Rating: ★★★★☆ 4 stars
Director：Steven Spielberg
Writer：Matt Charman ， Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
Actor：Tom Hanks，Amy Ryan，Mark Rylance，Alan Alda
Another film adapted from real event by Spielberg. The whole movie is a textbook example of Spielberg’s film, solid, in a perfect order, and cautiously.
An American insurance lawyer ended up in defending a Soviet Union spy and dominated an exchange of hostages between the two nations. He was hated by Americans when he defending the spy, but became a hero after brought back an American spy and an arrested student in Germany.
[The poster of the Bridge of Spies.]
It is a typical American personal heroism movie, and you would hardly believe it is a movie written by the Coen brothers. The plot, the characters seems a little dull compare to Schindler’s List.
It is a story under the background of the cold war, but there are no tragic scenes of the war, only the exquisite depiction of emotions. Especially Rudolph Abel, casted by Mark Rylance, the Soviet spy, he successfully showed the helpless and lost when individual facing the national mechanism. The lawyer James Donavon, casted by Tom Hanks, looking handsome as always, great performance, but a little bit under the shadow of Mark Rylance’s Soviet Union spy role. If one of them is going to won the Oscar, then I’ll definitely put my money on Mark.
[Mark Rylance plays Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy arrested in the U.S.]
However, in the context of the cold war, the United State and the Soviet Union showed too much difference in the way the treat their spies; you would see it is a story told by Americans obviously.
The composition of the film is a typical 60’s black and white movie style. The photography is perfect, and a lot of long shots, but no one seems tedious. The photographer, anusz Kaminski, worked with Spielberg several time before, together they created great movies like Schindler’s List, War Hourse, and Lincoln.
One of the most memorable compositions is the use of the windows and door in the picture. Almost every time we see James Donovan, he is always standing in a bright light, even when he is standing in a backlight, he always look bright in his face, that goes well with the name of the “standing man”.
[James Donoven waiting for the change of spies on the Glienicke Bridge]
It is a very steady movie, I would not say it’s boring, but the only tense moment in this movie is the detail of people been shot trying to climb over the wall and the conversation between James and Rudolph, “Aren’t you worried?” -“Would it help?” It is a great movie indeed, but for Spielberg and Tom Hanks, it is just a good movie.