Review of Bridge of Spies (2015) by Michael T — 31 Jan 2016

I spy a cold war nonsense.

This film, based on the true events surrounding the exchange of U2 Spy Plane pilot Francis Powers and the Soviet spy Rudolf Able, in 1960s Berlin, is disappointing.

What condemns this film is its total lack of suspense or realism. The film miserably fails to show what must have been a very tense build up to the exchange.

And it's this lack of realism, so vital in espionage movies, that really grates on one.

The director of Bridge of Spies, Stephen Spielberg, is known for his uncynicism in his film making and that he tries to portray decency and moral courage even in 'worlds'' where the facts might speak otherwise.

Many critics have welcomed this view of the spy world as filmed by Spielberg.

But the world of spies and spy catchers is not a nice or honourable world; it's a murky world of lies and betrayal, dog-eat-dog, where inncocent people, as well as betrayed agents, are captured, tortured and murdered.

To portray traitor Abel as an honourable man, as does Spielberg, is nonsense.

The idea that one-time insurance claims lawyer and Nuremburg participant Donovan (played by Tom Hanks) and Able (played by Mark Rylance) would dictate to the Soviets/East Germans, not to mention the CIA, that the student Pryor must cross Check Point Charlie before Able crosses the bridge into east Germany, is pure fantasy; nonsensical romanticism. One of many corny scenes in the film.

Donovan, who represented Able at his trial, is also seen to be arranging for the release of Pryor off his own bat, against the wishes of his CIA handlers; again, pure fantasy and another sign that the film's makers are not interested in facts or the film taking a realistic look at what would actually have been allowed to have taken place.

Then there are the other corny scenes which one can barely believe 'Goody-Two-Shoes' Spielberg directed. There's the infantile symbolism of Donovan witnessing kids climbing and jumping over walls and fences from his commuter train into Manhattan. And at the same time he has a flashback of the last time he was on a train - one travelling through Berlin when he saw people being shot dead as they tried to scale the Berlin Wall. How trite is that?

Then there's another flashback- train- scene when one moment Donovan remembers getting hateful looks for defending Abel but once back home, in the present, after 'rescuing' Powers, the self-same commuters are looking at him in awe. Again, how corny and trite is that?

Then there's the final scene when Donovan arrives home to be greeted on the steps by his wife. She thinks he's been on a business trip to England but within seconds of his arrival a man on the telly, with perfect timing, is revealing that Donovan had in fact been in East Germany helping get Powers released. Again, how corny and trite is that?

In fact it gets worse, so the less said of the scenes the better, save to say that I have seen more cutting edge directing and story telling in The Waltons.

Bridge of Spies, as a spy thriller, as it was marketed as and not a drama, or even a docu/drama, is not in the same league as the film version of John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and its British TV version; and one of the all time great spy movies, also written by le Carre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

Spielberg's softly, softly approach to the murky world of spies doesn't wash; the hard - nosed, cynical approach by le Carre, a one-time MI6 officer, most certainly does.