Hanks’ celebrity conduct suits Bridge Of Spies role: Spielberg

Despite having little action (as is expected in a film about the Cold War), Bridge of Spies is a thrilling, engaging, thought-provoking film.

Five years later, Donovan was thrust into the center of the Cold War when the Central Intelligence Agency sent him on the near-impossible task of negotiating the release of Francis Gary Powers, the American U-2 pilot shot down over Soviet airspace in May 1960. The spy, labeled a traitor, could easily be just a stock bad guy, but Mark Rylance makes him a fascinating, if still mysterious human being. Tom Hanks is flawless for the role, reminding us at times that he is his generation’s Jimmy Stewart. The film very much plays up the distance between Powers story and the efforts being made to free him (led by Tom Hanks character, James Donovan), and as a result I was curious how much attention Stowell paid towards the scenes in which he wasnt featured. Is it better than his more recent movies?

Bridge of Spies – which waxes poetically (and, occasionally, cynically) on patriotism, honor and duty – echoes in your mind long after the credits roll, begging for a second viewing. Hank’s character is a brand of everyman-hero who proves what someone is capable of achieving when they are faithful to their core beliefs and principles.

The movie belongs to Tom Hanks; as if that needed any saying. Those things being said, the only real problem I had with this movie was that Fandango listed the run time as 1 hour and 41 minutes while the actual run time is 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Hanks, of course, brings his “aw, shucks” charms to Donovan, but he’s also, in hindsight, the moral compass in navigating the madness of two nuclear-armed superpowers squaring off. “We need to have the conversation our governments can’t”, he tells one negotiation partner. As previously mentioned, I think they should narrow it down a bit, with my current rationale being that pushes in Picture, Director (for Spielberg), Actor (for Hanks), Supporting Actor (for Rylance), Original Screenplay (for Charman and the Coen Brothers), Cinematography, and Film Editing. Spielberg shuttles deftly between the two sides of the stories, and there are a few unadorned words to the wise-passing stinging references to how the Bill of Rights has been mangled during our own War on Terror.

The film does have a strong visual style by way of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski working with production designer Adam Stockhausen and visual effects chief Kimberly Aller to seamlessly recreate Cold War Berlin and a stunning sequence in which Powers is shot down over enemy territory. How we see ourselves, how other people see us, what we hide in order for others to discover – was all part of this idea. It’s a toss up right now as to whether or not it happens, but with Hanks and Spielberg, you know it will at least be in the conversation. It just goes on, and on, and on-this motion and that motion.