Better Dead than Red

BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

What "Bridge of Spies" may lack in complexity for its noble American hero at its center, it makes up for in its complexity of negotiations between two countries who are at the near forefront of war. "Bridge of Spies" is a smoothly textured entertainment with not too many rough edges and not many loopholes or deviations from its central narrative. It is what it is, and seems suited for that reason alone to its 1950's setting.

The opening scenes set up the dichotomy of its setting, character and the eventual demise of all that seems so normal. Abel (Mark Rylance) is a rather meek-looking individual, living in a Brooklyn Heights apartment without anyone taking a second look at this man. He paints at home, and then takes his easel on a subway trip to Prospect Park where he paints some more. Only something is off. A secret message is inside a coin. We do not know what the message is but we can assume espionage is afoot. FBI agents are closing in on him, following his every move. Abel returns to his apartment and examines the message in what looks like a folded piece of paper - he is, in fact, a Soviet intelligence officer. Not much is said, not much needs to be said.

Tom Hanks, returning to his oft-role of the Everyman, is James B. Donovan, an adept insurance lawyer who is asked to defend Abel in court for espionage. Donovan reluctantly takes on the case, told by his firm's boss to take it in stride despite eventual ridicule and hostility from others. An American defending a Russian spy during the brutal Cold War of the late 1950's is tantamount to an act of treason, especially when a death sentence is considered. Despite many threats from police and disapproving looks from passengers on Donovan's regular train trips, he not only takes on the case but also finds that a search warrant was not used in Abel's arrest. Before long, though, Donovan is asked to swap Abel for an American prisoner named Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), a pilot in a shot-down U-2 spy plane who is being held and tortured in a prison near Moscow. When word spreads that an American economics student, Frederick Pryor (Will Rogers), has also been imprisoned and is held in East Berlin, the ever resourceful Donovan suggests a 2-1 swap. The tension increases when Germany learns that the USSR is also behind this swap.

Director Steven Spielberg and writers Matt Charman (who discovered this story as a footnote in a JFK book), Joel and Ethan Coen ratchet up the tension in "Bridge of Spies" through dialogue, hence all the endless negotiations. Donovan has to deal with CIA and KGB agents following his every move, and sometimes he's got German hooligans who want his coat. All this concludes at the swap meeting itself, the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, but until then, getting all sides to agree on anything proves frustrating.

Also fascinating are the details of Powers' reconnaissance mission over Soviet Union airspace. Prior to flying the mission, Powers is told by his superior that in the event of capture, Powers must commit suicide by ingesting a paralytic toxin from inside the grooves of a coin! Though I have heard of this before, it struck me as an odd arrangement so as not to let the Soviets know of his plans (Powers' attempt to self-destruct the plane is one of the most thrilling and scariest moments of a true flight of terror I have seen in a while). The symmetry of one coin meant to destroy a life just as Abel's coin symbolizes a probable merchant of death was not lost on me.

Most of "Bridge of Spies" is absolutely absorbing but I did wish there was more to Donovan beyond being an able (no pun intended) and noble negotiator. The level of complexity to this family man only extends as far as how American citizens (who read the papers) feel about an American defending a Russian - they are not happy and even Donovan's boss (Alan Alda, always terrific) stops taking meetings in his office. When Donovan sees an execution at the Berlin Wall juxtaposed with a later scene of kids climbing over fences in good old American suburbs, we sense that he recognizes peace can be attained, no matter how many dividers exist. Hanks does infuse his character with a measure of sympathy for Abel, sensing a man who is only doing his job - he saves Rudolph from almost certain execution. Liberals may like that idea, conservatives not so much.