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    Bridge of Spies

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    “Bridge of Spies” is more than just one movie. It’s like a cliff notes of two really tight, very exciting movies put together with all of the boring and obligatory bits taken out. Usually I criticize films being too long. This one could have been longer, or even split into a part 1 and a part two, and it currently clocks at just over 2 hours. As a film based on a true story, this is an example of how it’s done when it’s handled by experts.

    Set in 1957, the film follows James Donovan (Tom Hanks) Some would say that he’s an idealist, but that implies that everyone else is reasonable and that we have an individual who is simply unwilling to settle for lukewarm leftovers. I won’t call him an idealist, I’ll call him a good person and everyone else a bunch of bottom feeding, low-life amphibians that have managed to slide their crude bodies in the skins of human beings. Donovan is appointed by his peers to represent a Soviet spy named Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) “Put on a show and represent him in a court of law so that no one can accuse the Americans of recreationally staging kangaroo courts.” His efforts impress the country (for better or worse) so much that he finds himself handling a much bigger case, an exchange of spies between the USSR and the U.S. If that wasn’t enough, it gets even more complicated when the Eastern Germany imprisons an American economics student (or as they put it, a suspected spy) named Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers)

    What we have here is essentially two movies, the first being a legal thriller that evoked profound emotion in me. Dante Alighieri had it right. You’ve got people that commit sin because of lust, because of rage, because of greed… and well bellow them, in the 6th Bolgia you’ve got the hypocrites, those who make a mockery of justice under the guise that anyone would do the same under similar circumstances. I would say that the “first” film lasts about a third of the running time but it had a profound effect on me. I might be biased now having actually lived through the cold war and only vaguely remembering the Berlin wall being brought down, but it made me truly despise the historical period in which this film was set, where the world’s biggest superpowers were so paranoid and so obsessed with getting a leg up on each other that they turned their subjects into senseless mobs, ready to turn on each other at any point and seemingly eager to throw away their ideals at a moment’s notice because of perceived threats. It doesn’t matter that the film makes it clear that Abel is a spy. The point is that only one person in the entirety of the picture, including the Soviets! Recognize him as an actual human being, with rights. This isn’t me being overly humanitarian either. “Bridge of Spies” will convert you to that same train of thought because it’s actually perfectly reasonable in all of its arguments.

    We’re off to a good start and this Stephen Spielberg film keeps the momentum going when the main event comes around, the delicate negotiating between Donovan and the Soviet people that he meets. The more time you spend in these talks, the more complicated it becomes and the less likely it seems that everything is going to get resolved amiably, particularly when that business about East Germany is thrown in. I’d compare the way the “hostage” situation here is handled to a schoolyard trade between two kids who don’t like each other. Both of them have a mittfull of Pokémon cards and trading is a good idea, but their prejudices are getting in the way. That Charmeleon is useless to America because he doesn’t have the cards it evolves from. What he does have is a Blastoise and a Squirtle. Now if only he had a Wartortle. Trading the fire Pokémon away to the Soviets, particularly for that card they desperately need to complete the evolution chain, it’s a terrific choice! Except if the exchange happens, then those Reds will have access to their Charizard, and that means they’ll be able to use it against the democratic country! Along those lines of childish behavior no one is going to get anywhere, so someone that’s removed from the situation (or as I’d like to put it, has some actual sense in their head) is the only hope. It certainly doesn’t help that officially, he’s on his own and that one false move could see him stranded in a country whose position on American citizens is not too favorable, and a government who officially, didn’t even send him in to talk to anyone.

    Everyone involved in this project has delivered a thriller painted with every emotional brush there is. We have moments of blinding rage as injustice is paraded and applauded while our hero stands idly by. We have moments of genuine terror as the grip of the cold war turns people against each other and Donovan ventures into a dangerous land for his country. There are moments of joy as he is able to see people for what they genuinely are, just people. You even get some laughs throughout to alleviate the mood and above all, it’s inspirational to see that in an era where the lunatics were running the asylum, at least one person was ready to do the right thing, even if the odds were stacked against him and there seemed to be no possibility of success. Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and the supporting cast make it look so easy it’s almost difficult to recognize the craft that’s on display here. Make no mistake about it. This is an excellent film. (Theatrical version on the big screen, November 12, 2015)

    9
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    adamwatchesmovies@  15.11.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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