MOVIE – Bridge of Spies tells the story of James Donovan (Tom Hanks), a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself pushed into the midst of the Cold War. The CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot in exchange for an imprisoned Russian spy that ha had to defend himself a few years ago.

What we have learned so far from cold war spy movies is that spies are cold blooded murderers, double-crossing traitors, or “patriotic ” lunatics who does not shy away from killing innocent people in the name of their countries. Steven Spielberg’s movie – based on the real-life story of James Donovan – takes an entirely different approach to the well-known spy formula. True: James Donovan was not a spy himself.

Classic era, classy beginning

The opening of Bridge of Spies could perhaps be the best compared to a classic Hitchcock movie of the fifties. The smart, old fox Russian spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is followed by the FBI in a crazy goose chase through the New York subway system. As intelligent and nonchalant he is, he still gets caught by the FBI.

Is up to an American lawyer: James Donovan (Tom Hanks) to defend Abel and save him from the death penalty. “Every person deserves proper legal defense” – that’s Donovan’s credo who succeeds to save Abel from the electric chair. However, he’s not done with the world of spies yet. At the request of the CIA itself, his next task is to negotiate the exchange of two Americans against Abel. One of them is an economics student studying in Berlin (Will Rogers) and captured by the paranoid East German police force, and the other is an American U-2 pilot who was shot down and caught by the Soviets while he was making spy photos with his plane.

Hanks at his best

One of the best ideas of Spielberg was to choose Tom Hanks as Donovan. Hanks is perfectly cast here – though perhaps at times he feels a little too perfect. Donovan’s role certainly fits him like a glove.
Hanks has played so many good men that he’s virtually tantamount of goodness – a bit like James Stewart was before him.

Still, he finds some intriguing wrinkles in Donovan. The man is surprised to discover an inner fire in himself – which he didn’t know he had. It’s interesting fact, that the real Donovan was much more implicated in espionage and the CIA than his cinema incarnation.

Old fashioned

The documentary “Bridge of Spies” is a surprisingly suspenseful yet reflective spy story, soaked in great atmosphere and suspense. Using a script by Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen, director Steven Spielberg delivers a film that’s unashamedly old-fashioned. If you are accustomed to cinematic flash, you will simply have to reorient yourself.
Despite its genre constraints, “Bridge of Spies” is one of Spielberg’s best movies — and also a reminder that reliving past is much more than just a source of nostalgia.

-BadSector-