Bridge Of Spies Movie Reviews Examples

Bridge of Spies (2015) is a historical film that was directed by Steven Spielberg. One of the stars in this film is Tom Hanks. This film received a very positive feedback from the viewers and in my opinion it is one of the best films about the confrontation between the USA and the USSR in the past few years. The film is set in 1957 – 1962 and is based on a true story. In 1957, the USA arrested a Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, but a few years later he was swapped for the American pilot that was brought down over the territory of the USSR in 1960. The pilot had flown a U-2 spy plane and his mission was to take the aerial photographs of the USSR. In addition, there was also a third figure to be released – Frederic Pryor, an American student that had studied in East Berlin before the Berlin Wall was built.
Tom Hanks was playing the role of James Donovan, a lawyer that defended Rudolf Abel in the courts in the USA and took active part in the negotiations in Berlin. It was a very risky work for James Donovan, because he did not have any official capacity. It is not clear whether he really did not have any protection, because the situation with the swap was extraordinary. However, in the film it looks like James Donovan is an independent person that without any fear travels to East Germany in order to negotiate the favorable conditions of the swap with the representatives of the USSR and East Germany. At the very end of the film, Frederic Pryor, Gary Powers, and Rudolf Abel are released and it is written that James Donovan later in his career participated in the similar exchanges of the people in Cuba when the diplomatic relations between the USA and Cuba deteriorated because Fidel Castro became the next leader of the country and established a socialist state loyal to the USSR.
There are also minor characters in the film that are very significant, because they help to understand how large the competition between the great powers during the Cold War was. For example, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) was a citizen of the United Kingdom, but after the World War II he worked for the Soviet KGB and he had spent several years in New York before he was arrested. In the meantime, Gary Powers tried to illegally fly over the territory of the USSR in order to take the high-resolution photographs. His U-2 plane was able to fly at the very high altitude, but the soviet military forces were still shot him down.
One more very important topic in this film is the history of Germany that was divided after the World War II. A lot of scenes in the film take place in Berlin that suffered the most during the World War II. The main character of the film has to go to East Berlin controlled by GDR and the USSR and he can see how dramatic the difference between West and East Berlin is. East Berlin remains ruined even though the World War II ended 15 years ago. Moreover, there are many secret agents from Germany and the USSR that protect the city and control the border in order to stop illegal emigration. It is hard to judge how well Steven Spielberg presented Berlin of the Cold War period, because in West Berlin there were also many profound problems that were resolved only when Germany was reunited.
Geography of the film impresses, because it was shot in the popular districts and neighborhoods in New York and Berlin. One can see Brooklyn, Manhattan, and some historical places in Berlin including Checkpoint Charlie, Tempelhof Airport and of course Glienicke Bridge where the swap eventually took place. This bridge connects Berlin and Potsdam, but during the Cold War there was the border between West Berlin and East Germany. It is also known as the Bridge of Spies, because several times the countries exchanged the captured spies there.
Psychology of the film, which lasts more than two hours, lacks motion, even though the film is the combination of drama and thriller. What is more, the film is quite dark, but it helps to focus on the plot and the characters. It is easy to follow the narrative and there are several parts in the film. Therefore it is important to watch the film from the very start in order not to miss the important details. In general, the change of the settings and a clear difference between New York and East Berlin make the viewers sympathize with all the characters.
In turn, sociology of the film is very broad. The film was shot to demonstrate the irrationality of the international politics. Even though the plot of the USA-USSR confrontation not very popular nowadays, the director and the main characters showed the events of the Cold War from the new perspective. So the film is especially interesting for those people who are interested in the history of the USA-USSR relations. But the plot and the international settings attract the viewers from the USA, Europe and Russia. The story of the conflict between the USA and the USSR looks differently in the film, because the main character, a lawyer James Donovan, acts as an independent mediator who does not sympathize with any of the parties of the conflict. The high ratings of the film prove that the audience appraised the film really well.
In my opinion, one of the best scenes in the film is when Rudolf Abel listens to the radio in the prison and hears the news that the American plane had technical problems while flying over Turkey and presumably the pilot landed on the territory of the USSR. This was the moment when Abel understood that he suddenly received a chance to return to his home country. This moment of the film is very meaningful. The viewers can see how serious the tension between the two countries was. Moreover, it becomes clear that not only the USSR, but the USA too censored the information in order to stay competitive at the international level. From the cinematographic perspective, this scene was a good transition to the next part of the film in which James Donovan would arrange the exchange on the Bridge of Spies in Germany.