Search - Crossing the Bridge on DVD

Great Coming-of-Age movie set in Detroit

Edwin W. Meier | Springfield, OH | 11/15/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Anyone who grew up in Detroit in the 70's will recognize most of the characters in this movie. This is the story of recent high school graduates who didn't pursue college who are in that void where they are too old to be kids but haven't become responsible adults yet. Their parents still support them. Their time is their own. They fumble around applying their high school values but essentially doing nothing until they happen upon a way to make some big, quick cash, smuggling hashish into the USA. When they get to the pick-up though they find out that the job is actually heroin. (Nicholas Cage is the heroin dealer.) In the process of deciding what to do, and what happens to them when they balk, they discover a lot about themselves and become real adults. Not to ruin the ending but watch the symbolism of the high school varsity jackets. Shot on location in Detroit and Canada, if you're a suburban Detroiter this is wonderfully nostalgic too."

Good movie...

Rolltide | Columbia, Tn | 01/08/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A great coming of age movie set in 1975 detroit. 3 high school friends are now graduated with uncertain futures. None went to college and none have decent jobs so they are emotionally caught between adulthood and the high school mentality of living at home. Symbolic of this are the high school letter jackets that two of the friends still wear. Stephen baldwin plays a guy who is losing his identity. He was cool in high school but now as an adult he is just another guy. Mort is the most intellectual and introspective of the three but he knows that he needs to go to college to realize his dream of being a writer. A dream that doesn't recieve much support from his friends. In fact he never shares a scholarship notice from central michigan university with them.

Early in the movie they encounter a drug dealer who offers them $9,000 to run some hashish from canada to the usa. Hence the name of the movie because of the bridge that runs between detroit and windsor ontario. The guys can't help but seriously consider that move. They need the money of course but they need a sense of identity even more. Thankfully the movie doesn't dwell too much on this one event but i'm surprised that these guys never once consider the morality of the action just the potential consequences to them. Other mini sub plots take form in the film of course. Their relationship with uncaring parents and romance. There are the cliche stuck up high school class mates who are now in college. One laughable character is a guy who smugly proclaims that he is majoring in pre law. Any one can major in that and most never go to law school.

Things heat up when the fellas decide finally to do the drug run. They deliver this atache filled with money to some really bad dudes in a farm house and realize they have bit off more than they can chew. Instead of hash they are expected to carry heroin across the border and they are lucky to be alive. One of them got beat up really bad. The scenes on the bridge are a bit drawn out but they all eventually decide to leave the car and the heroin and just cross to detroit on foot. This responsible move indicates a crossing over into adulthood and they end up tossing those high school letter jackets into the detroit river.

You will be involved enough in the movie to wonder what happens to these guys in the next ten years. Will mort get that degree and become a writer after all? It works. There is one major problem with the plot. These guys took a lot of money to get drugs in canada and bring them back to the us. What is a drug dealer going to do when he doesn't get the drugs or his money back? we will never know.

The acting is solid and i actually found myself liking stephen balwin's performance. A very good movie but the hole in the plot keeps it from being a 5* film.

"

An excellent way to reminisce

Edwin W. Meier | 01/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Coming of age movie with emphasis on the results of the decisions we make. Applies to all of us who were indecisive about the future after high school. A good movie with which to reminisce on a cold night."