Bridge of Spies (2015)
Certified: 12A
Duration: 141 minutes
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Austin Stowell, Scott Shepherd, Jesse Plemons, Domenick Lombardozzi, Sebastian Koch, Eve Hewson, Dakin Matthews
KRS Releasing Ltd
Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies tells the true life story of James Donovan (Tom Hanks), an insurance claims lawyer who ended up in a web of intrigue and courtroom drama that dominated the headlines of the 1950s.
In 1957 the FBI arrest Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) on accusations of being a spy for the Communists. When taken to court, it seems that Abel’s case is a travesty and so they ask James Donovan to take on the case and defend him. Thomas Watters (Alan Alda) is James’s boss.
James knows that if he accepts he will be pushed into the limelight, something he is not very keen on. He and his wife Mary (Amy Ryan) know that they and their children could become the target of public reprisals and opinions but he ends up accepting the job.
Spielberg brings the 1950s Cold War era to life in an immaculate manner
His work is not appreciated by Judge Byers (Dakin Matthews) who was seeing the case as a foregone conclusion. James wants Abel’s life to be spared as he sees his safety to be an important investment in the future if there ever has to be an exchange of prisoners with the Soviet Union.
Indeed, this need arises when Francis Gary Powers’s (Austin Stowell) aircraft is on a mission for the CIA and he is shot down in enemy territory. James is brought into the equation and sent as a negotiator to carry out a prisoner exchange.
He is accompanied by CIA officer Hoffman (Scott Shepherd) who has to meet Wolfgang Vogel (Sebastian Koch), a lawyer for Abel’s wife and for Frederick Pryor (Will Rogers), an arrested American student.
However, deception is the order of the day. On the scene is also Ivan Schischkin (Mikhail Forevoy) who says he is just an assistant secretary in the Soviet Embassy. James soon sets himself on a mission as he decides not only to try and get Powers back but also Pryor which may derail all the operations.
Steven Spielberg delivers a masterful film – his first one not to be scored by John Williams, who had to drop out due to health issues. The script, written by the superlative Coen Brothers, is procedural in its approach but is laced with a sense of place, veracity and suspense that is very tangible. The more the negotiations increase, the more the tension rises and the palpability of the Cold War becomes real. The film increasingly pushes its weight and makes the audience feel the importance of these talks for the whole world.
Hanks is Spielberg’s lynchpin. He carries us with him on this voyage and makes us feel for his character. Rylance simply fits into the role of the Soviet spy, standing above Stowell in his role.
Spielberg brings the 1950s Cold War era to life in an immaculate manner. He brings the paranoid elements, the smoke and shadows atmosphere, the deep concern of nuclear fallout that pervaded all the globe. Bridge of Spies is a testimony to the director’s attention to detail. The film’s components all build on to each other like a house of cards and Spielberg plays around each stumbling block.
He delivers on screen a look at what a mess had been created that could have so easily led to graver consequences and this in itself makes Bridge of Spies such compelling viewing.