Bridge of Spies
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda
Duration: 141 mins
Class: PG12
KRS Film Releasing Ltd
James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is a successful insurance lawyer from Brooklyn. The happily married husband and father of two is a little taken aback when he is approached to take on the defence of Rudolf Abel, a man arrested on charges of espionage.
The US authorities want to give the impression that Abel is getting a fair trial and Donovan is selected for his renowned skills as a negotiator. The authorities haven’t counted on Donovan’s deep sense of justice, however, and he goes on to defend Abel uncompromisingly, albeit unsuccessfully, fully aware of the unpopularity he’s about to bring down on himself and the danger to his family.
For we are in the late 1950s, at the peak of the Cold War, when extreme paranoia permeated the US as its hostile relations with the USSR threatened to bring the world to the brink of nuclear confrontation… while agents from both sides of the conflict constantly negotiated the exchange of captured spy personnel with one another on the Glienicke Bridge, which lay between Berlin’s Eastern Bloc and the American sector of West Berlin.
And it is to this fascinating slice of Cold War history that director Steven Spielberg has turned to for his latest awards-baiting project, focusing on an ordinary American family man who goes on to make a name for himself by doing something extraordinary. For a little while after the Abel trial, Donavan is covertly commissioned by the CIA to negotiate a deal with the Soviets for the exchange of Abel for Francis Gary Powers, a U-2 spy plane pilot shot down over Soviet airspace and sentenced to 10 years in prison. And who better to embody this quiet, unassuming, yet impressive man than Spielberg’s frequent acting collaborator, Tom Hanks?
Spielberg and Hanks have crafted an engaging hybrid of a movie. Bridge of Spies is at once a historical drama, a spy movie and a character study; and it works meticulously on all three levels. The filmmaker perfectly reconstructs a Cold War tone, from the vibrant city atmosphere of a bustling New York in the 1950s to the oppressive cold steel and greys of an East Berlin about to be cut off from the West as the infamous Wall goes up.
Yet, the locations do not provide the backdrop to a typical ‘US good, USSR bad’ spy flick. The script – by Matt Charman and siblings Ethan Coen and Joel Coen – not only offers riveting story-telling and alluring characters, but throws in the thought-provoking angle that Abel and Powers were no different from each other. They were simply two soldiers carrying out their patriotic duty and obeying orders from their respective nations, a fact the film is at pains to highlight.
Another feather in Hanks’ bountiful career cap
Being the character-based piece it is the film has no kinetic action sequences to speak of. Yet, the mounting tension in key scenes is hard to ignore, as Donovan negotiates his way through suspicion and subterfuge to successfully secure the exchange; despite his consummate skill, the danger he is in is always apparent.
At the heart of the story is its protagonist: an uncelebrated, unshowy man who worked tirelessly behind the scenes on negotiated prisoner exchanges during the height of the Cold War. Hanks’s penchant for effortlessly portraying the Everyman often overshadows the fact that he is indeed a fine actor, capable of tapping into his character’s depths and projecting their different levels to always constantly create three-dimensional and relatable people.
His performance as Donovan is no different. And, whether delivering a rousing and inspiring speech to the US Supreme court appealing Abel’s sentence or claiming amiably to stern Soviet officials that he wants to just get things over and done with to be able to go home and nurse a cold, he projects the image of a decent, honest, shrewd and patriotic American.
This is a man whose deep-rooted sense of justice and genuine candidness allowed him to firmly and confidently confront CIA agents, East German officials and Soviet apparatchiks alike; skills that caused President Kennedy to use him time and time again after the events depicted in the movie. Charming, disarming and wryly humorous, it is another feather in Hanks’ bountiful career cap.
No doubt setting himself up for numerous supporting actor awards, Mark Rylance proffers an extraordinary noteworthy performance as the ostensible artist/spy, an unassuming, bespectacled man of small build who displays a steely sense of patriotism mixed with admirable stoicism in the face of his destiny.
He and Hanks make for a superior double act, making the bond of friendship and respect that grew between the two men a believable one, adding some welcome warmth and poignancy to the proceedings.