'Bridge of Spies' Blu-ray review

(C) 2015 Dreamworks LLC

Steven Spielberg’s 2015 Cold War film “Bridge of Spies” is an intriguing (if somewhat flawed) take on how a Brooklyn insurance attorney named James Donovan (Tom Hanks) helped negotiate the 1961 exchange of convicted Soviet intelligence agent Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) and an American college student (Will Rogers) accused of espionage by Communist-ruled East Germany.

Spielberg’s latest historical drama earned five Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, and Best Supporting Actor. “Bridge of Spies” only won one: Mark Rylance walked away with the 2015 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor – a well-deserved recognition for his nuanced performance as accused spy Abel.

“Bridge of Spies” begins with Rudolf Abel’s arrest by FBI counterintelligence in 1957. It is an age of atomic anxiety: The U.S. and the Soviet Union are building nuclear arsenals and pointing ICBMs at each other. Both countries want to avoid war, but they need up-to-date intelligence on each other’s military capabilities and intentions to detect signs of a catastrophic surprise nuclear attack. The technically-advanced U.S. deploys high-flying reconnaissance aircraft with state of the art photographic cameras over Russia; the Soviets use moles and human intelligence gatherers to obtain data on American defense programs and capabilities.

To fulfill Constitutional requirements and show the world that Abel was treated fairly by the American justice system, the government asks Jim Donovan to represent the accused Soviet spy at trial. 

Donovan takes the case. He knows that most of his fellow Americans and the presiding judge (Dakin Matthews) are not sympathetic toward Abel, yet Donovan does his best to defend his client and prevent Abel from facing the death penalty.

Hoffman: Has your guy talked?

James Donovan: Excuse me?

Hoffman: You met him. Has he talked? Has he said anything yet?

James Donovan: We're not having this conversation.

Hoffman: Of course not.

James Donovan: No, I mean we are really not having it. You're asking me to violate attorney-client privilege.

Hoffman: Aw, come on, counselor.

James Donovan: You know, I wish people like you would quit saying, 'Aw, come on, counselor'. I didn't like it the first time it happened today. A judge said it to me twice. The more I hear it, the more I don't like it.

Meanwhile, the Eisenhower Administration, afraid that the Soviet arms buildup has created a “bomber gap” and a “missile gap” that favors the Russians, deploys a new spy plane – the Lockheed U-2. 

Essentially a powered glider that can fly at an altitude of over 70,000 feet, the U-2 is sent on secret overflights of Soviet territory from U.S. bases in Pakistan and elsewhere. To fly this new plane, the CIA recruits some of the best pilots in the Air Force, including a young captain named Francis Gary Powers.

Agent Williams: We are engaged in a war. This war does not for the moment involve men at arms; it involves information. You will be collecting information. You will be gathering intelligence about the enemy. The intelligence you gather could give us the upper hand in a full thermonuclear exchange with the Soviet Union, or it could prevent one. For public purposes, as far as your wife or mother or sweetheart or the good Lord above, your mission does not exist. if it does not exist, you do not exist. You cannot be shot down. You cannot be captured.

The CIA believes the U-2 can fly where no Soviet surface-to-air missile (SAM) can reach, so on May 1, 1960, Powers takes off from the Agency’s Peshawar base in Pakistan on a classified recce flight over the ICBM complexes at Baikonur and Plesetsk. From there, Powers is supposed to fly to the NATO base in Bodo, Norway.

But the CIA’s Operation Grand Slam goes horribly wrong when a Soviet SA-2 Guideline SAM shoots down Powers’ U-2C near Kosulino, a city in the Urals region of Russia. The plane is destroyed, and Powers is captured by the Red Army after a harrowing high altitude parachute descent. Like Abel, the American pilot faces trial and possible execution in a country that is paranoid and hostile toward its superpower rival.

Fearful that Powers will break under extreme duress and tell the Soviets what he knows about the U-2 program, CIA Director Allen Dulles (Peter McRobbie) asks Donovan to facilitate a prisoner exchange. The canny spymaster wants to trade Donovan’s client Abel for Powers. To avoid negative publicity and allow the Soviets to save face, the deal must be brokered by someone who’s not officially linked to the U.S. government. In Dulles’ mind, Donovan fits the bill. The question now is: Will he do it?

Examining Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies”

Although it’s far from perfect (the Internet Movie Database has a sizeable list of production goofs that run the gamut from minor continuity errors to embarrassing anachronisms such as the appearance of 50-star U.S. flags in 1957, when there were only 48 states in the Union) and less action-packed than the trailer suggests, “Bridge of Spies” is one of 2015’s best films.

