{"id":4117,"date":"2015-10-16T05:10:59","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T12:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4117"},"modified":"2015-10-16T05:10:59","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T12:10:59","slug":"review-bridge-of-spies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4117","title":{"rendered":"Review: BRIDGE OF SPIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>\"fixbutton\"<\/a>Russia is back.\u00a0 With the events raging in Syria that remind us of the frustrating and potentially dangerous nature of Putin and his statist ideology of national conservatism, a film like \u201cBridge of Spies\u201d should have some contemporary relevance.\u00a0 It\u2019s history that bears reviewing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBridge of Spies\u201d is directed by Steven Spielberg who works from a script partially written by Ethan and Joel Coen.\u00a0 The story should be well-known to many of us: A Soviet spy who went by the name Rudolf Ivanovich Adel (Mark Rylance) is arrested in the late 1950s for espionage.\u00a0 An insurance defense attorney named James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is appointed to represent him.\u00a0 Adel is convicted, but Donovan manages to beat the death penalty and secure a prison sentence (that will be served in Atlanta).\u00a0 Meanwhile in 1960 American pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) is shot down while flying a U-2 spy plane in Soviet airspace.\u00a0 Powers is tried by the Russians and convicted.\u00a0 And, naturally, a prisoner swap is arranged with Donovan acting as the unofficial negotiator.<\/p>\n

Both a careful history lesson and gripping spy thriller, \u201cBridge of Spies\u201d is fascinating entertainment.\u00a0 Of course, it contains many of the Spielberg trappings that may cause some cynics to groan.\u00a0 This film is literally painted expertly with an artist\u2019s brush from top to bottom. Every moment is important and, while cynics might take issue, it is impossible not to give in and enjoy the proceedings. I think that Spielberg\u2019s straight-laced story-telling approach is refreshing these days when filmmakers are constantly pushing structural and technological limits in hopes of capturing the form while the substance is often left lacking.<\/p>\n

\u201cBridge of Spies\u201d is a meaty narrative that is beautifully captured and expertly performed.\u00a0 While much attention will be paid to Hanks in the lead, the breakout here has to be Mark Rylance.\u00a0 The gifted British stage actor has been reticent to take on mainstream movie roles.\u00a0 Here he distinguishes himself by what he doesn\u2019t say as much as anything actually said.\u00a0 Rylance is truly a superb performer and one that captures your imagination namely for his emoting and also, because you\u2019ll find yourself asking who he is.\u00a0 If you were Googling Bernie Sanders after the recent Democrat debate, you may find yourself doing the same with Rylance after seeing \u201cBridge of Spies.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a special performance that will likely find many awards nominations.<\/p>\n

Movies that draw from historical events told through the American lens are often criticized.\u00a0 Last year\u2019s runaway box office smash \u201cAmerican Sniper\u201d was particularly polarizing with filmmaker Michael Moore tweeting that \u201csnipers aren\u2019t heroes.\u201d Others found problems with the arguably jingoistic conclusion of the film that featured a great amount of flag waiving.<\/p>\n

Like \u201cSniper,\u201d \u201cBridge of Spies\u201d is an unapologetic slice of Americana.\u00a0 And had the film been directed by Ron Howard, who does this sort of thing very well, it might not have had the same amount of impact.\u00a0 Love him or hate him, Spielberg is able, as he showed us with \u201cLincoln,\u201d to entertain us while pulling at our heart-strings, whether artificially or not.\u00a0 And this makes \u201cBridge of Spies\u201d subtly transcendent.<\/p>\n

Given the global decline in oil prices, Russia, backed into an economic corner, is acting out in the world, showing us they are still militarily significant.\u00a0 This may be giving rise to a new Cold War.\u00a0 Thankfully, with films like \u201cBridge of Spies\u201d we won\u2019t forget the last one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t miss this entertaining history lesson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4120,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4117\/revisions\/4120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}