Directed by:
Steven SpielbergCinematography:
Janusz KaminskiComposer:
Thomas NewmanCast:
Mark Rylance, Domenick Lombardozzi, Victor Verhaeghe, Brian Hutchison, Tom Hanks, Joshua Harto, Henny Russell, Alan Alda, John Rue, Billy Magnussen, Amy Ryan (more)VOD (2)
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In the shadow of war, one man showed the world what we stand for. A dramatic thriller set against the backdrop of a series of historic events, Bridge of Spies tells the story of James Donovan (Tom Hanks), a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot. Screenwriters Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen have woven this remarkable experience in Donovan’s life into a story inspired by true events that captures the essence of a man who risked everything and vividly brings his personal journey to life. (20th Century Fox AU)
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Reviews (15)
As soon as I saw only old people in the cinema, I knew I wouldn't be the target audience. It's nicely directed and fairly intelligently written, Tom Hanks is excellent and occasionally pulls off a joke, but I can't speak more highly of it. What bothered me was that we don’t get any courtroom stuff, the running is excessive and it’s not very entertaining. Catch Me If You Can, for example, was also just a long conversation, but it had a better paced and a much more powerful and entertaining effect on the viewer. With Bridge of Spies, I was more interested in when the ending would be than how the film would end, and I suppose that's wrong. I don't regret going to the cinema, it had its light moments (the plane crash, the conversation in Berlin), but it didn't pull me in. Strong three stars. 70%.
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"Frankly, everyone else wants to put you in the electric chair." - "Ok." - "You don't look worried." - "Would that help?" Nobody makes movies like Steven Spielberg. The feeling of each shot being so eerily elaborate, yet looking so simple. The combining of ordinary human stories with extraordinary ones. The art of lightening dramatic moments with subtle humor without in any way demeaning them. In short, precision, perfection. And those memorable scenes (of all kinds) - the opening surveillance and arrest, the judge tying his bow tie, Powers' shooting down, the building of the Berlin Wall, the bargaining at the Soviet embassy, the breathtaking handover on the Glienitz Bridge... But, of course, all this is also a credit to the Coen brothers' script, Janusz Kamiński's cinematography and the actors. The fantastic Tom Hanks properly enjoys his "hardy man", and the unassuming Mark Rylance is no worse. I also really liked Thomas Newman's score - if he blew off Spectre for Bridge of Spies, I'm happy to forgive him for the bland Bond film.
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Though Bridge of Spies is certainly a little embellished and insufficiently exciting, it is still a reliably entertaining spy thriller with a gorgeous retro visual aspect. I was already overjoyed by the camera movements, taking in three people at the table in the way it would have been shot 50 years ago. A great atmospheric setting in the period, elegantly written dialogue, a great Hanks, a nice role for Mark Rylance. Global politics should be run by people like Spielberg. And only them.
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Lemonade Steven, or craft certainty. Yet even that can't deny the fact that Spielberg is stealing from himself, and as much as he wants to talk about strong ideas, he still comes out with kitsch that transgresses his "self-genre" boundaries. It's a great watch, and likely a few conservatives who will seem to step out of their conformist zone will give it a few awards, but the next day all I remember is the sheer coldness. What literally sticks out in some of the dialogue is the fact that the Coen brothers would have loved to have made it with a much greater degree of cynicism.
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I must admit that I was a little sceptic about this movie. Personally, I don’t find the topic of espionage in the 1950s particularly suspenseful, but I was keeping in mind that Spielberg and Hanks were responsible for this and I shouldn’t have doubted them in the first place. I couldn’t have been happier after watching this and I must add that it’s one of the best movies that made it to Oscars this year. The story is absolutely natural and it’s really befitting the Cold War. Tom Hanks is a classic, but everybody is outshined by Mark Rylance whom I didn’t even known before, but now I know that I won’t forget about him. The only issue was the music, which was too American and it could do without all those emotions. The ending is a little too exaggerated, which doesn’t have to suit anyone. I was pissed, but it still didn’t make me take away a star; I’ve enjoyed this movie way too much for that over these two hours and a half.
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