Movie Review: Bridge of Spies

Bridge of Spies (2015)

PG-13

4.5 Stars out of 5

Director                               Steven Spielberg
Writer                                  Matt Charman, Ethan and Joel Coen
Cinematography                Janusz Kaminski
Editing                                 Michael Kahn

Mark Rylance                     Rudolf Abel
Tom Hanks                         James Donovan
Amy Ryan                           Mary Donovan
Gary Francis Powers         Austin Stowell
Will Rogers                         Frederick Pryor

 

“Bridge of Spies” tells a tale from the Cold War, a time when children were taught to “duck and cover” to avoid the effects of a nuclear detonation, a time when both the American and Soviet governments planted spies in the other country's territories even as they searched for foreign spies within their own. Director Steven Spielberg has created a thoughtful and seemingly balanced film that describes this tense time. Courtesy of his expert direction and the film editing of Michael Kahn, Spielberg tells the story in a fashion that displays the parallel ways in which the two cold war adversaries viewed one another from the perspective of their own national defense. In many ways, each country's behavior is understandable, it is in the details (as is so often so) that the differences between the two societies becomes clear – what do they stand for, if they stand for anything at all.

The movie begins with a clever over the shoulder view of a painter executing a self-portrait. While it is clear who is the painter, and who the reflection, this opening scene does a good job of creating a metaphor for the coming test of wills over national intentions and identities. The painter is actually a Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance). He speaks with a faint Scottish accent that apparently derives from his early years, but his adult years have been spent in the USSR. He now plies his trade as a spy for the Soviet Union in Brooklyn NY. He is caught by the FBI but that has been done so with only scant attention paid by the FBI to the normal criminal proceedings with respect to search warrants. He is to be tried in a local criminal proceeding, and the US government wants him to have a proper legal defense. To that end, insurance attorney James Donovan (Tom Hanks), someone with a criminal defense background is brought in to represent Abel.

Rylance and Hanks put on a set of the most subtle and nuanced performances that I have seen in the past several years. This movie is easily worth watching just to watch the two of these seasoned actors portray their roles. Abel is a decent man; true he works for the enemy and to the destruction of our way of life. But in the end he is a soldier for his country. He acts constantly throughout this film as a man of principle. Hanks too can only be seen in these very same lights. Despite the overt opposition from the judge (who has convicted Abel in his own mind even before the start of the legal proceedings), the covert intrusion from the CIA and the various threats against Donovan and his family for defending Abel, James Donovan does not ever veer from his own set of values – values that he clearly defines as American. Take for example his discussion with a CIA agent; the agent states there is no rule book for the situation that Donovan has found himself in – the agent like most everyone in the film, believes their only goal is to convict Abel. Donovan corrects him by stating there is a rule book and it is the US constitution. He goes on to state that despite his own Gaelic heritage and the agent’s German, what unites them is their allegiance to American ideals and laws. This is not a subtle point in the movie, but it is a highlight.

Donovan is unable to save Abel from the judge, but he is able to convince the judge to “save” Abel by not executing him; the reason being, the US may need Abel for some future prisoner exchange. And once Francis Gary Powers is shot down over the USSR, just such an exchange is needed. Due to some convoluted reasoning, Donovan is brought back into this sordid play between nations to act as a mediator. The problem becomes even more complicated when the location for the exchange is the Glienicke Bridge in East Berlin. Since it is in East Berlin, the East Germans are now part of this complicated pas de deux, which has now become a ménage a trois. And the Germans have their own American prisoner, an American graduate student, Frederick Pryor (Will Rogers). The CIA wants Donovan to forsake Pryor, the Germans want to be included and thus recognized by the American government, and the Soviets just want their spy back before he spills any state secrets. Of the participants, only Donovan wants what seems to be the moral thing: an exchange of prisoners. He does not have any hidden or nationalistic agenda items.

Spielberg and writers Ethan and Joel Coen, and Matt Charman have created in this film an excellent comparison of nationalistic views. Americans see Abel as a traitor (even though he is not American), as an enemy to be caught, tried, convicted and executed. The Soviets see Powers in quiet the same lights, as an enemy agent flying illegally over their sovereign lands; essentially he has invaded them. The East Germans may well have the least to complain about; their prisoner is little more than an unfortunate American pawn caught up in their game. There is little right or wrong to distinguish either the Americans or the Soviets. Both feel they are acting in the best interests of their homelands. But there are differences, and Spielberg with his writers makes sure we see them: Abel is given a real lawyer and a decent cell, while Powers is instead treated to sleep deprivation and a miserable cell filled with ice cold water. Is it only in the details that the Americans and the Soviets differ? It is unlikely that Spielberg intends this, else he would have given far less time and attention to Donovan’s several small speeches on how Americans are defined by their ideals, not in effect by their jail cells per se. But if one thinks about even the jail cells some more, maybe even there in such small places and details as a jail cell, where even a prisoner is accorded or not accorded the basic necessities that any human, even a spy is entitled to.

“Bridge of Spies” may have a title dreamed up in Hollywood, but it has some of the best acting, directing and writing to come out of Hollywood in years. The pace of this movie may annoy some viewers, but in a time when Americans too often define themselves by their political party with their narrow interests and not by  the broader ideals that define the American way, this movie is a good primer on some of things that do justify a sense of American exceptionalism. This is easily one of the best movies for 2015.