Among the Hollywood films that I had a chance to screen prior to NYFCO’s awards meeting in December was Stephen Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies”, a dramatization of the prisoner exchange of Rudolf Abel and Francis Gary Powers in 1962. It is brilliantly acted and directed and was my pick for one of the three best films of 2015. Since I have had big problems with Spielberg’s “serious” films in the past, my expectations were low. Usually they are flag-waving affairs soaked in Frank Capra type sentimentality. Did the inclusion of the Coen brothers on the screenwriting team contribute to a more detached and even ironic tone? If so, this is their best work in years as well.
Tom Hanks plays James Donovan, the lawyer hired for Abel’s defense. While no relation to “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the OSS, he served as the general counsel for the OSS during WWII. This was one of the primary motivations for having him involved with the Abel case since he was knowledgeable about the spook world. This background was not mentioned in the film, which tried to draw a dramatic contrast between the gravity of the case and Donovan’s seemingly prosaic job as a partner in a law firm specializing in insurance settlements. It does point out that he was an assistant to the lead attorney in the Nuremberg trials but for the most part Hanks is cast as a home-spun idealist and principled liberal who believes in the right of all people to have adequate representation in a trial, including a Russian spy. In the past this was the kind of role associated with James Stewart or Gregory Peck and Hanks has obviously stepped into their shoes with aplomb. full: http://louisproyect.org/2016/01/04/bridge-of-spies/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
