Movie: Bridge of Spies
Tonight I went to grown-up movie, Steven Spielberg's latest (written by the Coen Brothers, oddly enough), Bridge of Spies.
I find it ironic that Spielberg, one of the people most responsible for the frenetic pacing of American movies, should have matured into making more stately-paced, "European" movies, but he has. It's especially ironic in a year when the highest grossing film of the year spun off of one of his biggest hits.
But Bridge of Spies, if not his most European film (that would be Munich), is a grown-up spies drama (of sorts), a Cold War period piece about a lawyer tasked first with defending a captured spy, and then with negoiating his exchange. Along the way we are treated to the U-2 spy plane, and the beginning of the Berlin Wall.
Now, Samuel Donavon is no Abe Lincoln. He's literally a footnote to history. But what I liked about this story was that not only did it recreate the period evocatively (perhaps a little too much so - a trap with period pieces), it also subtly highlights exactly the same rights issues for enemy agents that we can't seem to make up our minds about today (Guantanamo, anybody??).
Also, the Soviet agent is played quiet stoic dignity (and an historically correct Scottish accent) by Mark Rylance. Whenever asked if he's afraid or nervous, he shrugs "Would it help?" I should aspire to that.
I find it ironic that Spielberg, one of the people most responsible for the frenetic pacing of American movies, should have matured into making more stately-paced, "European" movies, but he has. It's especially ironic in a year when the highest grossing film of the year spun off of one of his biggest hits.
But Bridge of Spies, if not his most European film (that would be Munich), is a grown-up spies drama (of sorts), a Cold War period piece about a lawyer tasked first with defending a captured spy, and then with negoiating his exchange. Along the way we are treated to the U-2 spy plane, and the beginning of the Berlin Wall.
Now, Samuel Donavon is no Abe Lincoln. He's literally a footnote to history. But what I liked about this story was that not only did it recreate the period evocatively (perhaps a little too much so - a trap with period pieces), it also subtly highlights exactly the same rights issues for enemy agents that we can't seem to make up our minds about today (Guantanamo, anybody??).
Also, the Soviet agent is played quiet stoic dignity (and an historically correct Scottish accent) by Mark Rylance. Whenever asked if he's afraid or nervous, he shrugs "Would it help?" I should aspire to that.