Bridge of Spies Exclusive Clip

It’s about living the ideals of the US, even when doing do puts you at risk from your fellow citizens.

Steven Spielberg’s captivating Cold War drama Bridge of Spies revisits the director’s favoured themes of outsiders and father figures while also recalling one of his classic movies: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Abel is convicted, but Donovan persuades the judge not to execute his client – arguing that imprisoning Abel instead may provide “insurance” for future American spies who are captured. But another process comes into play when, following Abel’s trial and conviction, Donovan is pressed into further service to negotiate a prisoner exchange: Abel is to be traded for Francis Gary Powers (a bland performance by Austin Stowell), the pilot of a U.S spy plane that has been shot out of the sky by Soviet missiles. Here again, Donovan pursues his mission with dogged conviction, and an effortless sense of integrity that Mr. Hanks, like Henry Fonda before him, brings to so many of his roles. So his defense at the spy trial is assigned to a reluctant Donovan, who worked as a prosecution counsel during the trial of Nazi criminals in Nuremberg following World War II. Frequent Spielberg collaborator Thomas Newman’s score is about what he usually does. It’s a good movie, maybe even a very good one, but not quite a great one, so it’s not an obvious lock for Oscar nominations.

There are action scenes – we see an air fight and a parachute nightmare, along with a few unforgettable moments in Berlin, where the infamous wall is just being finished – but the focus of the story is on the negotiations Donovan makes, on and off the job. In other words, Tom Hanks, in a deceptively wry turn.

“This subject matter has always fascinated me, because of the area and because of the time”, says Hanks.

Both men proceed stoically and quietly in the midst of a unsafe political deep freeze, making Bridge of Spies a shrewd observation by Spielberg that real heroes are the ones who do the right thing without demanding trumpets. Well, that would lead to across the board campaigns, which will consist of Best Picture, Best Director (for Spielberg), Best Actor (for Hanks), Best Supporting Actor (for Alda and especially Rylance), Best Supporting Actress (for Ryan), Best Original Screenplay (for Charman and the Coens), Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Original Score. It reminds us that the people branded as villains by their enemy are considered patriots at home. We were terrified of that kind of death from above.