{"id":19322,"date":"2016-02-25T21:17:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T11:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19322"},"modified":"2016-02-25T21:17:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T11:17:53","slug":"bridge-of-spies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=19322","title":{"rendered":"Bridge of Spies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bridgeofspiesposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director: \u00a0<\/strong>Steven Spielberg
\nWriters: \u00a0<\/strong>Joel & Ethan Coen, Matt Charman
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Mark Rylance, Tom Hanks, Alan Alda, Austin Stowell, Jesse Plemons<\/p>\n

B<\/span>ridge of Spies<\/em> begins with a quiet, bespectacled\u00a0man painting a self portrait. \u00a0He is a picture of calm. \u00a0Even when his apartment is raided soon after by CIA agents who arrest him and tip his apartment upside down looking for evidence that he is a Soviet spy, he remains nonplussed. \u00a0Three times in the film he is asked ‘are you nervous?’ to which he replies blankly ‘would it help?’<\/p>\n

That man is Rudolph Abel and\u00a0Bridge of Spies<\/em> is the true story of his prosecution and subsequent involvement in a prisoner exchange in East Germany during the Cold War.<\/p>\n

When Abel is arrested and refuses to divulge any information about his activities, the government has nothing left for it but to put him through a speedy trial and then sentence him to hang. \u00a0The public demand nothing less. \u00a0But to ensure that the trial isn’t seen as a kangaroo court, they call upon the services of accomplished insurance lawyer James B Donovan to act as his defence attorney. \u00a0We first meet Donovan as he is negotiating the payout for an accident involving a car that struck five bikes. \u00a0He launches an impassioned defence but draws a line between himself and his client. \u00a0“You keep saying he’s\u00a0my guy<\/em>. \u00a0He’s not my guy.” \u00a0This sense of identity – who is ‘our guy’ and who isn’t – takes on great significance later on in the film.<\/p>\n

Donovan is most definitely Our Guy. \u00a0He’s a virtuous, patriotic everyman cut from the same cloth as Henry Fonda’s character in\u00a012 Angry Men<\/em> or Jimmy Stewart in\u00a0Mr Smith Goes To Washington<\/em>. \u00a0An idealistic and indefatigable moralist who gives the government more than they bargained for when they recruit him to defend Abel. \u00a0Despite the cynicism, cronyism and corruption around him, he carries on undeterred, staying true to his values.<\/p>\n

Although he is\u00a0asked to play a part in a show trial, Donovan decides to defend Abel in earnest. \u00a0He does it a little too well. \u00a0He calls into question the evidence used in court, discovering\u00a0that it was seized unconstitutionally. \u00a0Despite all that, an exasperated judge reprimands him repeatedly and the jury finds Abel guilty on all counts anyway. \u00a0Still not finished, Donovan convinces the judge to ignore the public demand for capital punishment. \u00a0Imprisoning Abel is important on two counts. \u00a0Firstly, it shows the moral character of America as a nation, that they would not execute a man who is doing his job and how they treat prisoners of war. \u00a0Secondly, Abel becomes a useful political bargaining chip, should it ever need to be called upon. \u00a0The first line of reasoning is most important to Donovan. \u00a0The second line of reasoning is to convince the judge.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Donovan’s proposal turns out to be a prescient one as Francis Gary Powers, a CIA recruit flying a spy plane over Russian air space is shot down and captured. \u00a0Impressed with his tenacity and smarts shown during the trial, the CIA recruit Donovan to negotiate a prisoner transfer with the Soviets, using East Germany as the swap point. \u00a0Thus the stage is set for the rest of the film.<\/p>\n

\"bridgeofspies\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bridge of Spies<\/em>\u00a0is a fine, impeccably put together spy thriller. \u00a0It artfully lays out all of the trappings that your mind would conjure up when you think of the genre. \u00a0There’s men in trench coats and hats tailing one another, exchanging briefcases and walking briskly beneath lamp posts in a dark stormy night. \u00a0There’s shady CIA operatives and humourless Soviet military men. \u00a0It’s marvellous stuff.<\/p>\n

For the uninitiated,\u00a0Bridge of Spies<\/em> is the collaborative efforts of a Hollywood ‘dream team’. \u00a0It is directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by the Coen Brothers. \u00a0The result is a film that shines brightly with the signature qualities of each of these film makers.<\/p>\n

Spielberg’s fingerprints are all over Bridge of Spies. \u00a0<\/em>James B Donovan is the sort of everyday hero that Spielberg has been making films about his entire career. \u00a0The visual metaphor\u00a0juxtaposing the Berlin Wall with a neighbourhood in New York City. \u00a0Donovan’s sermon to the CIA agent about what makes someone American. \u00a0These are classic Spielberg devices.<\/p>\n

But the characters talk in a distinctive and affected manner. \u00a0“He’s not my guy. \u00a0You keep saying he’s my guy<\/em>.” \u00a0They repeat themselves. \u00a0“Shouldn’t you be nervous? \u00a0Would it help?” \u00a0<\/em>They negotiate in rapid fire exchanges. \u00a0“We get Powers and Pryor” \u00a0“Forget Pryor! We only need Powers” \u00a0<\/em>They talk like characters ripped straight out of\u00a0Fargo<\/em> or\u00a0Miller’s Crossing<\/em> or\u00a0O Brother Where Art Thou?<\/em> \u00a0They are indisputably Coen Brothers characters.<\/p>\n

I never really entertained the idea of a film that melds Spielberg and the Coen Brothers but as it turns out, it’s produced something quite wonderful.<\/p>\n

Central to Bridge of Spies’<\/em> themes about national identity and a man’s duty to his country is the relationship between Donovan and Abel. \u00a0Both men have their quirks and don’t seem to quite fit in amongst\u00a0their own people but they understand one another just fine. \u00a0Donovan values loyalty, integrity and respect. \u00a0He doesn’t necessarily get that from the CIA agents, the judge or the other government lackies that he works with but he gets it from Abel. \u00a0Abel for his part seems genuinely moved by Donovan’s actions but he is\u00a0incapable of emoting beyond the level of softly spoken appreciation. \u00a0Both men are masters at the art of persuasion and even in dire situations, always appear to be on the cusp of getting the upper hand.<\/p>\n

Where the two men differ is their appreciation for time. \u00a0Abel seems to have all the time in the world. \u00a0Donovan cannot wait to get out of the cold and home to his bed. \u00a0By the end of the film, he earns his rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court and negotiate the release of a captured pilot in East Germany<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2264,763,2442,2441,902,1746],"class_list":["post-19322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-alan-alda","tag-coen-brothers","tag-jesse-plemons","tag-mark-rylance","tag-steven-spielberg","tag-tom-hanks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19322"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19330,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19322\/revisions\/19330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}