On Bridge of Spies

Crafted. In every area, across all the disciplines, Bridge of Spies is exquisitely crafted. It may be a light touch handling of cold war politics, but the script is so tight it doesn’t waste a word and distils the complexity of the situation into an engaging and welcoming narrative. Spielberg’s direction matches the tone of the script by keeping the story moving at a quick pace and never losing his audience in what, in lesser hands, could become a laborious film. Although this should come as no surprise at all. Just three years ago Spielberg took a narrative that was essentially a legal process and created a captivating piece of work in Lincoln (2012). Here, features of Lincoln are combined with his earlier masterpiece, Schindler’s List (1993) and the result is impressive.

Tom Hanks is the film’s everyman, a label often thrown at him and perhaps not always as a positive. But when he does it so well, his everyman becomes something few actors are capable of. Hanks is on excellent form here, perhaps not Captain Philips (2013) form, but he is never less than convincing and his characters repeated reference to every life matters roots the period piece in contemporary politics. Bridge of Spies highlights the jingoism and fear that is stirred up when people are given an easy figure to hate. Hanks’ son in the film is shown preparing for a nuclear attack after a school lesson. Fear and hatred are provoked to create simple enemies, all of which has uncomfortable resonance with how the media communicates contemporary conflict. Whilst not being a consistent feature of the film, Spielberg is keen to not let us entirely forget the comparison as in one of his final shots he repeats images of the violence in Germany in suburban America, perhaps a warning of what can happen.

The cold war remains a powerful subject, perhaps because so much happened behind closed doors, which allows for filmmakers to get creative. Viewed alongside other recent films of cold war paranoia, Thirteen Days (2000) and The Good Shepherd (2006), Bridge of Spies completes a strong triptych.