Bridge of Spies

Well What can i say? Spielberg did it again! This is a film that has that instant feeling you just love it and you're watching something truly special. And its a true story, and i'm a sucker for true stories. The story its another great lesson to be learned by humanity, and the screenplay does an outstanding job telling it. It has all the ingredients Spielberg is known for, the hope in humanity, the believe in the mans power to change the course of history for the good, the true selfless, and so on. The cast is beyond perfect, and everyone gives amazing performances, but of course Tom Hanks steals the show, he gives one of his most likable performances, in the end the character helps a lot. Its just a bigger than life character which fits like a glove in Tom Hanks. The other characters are also amazing, but the one that stands the most to me, even if hes not the one to appear the most, is the Russian spy (Mark Rylance) hes just one of those characters that his so unique and likable that is amazing. The production values are just top notch as one would expect from a Spielberg film. The visuals are hauntingly beautiful and perfectly illustrate the feel of the cold war. The film is amazingly shot, there's a scene with an aircraft that is breathtaking. The special effects are perfect. The production design is bound to be nominated for an Oscar, special attention to the Berlin settings. The score is another hit for Thomas Newman, though the film has this amazing atmosphere were there's very little score and the one there is is mainly in the final minutes. This gives a very authentic and realistic feeling to the film, its like you are really rgere. Thats why i was surprised that the length of the score is almost 50 minutes! Overall the film has a lot in common with Lincoln, its really the perfect follower to that amazing picture. This is one of those films where you just get lost in the story, it's a very immersive film, a true masterpiece thats bound to get a ton of nominations from the academy.

Hanks gives a very satisfying, watchable and assured performance, with just the right amount of hokum, homely and wily in judiciously balanced proportions,Because this is Hanks we're dealing with, audiences know what to expect. it's terrific craftsmanship, pure storytelling gusto and that Midas- touch ability to find grounds for optimism everywhere, Steven Spielberg has dramatised a true-life cold war spy-swap drama, starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. Those brought up on John Le Carré might perhaps expect from this moral equivalence, shabby compromise and exhausted futility. But Spielberg, with his gift for uncynicism, uncovers decency and moral courage amidst all the Realpolitik. He works from an excellent screenplay by up-and-coming British dramatist Matt Charman, a script punched up in recognisable places by Joel and Ethan Coen.

How Steven Spielberg went from the king of summer thrills to the most boring director in Hollywood is a problem that's perplexed me since I pried my eyes open through Lincoln. We all know the man can make a great movie. Most of us grew up on a diet of E.T., Jaws and Indiana Jones: spectacular event films with all the entertainment oomph of a theme park roller coaster. Then, Spielberg hit middle age and wanted to make important films for grown-ups. He made Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan and Munich, but he also made Minority Report, A.I and War of the Worlds – pretty decent action films with big star power. It looked like Spielberg had come of age with a sharpened skill set and a slightly deeper world view, but the more high-brow Spielberg gets, the duller his movies become... Inspired by real life events, and apparently a footnote in a JFK biography, Bridge of Spies tells the story of an insurance attorney named James Donovan. A mild-mannered family man plucked from a Norman Rockwell painting, Donovan is as American as the flag itself – and it's a trait he waves at every opportunity, from gratuitous speeches about the American Constitution to his acceptance of a case he is destined to lose. In the opening act, we watch an older man (Mark Rylance) take his easel on the subway, sit in the park and paint, and very carefully remove a fake nickel from the underside of a park bench. The nickel is hollow, and written on a tiny piece of paper within, is a series of codes. The man's name is Rudolf Abel, and he's arrested for treason and espionage just a few moments later. Given the year is 1957, Abel's fate looks bleak. The Rosenbergs were executed just four years earlier after being convicted of similar charges, and Abel refuses to cooperate with the CIA, making him delectably disposable. These days, he'd probably just disappear, but back then, America still believed its own propaganda and the notion of due process. It must appear as if Abel is getting a fair and just trial, which is where James Donovan comes in... It feels a little like a greatest hits album, but the scenes with Mark Rylance have real pop. The two men have an interesting dynamic as ideological warriors who landed on different sides of the battlefield, and it's the only part of the film that has any real traction because everyone else is locked in a freezer of Cold War archetype. Spielberg capitalizes on the common ground, offering up timely and inspirational rhetoric concerning the importance of due process, Constitutional rights and freedoms, and the American way, but like Lincoln, the big speeches have all the subtlety of a Broadway musical... Abridged from Ex.Press.com

BRIDGE of SPIES, Spielberg // Starring Tom Hanks in Lukewarm Coldwar drama. Summary: Uninspired Spielberg Mountain from Molehill with pitiful Hanks in Pain throughout. Viewed at Colisée cinema, Marrakesh, Friday Dec. 4, 2015. By Alex Deleon. With so many intriguing Cold War subjects up for grabs one wonders what made Steven Spielberg choose this relatively minor Cold War incident as the subject matter of his latest directorial effort. The background: In the summer of 1960 an American high altitude spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and pilot Gary Powers who bailed out and survived was interned by the Russians. At about the same time a big time Russian spy with US citizenship was arrested and put on trail for treason in the USA. Idealistic New York attorney James Donovan (Hanks) defends him in court and is then recruited by the CIA to facilitate an exchange of this spy for captured U2 spy plane pilot Powers in Berlin. The exchange took place in divided Berlin on Feb. 20, 1962 at the height of the Kennedy administration six months prior to the Cuban Missiles crisis. The foreground: The result: a big disappointment with a heavy handed script by the Coen Brothers and some very bad acting in a long tedious dragged out attempt to elevate this subject to the level of Greek tragedy with Tom Hanks pulling slightly different variations of a pained face in every scene he's in, which is most of the picture. Greek tragedy this is not, although we are compelled to feel a little sorry for Hanks when his steadfast defense of the American Constitution is met with hate, derision, and even death threats from his fellow Americans, and then he has to hide his dangerous spy exchange trip from his own family when he volunteers to go to Berlin on a thankless top secret mission to ease cold war tensions and save an American college student stranded in East Berlin into the bargain. En somme:to sum up -- From The combination Spielberg/Hanks and the setting in Berlin, a city I know so well, I expected much more. This turned out to be a routine, almost soppy Hanks performance and a very routine uninspired turn by Spielberg at the helm. First of all I remember the era of the film very well and it did not seem to me at the time to be nearly the momentous event it is built up to be in this film. If lawyer Donavan (Hanks) was in the news for a while it certainly wasn't a very big while, and the spy exchange at the bridge was merely seen as a minor event in much more momentous cold war Events of the time such as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1962 and The Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. I remember thinking at the time that it was nice for our side to admit for once that We also Spy and thought that might be the ball Spielberg would run with. But the mawky family drama we are given, and the overall talkiness with little backup action, plus the building up of the the exchange on the Berlin bridge in freezing winter weather to an event of Superbowl proportions simply does not have the drama we are supposed to think it had. Overall, a dud that fails to go off in a stagy unrecognizable Berlin. Recommended only for die-hard Tom Hankniks who sympathize with Mr. next-door America, no matter what he does. As for the Cold War political background -- Google tells it much better. (Google, Gary Powers, U2 incident) Alex, Marrakesh. :