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‘Bridge of Spies’ Evokes the Past
by Sandra Olmsted
The killer team of Director Steven Spielberg. Star Tom Hanks, aging nicely into “mature” roles, screenwriters Matt Charman and the Coen Brothers, Ethan and Joel, and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski bring to dazzling life this true-life spy thriller Bridge of Spies.
At the height of the Cold War, 1957 according to the film, the Soviets and the Americans spy on each other a lot, and when Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a Soviet spy is caught in New York. James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is pushed into providing him with a competent defense, but many pressure him to not make it too competent. Although the cards are truly stacked against Abel, who doesn’t deny that he is a spy or directly admit it either, he isn’t executed thanks to Donovan, who becomes the most unpopular man in America, after Abel.
Meanwhile, the military trains young pilots, including Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) to fly spy missions high above Soviet territory in U-2 spy planes. When Powers is shot down on his first flight, the CIA and the US Government call on Donovan to negotiate a trade of the pilot for the spy.
Meanwhile, and there are several concurrent storylines running in this film, Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers), an American grad student, tries to get his girlfriend and his professor out of East Berlin while the East Berlin government builds the wall. Pryor ends up arrested and imprisoned. Although send to negotiate the release of Powers, Donovan refuses to leave Pryor behind, apparently for a personal reason in Donovan’s back story that goes unfleshed out.
Donovan’s insistence on the two, Powers and Pryor, for the one, Abel, complicates the trade because the Soviets have Powers and want Abel, and the East Germans, having fabricated an East German family for Abel, want Abel as a bargaining chip against the Soviets. The Soviets want Abel, but insist that they have no control over the East Germans. The CIA is only interested in the return of their spy pilot Powers. Among the death threats and other attacks, Donovan sticks to his guns and his personal mission, and since he has no “official” status from the US government, he can do what he wants.
Hank’s Donovan, like a Capra-esque Atticus Finch, has a family who struggles to understand his choices and suffers because of them, especially his wife, Mary (Amy Ryan). All the other characters are peripheral to the true story of Donovan, an insurance attorney, who becomes a player in the Cold War game of spies, and Hanks carries the movie with a rock solid performance.
All the other actors seem spot on for the roles they have, especially Mark Rylance, as Abel, the good soldier for the other side. The Coen brothers insert humor and excitement around the themes and tropes of spying that have a “Spy vs. Spy” Mad Magazine humor quality. The images of the dark, cold East Berlin and the warm Autumn colors of New York provide a visual and thematic contrast. The spot on direction by Spielberg seems Oscar bound.
Perhaps the old-fashioned patriotism and setting in circa 1960 will put off some of the younger audience, but Bridge of Spies is worth seeing and probably not made just to please the youngsters. A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release, Bridge of Spies is rated PG-13 for some violence and brief strong language and runs a lengthy, but fast moving, 135 minutes. Bridge of Spies opens on Oct. 16.
