Steven Spielberg the master, has painted yet another master piece, Bridge Of Spies. A brilliant Cold War thriller, where thrills don't come from gunshots and nuclear bomb countdowns, but from shady men, their secrecy, their conversations, political deals, legal arguments, the cold war atmosphere and prisoner exchanges. How these wonderful real stories of personal and political weight embedded within World history, consistently fall on Spielberg's desk, simply amazes the audience.
On one hand, Steven Spielberg can distill the World Events into personal stories. On the other hand, he can plummet you into the atmosphere of the worlds that he creates. The World in this movie is set in the Cold War era of cold Germany. Its a cold world tainted with paranoia and mounting tensions between US and Russia. Amidst this, the ever bankable Tom Hanks, playing insurance lawyer James Donovan, is supposed to defend an FBI-arrested Russian spy in US courts. But the leading men in Spielberg's movies tend to do more than whats being asked. Though they walk on that thin wire of high stakes, they always take the side of true Justice. From Oscar Schindler, to Abraham Lincoln, to now James Donovan, they all share that same empathy. Further down the movie, our hero is also supposed to negotiate a complicated prisoner exchange of an American Spy-Plane pilot, shot down by the Russians and held guilty in USSR, and an American Student arrested in East Germany, with the Russian Spy caught by US. The ratio of 2:1 exchange rises the stakes.
Despite the dreadful premise, There are so many beautiful things in this movie. A beautiful screenplay by Cohen brothers is filled with moments ranging from poignant moments to Light Hearted moments around Tom Hanks, from espionage-sque shadowing to in-your-eye negotiations, from the Secrecy of the Spying world to the intimacy of the family world. It beautifully balances its act between personal intrigue and cold war politics. Like every classic movie, This movie opens discussions about various issues like, our basis on how we can label someone as traitor ? Does he have a right to defend himself ? How do you treat a person who has stood by his country in the face of enemy courts without giving into enemy's rewards for co-operation ? Is legally defending an arrested Enemy Spy as a part of constitutional duty wrong ? What if your own countryman, who has volunteered for your country, gives into the torture of enemies and divulges the classified information ? Does the life of a little student, matters in the bigger picture ?
The technical Sophistication is intact in this movie from the word go. Spielberg's mastery in staging a sequence is displayed in a brilliant opening chase scene, which is almost wordless and music-less, but at-most gripping. The juxtaposition shots to convey visual messages, like the comparisons between people shot at while climbing the Berlin wall vs Kids freely climbing the fence in New York, the fate of the prisoners visually described in the climax, assure the fact that the technician in Spielberg, never ages. Cinematography by Janusz Kamiński is a true poetry in motion. As if, every frame is a painting. That trademark use of heavy Back-light gloss behind a character never gets old. Immaculately detailed set designs of 1960's era, is also brought to life by little things like, Nuclear Attack Safety TV advertisements and Motorola radios of that Era. All of this is a perfect recipe for multiple Oscar nominations, which will be well deserved, as it contributes to the realism of the movie in a huge way. In the climatic scene on the bridge in title, we not only witness humanity, but also classic film-making at its best.
The technical Sophistication is intact in this movie from the word go. Spielberg's mastery in staging a sequence is displayed in a brilliant opening chase scene, which is almost wordless and music-less, but at-most gripping. The juxtaposition shots to convey visual messages, like the comparisons between people shot at while climbing the Berlin wall vs Kids freely climbing the fence in New York, the fate of the prisoners visually described in the climax, assure the fact that the technician in Spielberg, never ages. Cinematography by Janusz Kamiński is a true poetry in motion. As if, every frame is a painting. That trademark use of heavy Back-light gloss behind a character never gets old. Immaculately detailed set designs of 1960's era, is also brought to life by little things like, Nuclear Attack Safety TV advertisements and Motorola radios of that Era. All of this is a perfect recipe for multiple Oscar nominations, which will be well deserved, as it contributes to the realism of the movie in a huge way. In the climatic scene on the bridge in title, we not only witness humanity, but also classic film-making at its best.
Whats more beautiful about this movie are the performances. Toms Hanks is as ever-likable as he can get. He is a pleasure to watch on screen. He manages to inject his cause in our hearts through his character, which stands tall on what it believes is just. For the fourth time, his collaboration with Spielberg brings magic on screen. Then there's Mark Raylance playing the Russian Spy, who compares his self-painted-portrait to his mirror-self, and tells us that the reality he lives in, lies somewhere between there, muddled within the political cracks of East and West. So many recreated landmarks and scenes of east Germany in the movie, from Charlies point to Berlin Wall, stand witness to what was bought upon the lives of people, without ever sentimentalizing it.
We as fans, have all worried that Steven Spielberg has geared down from his trademark escapist Adventures. We have been skeptical about his foray into these "personal" movies. But when movies like Bridge of Spies come along, we are constantly reminded again and again, time in and time out, that when Spielberg chooses a good story, he always does what he does best, make it into a classic. Bridge of Spies certainly registers on that list. Now, Watch out for the Oscars.
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