitched battle in the closing days of World War 2......Allied and German forces, their strategies constantly shifting, sought to either seize control of or destroy the last remaining bridge across the Rhine river. At stake was the bridge's prize position as a pathway for the advancing Allies into the heart of Germany........cue the firepower.....

             Leading our guys: two battle weary, world weary American soldiers, (George Segal and Ben Gazzara, both subdued and superb). Holding the bridge for the Nazis: a conflicted Major (Robert Vaughn), who's desperate to delay blowing the bridge up for as long as possible, hoping to provide an escape route for thousands of German troops trapped behind Allied lines.  (A risky idea, since the panicked Nazis have taken to shooting their own officers for defying orders or deserting......no doubt Trump, the great lover and enabler of Neo-Nazis, would love these scenes of disloyal minions facing a firing squad....)

               Not the greatest of war movies by any stretch, but it gets the job done......and benefits enormously from Segal's performance as a hardened warrior who's exhausted and disgusted by the carnage around him.

               Interesting to note: while filming in Czechoslovakia in the summer of 1968, the movie's cast and crew had to flee from the invading wrath of Trump's other Best Friends Forever, the Russians.....

               Also a huge plus.....in the pre-CGI era, when you went see a war movie with loads of stuff blown to smithereens.......you got to see real stuff, (buildings, tanks, jeeps, bridges) blown to smithereens......instead of pixels....real rubble......

               Unlike the fantasy larking of "Where Eagles Dare" and "Kelly's Heroes", "The Bridge At Remagen" casts a gritty, grim, almost semi-documentary eye on warfare.....and you'll probably never see this level of real physicality in modern filmmaking ever again. So we'll salute 4 stars (****)....and
spoiler alert for our so-called 'President'.....sorry, Baby Orange, but your very fine folks, the Nazis don't fare too well in this one........