For their fourth onscreen collaboration (after “Saving Private Ryan,” “Catch Me if You Can,” and “The Terminal”), director Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Hanks take an almost forgotten page from modern American history and transform it into a relevant and moving drama about a decent, patriotic Everyman who chooses to do the right thing even in the face of public opinion.

Spielberg, working from a screenplay by Matt Chapman, Ethan Cohen, and Joel Cohen), walks a fine cinematic line between historical accuracy and Hollywood dramatization. The espionage depicted in “Bridge of Spies” is old-fashioned spy-craft based on true life intelligence gathering, not the flashy action-adventure stuff seen in “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” or “Spectre.” In a nutshell, the spying in this movie is like the activities portrayed in a Tom Clancy novel (if the late author had done a period piece) instead of an Ian Fleming James Bond book.

Instead of exciting shootouts in Berlin and unrealistic 007-style stunt-filled sequences, Spielberg gives the audience dialogue-heavy scenes that delve into legal issues, diplomacy, intrigue, and high-stakes Cold War atomic rivalry between the two superpowers.  As he did in 2012’s “Lincoln” and 2005’s “Munich,” Spielberg wants to blend history and dramatic narrative to explore big themes; in “Bridge of Spies,” he delves deeply into the true meanings of patriotism and justice.

“Bridge of Spies” features outstanding performances from Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Adams, Austin Stowell, Alan Alda, Will Rogers, and Sebastian Koch, along with many other cast members.

Like most of Spielberg’s films, “Bridge of Spies” benefits greatly from Michael Kahn’s excellent editing, as well as stunning cinematography by Janusz Kaminsky, who has worked with the two-time Oscar winning director since 1993’s “Schindler’s List.”  

Long-time collaborator John Williams was also slated to compose the score, but a health issue prevented from doing so; composer Thomas Newman (son of 20^th Century Fox’s legendary in-house composer) stepped in and wrote a solid musical score that reflects the tensions of the era as well as the visual elements of the film.

Although “Bridge of Spies” takes creative liberty with the true life events it depicts, Spielberg manages to take a dialogue-and-character driven film and make it watchable. He and actor Tom Hanks love the United States and its rich and sometimes troubled history, and they want to share that love with the audience. With the exception of “The Terminal,” the Spielberg-Hanks team has taken viewers on a journey from the trials of World War II (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Band of Brothers,” and “The Pacific”) to the jet-setting 1960s (“Catch Me if You Can”). “Bridge of Spies” is another cinematic tile in the great mosaic that is the history of America.   

Blu-ray Features and Specifications

Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios and 20^th Century Fox co-produced “Bridge of Spies” in collaboration with Dreamworks Pictures and several other film companies. Disney, through its Touchstone Pictures division, has the distribution rights in the U.S. and Canada; Fox distributed the film in all the other countries and territories. 

As a result, the Blu-ray and DVD editions of “Bridge of Spies” were released on February 2 by Touchstone Home Entertainment in North America (except Mexico); 20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment is responsible for distributing the home media edition in other parts of the world.

Special Features

A Case of the Cold War: BRIDGE OF SPIES -- Delve Deeper into the Film's Characters and the Real-Life People on Whom They're Based, and Discover Why the History Behind BRIDGE OF SPIES Still Resonates Today

U-2 Spy Plane -- Witness The Making of the Spectacular U-2 Plane Crash Sequence, With Archival Voice-Over by U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers and a Cameo by His Son, Francis Gary Powers, Jr.Berlin 1961: Re-Creating The Divide -- Experience The Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and Frederic Pryor's Arrest Through a Mix of Archival Imagery, Behind-The-Scenes Moments and Firsthand AccountsSpy Swap: Looking Back On the Final Act -- Relive A Page of Cold War History On the Glienicke Bridge While Shooting the Historic Exchange of Soviet Spy Rudolf Abel and U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers – From the package blurb

Video

• Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (30.88 Mbps)
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1 

Audio

• English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
• French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
• Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)

Subtitles

• English SDH, French, Spanish

Discs

• 50GB Blu-ray Disc
• Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
• iTunes digital copy
• Digital copy
• DVD copy

Packaging

• Slipcover in original pressing

Playback

• Region free

Miscellaneous

• Rated:  PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
• Studio: Walt Disney Studios
• Blu-ray/DVD Release Date: February 2, 2016
• Run Time: 141 minutes