Steven Spielberg returns to the director seat with new movie Bridge of Spies. Somehow, when Steven takes over the helm of a movie by being both the Director and the Producer, he is able to churn out entertaining classics such as Catch Me If You Can, Schindler’s List, Amistad and of course, Saving Private Ryan.
History seems to be Steven’s forte and with Tom Hanks taking the lead role of James Donovan in this movie, this movie is a recipe for success. What’s refreshing is seeing the superb performance of a Shakespearean and three-time Tony Award winner actor Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel.
Set in the tumultuous cold war era when both the United States and Russian are second guessing each other on the status of their respective nuclear arsenal, the movie provides the tension surrounding the arrest of Rudolf Abel, a Russian spy caught on American soil. When the court of public opinion is baying for the spy’s blood, James ‘Jim’ Donovan is chosen by the American legal system to defend Abel, just to show that the due process of law is followed.
Through some powerful persuasion while under duress from the American public including his own boss, Jim is able to prevent the worst from happening and unknowingly provides a life line for the pilot of an American spy plane that is shot down during a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet air space. The whole situation is made even more complex with the capture of an American student by the East German authorities while he is trying to save his professor’s family from being trapped behind the almost-completed Berlin Wall. Can Jim save the Americans from their captors?
Like all things in life, there is a facade that people put forth just to protect oneself and it is the same with the movie. Here is a facade of being justice, simply to show that the Americans are ‘just’ when it is anything but that. The workings behind the scenes we saw through Jim’s eyes allow us to understand what is at stake – national and personal security versus one’s own conscience and belief in the American values and the justice system. The movie caused me to question my own sets of values and how much those values would mean to me when met in the crucible of public opinion. It also puts forth the question – is man’s justice system used to right a wrong or to propagate political idealism?
The movie is not really about courtroom drama like what we saw in A Few Good Men, but the tension that we can subtly felt when there are negotiations, conversations and deliberations between characters of the political arena. A lot of things happen in the movie, just that they do not happen physically. One needs to follow what has being said to understand what is going on; it is also the body language, the slyness of the look and the anger from the eyes that complete the narrative of the movie. The wit in some of the dialogue does lift the mood away from the gravitas of the movie including my now favourite refrain to Jim’s question to Abel, “Don’t you ever get worried?”.
The movie is an excellent way to spend in the theatre and despite the very slow start to the movie (and an excellent way to introduce the ‘villian’). The 142 minutes is a riveting and enjoyable experience for a political thriller fan like me.
Bridge of Spies is currently showing at the theatres.
