‘Bridge of Spies’: How Steven Spielberg’s Film Is Different From Other Cold

“Bridge of Spies” tracks Donovan as he delves into the maddening maze of Cold War politics and gamesmanship.

It’s not just Hanks and Spielberg for whom “Bridge of Spies” is part of an overlapping career history.

That father is Spielberg regular Tom Hanks, or rather James Donovan, who presents himself as a plain-talking, uncomplicated insurance company lawyer.

Donovan reluctantly takes the case, but his concern and vigorous fight for the freedom of an alleged Soviet spy doesn’t sit well with nearly everyone in the post-Joseph McCarthy Red Scare, including his family.

Donovan defends Abel in the face of a biased judge (Dakin Matthews), the concerns of his wife, Mary (Amy Ryan), and notoriety in the New York papers. It’s about living the ideals of the U.S., even when doing do puts you at risk from your fellow citizens. “You are not a communist, so why are you defending him?” In a nifty piece of dramatic license, the movie has Donovan’s covert trip to Berlin to negotiate the swap coincide nearly exactly with the building of the Berlin Wall- a bit of a stretch, but only by a few months, and it neatly underscores the difference between the frank and open society Donovan enjoys back home and the bleak, shifting nest of foes and frenemies into which he has been thrust.

He does, not that it helps Abel’s case. Spielberg told me Hanks “brings out the best in him”. When the spy plane of USA pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) is shot down in a harrowing sequence, leading to his capture by Soviet forces shortly after, Donovan is tasked by the C.I.A. with negotiating the release of Powers in exchange for Abel.

The Americans want Powers back. Instead of committing suicide as he has been ordered to do by his superiors, he instead remains alive and is held prisoner by the Soviets. As a powerful East German attorney with shady connections, Sebastian Koch (“The Lives of Others”) is another standout. No superheroes needed, it argues: We ourselves have the potential to be heroic.

If more people were like Donovan, would war be as inhumane as it always is? Such fine and measured work from Hanks, who is as good as anyone has ever been at playing men of great integrity and warm hearts who aren’t to be trifled with when the heat is on. In sensibility if not content, Bridge of Spies is as much a movie buff’s homage as Raiders of the Lost Ark. Hanks makes his points with well-reasoned eloquence.

The accomplished Mark Rylance, who arrives with an Emmy nom for “Wolf Hall”, is reuniting with Spielberg as the title character in “The BFG”.

If you’re someone, however, who demands a beginning, middle and ending from your moviegoing experience, “Bridge of Spies” might be a tougher sell. “Bridge of Spies”, though a historical drama, masterfully balances the United States’ diplomatic war overseas with its domestic struggle.

Matt Charman penned the script along with three-time Oscar-winners Joel and Ethan Coen.

There’s significant substance in these real-life characters’ economy of words, with Spielberg’s own commentary in the juxtaposition of cuts from scene to scene; a quick dissolve from a courtroom to a classroom pledge of Pledge of Allegiance followed by a sensationalist “duck and cover” film.

While the “Schindler’s List” director might have said it in jest, it also strengthened the reports that both Spielberg and Ford are considering going on another adventure together.

This hinges largely on the fact that “Bridge of Spies” is separated into two acts.