esrosedotblog

There is a good movie to be made from the story of the Rudolph Abel/Gary Powers exchange but this isn't it.

Bridge of Spies (2015)

Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks conspire subtly to make this an overblown account of real events. But of course, they embellished and embroidered their own shit into it and so we have this too long movie which invites the FF.

I lived through these events and remember some of it.

There were strong feelings.

Now, let me give some positive comments. This is an old fashioned movie. Lighting, scenery, costumes; the whole works are first class. I suppose there is CGI in here somewhere but it would be very hard to find. There is craft in every scene. Some of it breathtaking.

The star of this film is Mark Rylance who plays Abel. He outlines and outclasses Tom Hanks in every scene where they are together.

Most of the others in the film though are too self aware. "I am in a Spielberg film".

Poses held too long, phrasing a bit too swoopy. It is not Shakespeare!

Look I just plain was annoyed by it and would not want to see it again. The fact that I used the FF pushes it down from a 3 to a 2 out of Netflix5.

I hope that someday I might see the film that ought to be made about this history in the Cold War.

Labels: films