Steven Spielberg’s Bridge to the Cold War

From the emotional storytelling in Schindler’s List to making sharks the scariest animals on the planet in Jaws, there are few directors who can make you feel the way Spielberg does. “I knew about Powers because, growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, everyone had heard that his U-2 spy plane had been shot down and he had been put on public display at a very public trial, but the story kind of ended with a spectacular shoot down”. Abel is obviously guilty of espionage – but not, as Donovan carefully points out, of treason – but what pricks Spielberg’s interest is the way Donovan is ostracized for performing a constitutional task.

Bridge of Spies tells the true story of James B. Donovan, an American lawyer sought by the C.I. “We were waiting for our carpool, and ‘Oh, Steven’s driving.’ And he just slowed down for a little bit, rolled the window down, saying, ‘I’d like to talk, but I gotta get the kids to school.’ And then he’d be on his way”. When Hanks locks in, he owns a movie and it’s impossible to take your eyes off him.

Hanks is his usual everyman hero, fumbling his way behind the Iron Curtain, although in addition to folksy likability his character has an insurance lawyer’s cunning that’s a fair match for the obfuscations of the Stasi and the KGB. What makes Mark Rylance flawless to play the Russian spy? .

From a production standpoint, Bridge of Spies is an nearly flawless film. It’s as procedural as procedural movies go.

The second scene finds “Joe” (Fallon) continuously mistaking “Margaret” (Hanks) for his brother, Tim. Here, the title bridge is being literally constructed by taping spies together in “China or something” because “they didn’t have enough wood”.

The top-drawer script by British dramatist Matt Charman and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen subtly balances still-timely arguments that we need to provide civil liberties even to our enemies with Hanks’ dry humor – as his character navigates Cold War hysteria at home as well as the conflicting political agendas of the Soviet and East German governments. In an understated performance, Rylance manages to get a lot of emotion across as a man who’s seemingly given up. And that immediately settled the question who we should feature in this week’s quiz.

The director says that he vaguely recalled the time when Powers was taken prisoner but knew nothing of the negotiations or the people involved in the swap.

Spies could’ve spent more on the spy missions, the FBI investigation, or what the spies were working on.

The first is a courtroom drama. Instead, it’s Donovan’s movie, and Hanks ably carries the film.

“It’s insane. I gotta- non-fiction entertainment to me, is more- is a better way to spend your time than anything that you could possibly make up”, he said.

Spielberg’s unique ability to capture emotion comes during the final climatic scene. One of its best gags is the cold that afflicts all its chief protagonists passing through the boundary lines of that era.