Bridgend (2015)

It's a film about a series of serious events involving young people, and does them no justice. Someone trying to be clever, depicting them as a bunch of mindless yobs shouting at the moon, drinking excessively and trashing property. It lurches along aimlessly and I personally ended up feeling I'd lost an hour or so that I would never get back..

Thanatos is the drive to death and has often been referred to in recent literature in reference to humanity's drive to self annihilation, faced with seemingly overwhelming social,economic and environmental issues.Bridgend is its own way taps into this notion. It focuses on a group of young people who seem to have reached the end of hope and view death as their only "accomplishment" in life. Death has a tribal quality, its something that is worshiped as a group and dedication proved by taking life threatening risks, before the final act itself. The quality of acting is good and the visuals whilst austere, are well rendered and do help infuse the film with a sombre atmosphere. Where this film falls down, for me, is in its story department. Its really difficult to understand what its point is? Indeed, in some respects, it seems rather rhetorical in a rather sad and depressing, way. In any case, I'll leave it to you to judge the overall worth of this film. Its not for me but that's not to say you might not find something of meaning in its message. Seven out of ten from me.

Between 2007 and 2012 were committed 79 suicides by hanging in Bridgend County, a coal mining province in Wales, and mostly among teenagers. Based on this tragic true story, the film Bridgend, directed by Danish rookie Jeppe Rønde who until then only made documentaries, is a fictionalized version of the case. The story revolves around the protagonist Sara (played by Hannah Murray, known for the character Gilly, of Game of Thrones), a young woman who moves to a small town in Bridgend County due to her father's job relocation, the police officer Dave (played by Steven Waddington; he starred in the movie Imitation Game - 2014). Being a new girl in town Sara does not have any friends and her favorite hobby is riding her horse, Snowy. But gradually she gets drawn into a group of mysterious teenagers who appear to be connected to the wave of suicides, which causes concern of her father, who investigates the deaths.To make this movie the director Rønde spent six years researching, interviewing and accompanying the teenagers who lived in the area and wrote the script based on their stories. There are theories about the deaths, but local authorities still do not know what motivated the suicides in which the film was based. Another detail is that the motion picture was filmed in the very Bridgend County.The film portrays the reckless life of teenagers and uses the clichés that are already well known in adolescence representations: parties ruled by alcohol, cigarette, riots and dips in the lake, in a quest for freedom, to experience feelings without worrying about the consequences of your own acts. The intergenerational conflict is another point addressed and is showed by the gap between parents and children, who can not interact or communicate with each other.With a gloomy and gray, grim and melancholic atmosphere, Magnus Nordenhof Jonck's photography (known for his work in Kapringen - A Hijacking - 2012 and Krigen - A War - 2015) creates a claustrophobic tone that makes you feel as if something terrible could happen at any time. Part of this constant tension effect is also built by Mondkopf's soundtrack, which uses the electronic sound to keep the suffocating tone in the movie. Bridgend quite remember the movie The Witch (2015) for the setting yearned in each frame.Despite having an efficient cast the film could have developed the characters more. Another weak point was the way the script was written. The story does not follow a specific line and ends up being confused and not promoting the necessary understanding. The narrative focuses only on the lives of adolescents, leaving aside important parts as the parents viewpoint, the investigative work of the police and how the suicides affect the local community. Rønde was bold in its proposal to portray a difficult subject in an abstract way and ended up delivering a smaller film than it could be. Especially for the setting and the visual quality that are top- notch. Perhaps part of the answers that were left unclear can be found in the documentary Bridgend (2013).Originally posted in: https://vikingbyheart.blogspot.com.br

the movie analyzed the state of suicidal from all the different angles of the situation, Sara and the others are just hungry for life which the authority and the church are always and forever putting some limits in that town. the question that always being in front of your eyes is "Why?" and you just begin to ask "Why not!!!", it is not like you turned to be suicidal but somehow a person with a deep place in their side, we can be with Sara and her limits and her Jaimee! all of the movie aspects are just amazing, from the screenplay till the sound and visual effects. after the movie is done and you are in your way out of the cinema, you are just thinking in their situations, the day mare you had is just like that "all the things are justified enough to be in that way, they are here, actual youth who are in a continual search for their identity, just the forest of life had been waiting for them, so what is wrong with the actual world to be like that, and the problem is; it is like that!" that group of young people is not suicidal, but it is normal from outside, the effect of this is just you can take all of the youth as suicidal, or just thinking of this demon apparent from the life, and the love and the family. the problem comes to a new dimension with the family, their apart views and tight facts and limits upon us, the youth, and we will go fire the place, make the lights to conquer the view and let the spouses take their bedtime at ease! as an end, the movie is just awesome and i would recommend it to any and every young person on this planet.