Review of Bridge of Spies (2015) by Smoothrunner — 10 Jan 2016

"Bridge of Spies" director - one of the "fathers of mass cinema" Spielberg - with his "humanism", reminds me a character named Mr. Humanist from Lewis' "Pilgrim's Regress", who was trying to cultivate garden on a pure rock covered only with a "graceful veil of illusion". Spielberg's typical sentimentality and "Gemütlichkeit" ("cosiness, friendliness") evokes Jung's suspicions about hardness of heart, insensitivity and callousness hiding behind them. So it's understandable why I was not particularly interested in this director's movies. On the other hand, the scriptwriting involved Cohen snobs, who, with their limitations, grotesque and constant misanthropic giggling, also didn't evoke much enthusiasm. However surprisingly, combined efforts of the creator of sentimental trash and pair of arrogant cartoonists gave quite a good result. "Bridge of Spies" is, of course, not without typical drawbacks of Spielberg's and Cohen's flicks - from the pathetic tearfulness to the evil burlesque - but these flaws compensate each other to some extent and give the film an unexpected depth.

So the vulgar movie maker and pair of snobs unexpectedly created very interesting flick - sometimes quite rough, consisting of two separate movies (a quite weak legal drama and spy thriller) - that will keep you in suspense during almost all of its two hours. And what is particularly captivating, this is done without the involvement of a love story (with only a hint of romantic line of American student which, fortunately, wasn't developed further), without naked women, shootings and car chases. But with excellent dialogues, witty humour and catchy phrases ("Will it help?") in the Hollywood movies of 1980th style. For me, however, "Bridge of Spies" is first of all three episodes: a conversation in a restaurant between Hoffman and Donovan, Donovan's statement before the Supreme Court and the conversation between Donovan and Powers. In all these episodes Donovan expressed banal truths that is known to be always unclear and non-obvious - in the first episode, he expresses so non-obvious to most essence of the rule of law, recalling that it is the acceptance and observance of common rules (Constitution) makes an Irish and a German Americans; in the second one that the consistent application of these rules gives Americans a moral superiority which is the best weapon against an enemy, and in the third episode Donovan expresses perhaps the main idea that distinguishes Christian civilization from, say, Asian with its culture of shame - it doesn't matter what people think about you, your actions are what really matters. The rest of the audience may find in this movie other "things" such as "standing man" (though, of course, one can persist in stupidity as well and, as for me, it is not necessary for a man to copy a donkey), to admire Abel (the most persistent donkey) and take pleasure from a witty spy games.