Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Wuchak RELEASED IN 2004 and directed by Mary McGuckian based on the novel by Thornton Wilder, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is a costume drama taking place in 1714 Peru, with a few scenes in Spain. Five people fall to their deaths in the Andes when an "indestructible" rope-bridge breaks and Franciscan monk Brother Juniper (Gabriel Byrne) becomes obsessed with the tragedy, collecting personal notes on all the victims and writing a book on his conclusions: Five people, all dying of the same cause at the same instant, cannot be mere coincidence in an understandable human universe. He's put on trial by the Inquisition (which was running Spain and Peru at the time) for humanly trying to second-guess an Act of God. Robert De Niro plays the prosecuting Archbishop.The movie flashes back and forth between Juniper's trial and the lives of the five before their deaths. The victims are played by Kathy Bates, Harvey Keitel, Adriana Domínguez and Michael Polish. Émilie Dequenne appears as the daughter of Bates' character while Pilar López de Ayala is on hand as a theater actress. Geraldine Chaplin plays the mother nun and F. Murray Abraham appears as the Viceroy of Peru. Dominique Pinon in on hand as a fop while Mark Polish plays the twin brother of one of the victims.Despite the stellar cast, this film is the furthest thing from a blockbuster. Anyone who wants a blockbuster should turn around and get the phukk out of here (as Ted Nugent would put it, lol). "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" demands intellectual investment and the willingness to entertain things not often discussed, like those in the book of Job. The movie is a call to endure the pilgrimage of this world even when it doesn't seem possible or desirable to do so. It is a call to persevere in faith even when the systems of belief turn against us and we don't understand.The secondary theme is just as significant: How do we accept Providence when those in positions of spiritual authority act in a manner incompatible with divine Love? In Brother Juniper's attempt to affirm the Love of God in the face of the fatal accident at the bridge, he runs afoul of staunchly legalistic officials. They do not appreciate his attempt to "Think the thoughts of God after Him." In attempting to show Love in the midst of evil, Juniper unexpectedly sees more evil, enacted in the name of God, no less! Since this is a dialogue-driven movie I encourage you to use the subtitles to keep up with the archaic verbiage and keep track of who's who and what's happening. Beyond the heavy themes, the strength of the movie is its great cast, costumes, sets and acting. The film successfully transports you into another space and time with different social, religious and economic pressures than what we know today. The picture is top-of-the-line on these fronts.Unfortunately, it was shot entirely in Spain and so the mountains are smaller than the Andes and the buildings more magnificent. The storytelling also seems to bog down in places, but that's because this is not a movie based on plot & pace but rather a genuine look at the characters and their loving relationships. It's a revelation about love in its myriad forms: From Kathy Bates' character seeking the love of her daughter to Harvey Keitel's parental love for the actress to the sibling love of the silent twins to the love of God portrayed by the nuns & Juniper to God's love for humanity. CONCLUSION: "The Bridge at San Luis Rey" is certainly worthwhile for those who appreciate layered, dialogue-driven dramas with weighty themes. Lastly, if you've ever wanted to suck the fingers of a bodacious babe, this movie's for you! THE FILM RUNS 120 minutes.GRADE: B/B- (6.5/10) (I might raise my grade with future viewings; we'll see)

bkoganbing Like a lot of Hemingway's work, The Bridge Of San Luis Rey with its emphasis on internal introspection is a hard book to bring to the motion picture screen. Emphasis here is on internal introspection.Thornton Wilder of 20th century America must have done a lot of research to write so well about Spanish South American colonial society. And the biggest strength of this film version is the painstaking recreation of that society for the screen. That and the main player's salaries are where most of the budget went I'm sure.In Spanish colonial Peru an old Inca rope bridge across a deep gorge gives way and several people fall into the gorge and are killed. Gabriel Byrne playing a young Franciscan monk who is right behind them by a few steps is spared when he doesn't make it on the bridge.Forgetting the fact that he is a monk and in a profession where much time is given to contemplation and retrospection, anyone would be wondering why he was spared. There are certain things in my life where I've wondered whether I was destined to be where I am and do what I do. But Byrne takes it to the extreme. He spends years investigating the lives of the people on The Bridge Of San Luis Rey wondering if there was some kind of cosmic connection. For his labors the young monk is brought before the Inquisition. Where as the Archbishop of Lima, Robert DeNiro makes a fanatical prosecutor for God. Watching the film I get the impression that it's not what conclusions that the monk Brother Juniper reached in his painstaking research, but that he was asking the questions at all. Such things are left to Heaven and we don't question God's will. Mere inquiry is the work of the Devil and the Inquistion knows how to deal with those who yearn for heretical knowledge and spread same.Such players as F. Murray Abraham playing the Viceroy of Peru and Kathy Bates who is a powerful noblewoman and one of the victims lend their considerable talents to this film. But with all the care lavished on it, this version of The Bridge Of San Luis Rey is a ponderous affair and moves at an elephantine pace.I'm told this is a faithful recreation of Thornton Wilder'w Pulitzer Prize winning novel. But some books are hard to translate for the screen and I think this is one of them. There is an early sound version from 1929 and yet another film from 1943 of this work. I'm curious now as to whether they were better cinema.

Desertman84 The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a drama featuring an ensemble cast led by F. Murray Abraham,Kathy Bates,Gabriel Byrne,Geraldine Chaplin,Robert De Niro,Harvey Keitel,Pilar López de Ayala,Geraldine Chaplin, John Lynch, and brothers Mark Polish and Michael Polish.Thornton Wilder's award- winning novel is given a lavish screen adaptation in this historical drama from writer and director Mary McGuckian.In Peru in 1714, a rickety bridge collapsed as five people were attempting to cross, forcing them to plunge to their deaths. Brother Fray Juniper is a Franciscan monk who has been given the duty of looking into the tragedy by the archbishop of Lima, and to learn what he can about the victims. It is Fray's belief that these particular people died for some reason, and that it is his duty to determine why God chose these five people to perish, while others in the vicinity survived. After five years, Juniper delivers his findings to the archbishop as well as the viceroy of Peru, as the Fray tells them of the lives of the troubled Dona Maria, the nun Pepita, warm-hearted Uncle Pio, street kid- turned-actress La Perichola, and others involved in the tragedy.The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a beautiful movie. The film's shooting locations are exquisite. The sets are stunning. The costumes are gorgeous. The actors are superlative.It is an intense philosophical undertaking that examines questions of faith, fate and chance.

charlytully Sometimes a novel made into a movie really disappoints (for instance, director Roland Joffe's 1987 misfire THE SCARLET LETTER starring Demi Moore). Sometimes tweaking the story actually heightens the suspense (Richard Brooks' 1965 rendering of LORD JIM starring Peter O'Toole). Sometimes it's justified to carry a book's foreshadowing over into the movie adaptation (as in director Francesco Rosi's 1987 film CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD). But, unfortunately, Thornton Wilder's novel THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY is somewhat off-putting in book form. It is a story which needs to have a cinematic presentation of a more linear format with much less doom-and-gloom to get empathy for the characters from the audience (held captive for two hours, unlike readers who can put down the novel for a while whenever the pall it casts grows too thick). In other words, LORD JIM's Brooks made a 10-of-10 movie from a novel rating an "8" at best. Director Victor Fleming made a "10" movie out of a "7" book in 1939 of (take your pick) THE WIZARD OF OZ or GONE WITH THE WIND. So it's too bad BRIDGE director Mary McGuckian wound up with an "8" film from the "9" book by not being daring enough in her translation of the novel to the screen.