Bridge of Spies (2015)

Another Hanks-Spielberg collaboration, this one concerns the trial of soviet spy "Col Abel" and his subsequent swap for Gary Powers (shot down U-2 Pilot) in 1961.

As usual with Spielberg's serious movies, everything looks fantastic, Hanks is good, and the direction is solid. Technically, the movie is fine. The problem is the script/story. No matter how SS tries to spice it up, this is just another long talky movie about a lawyer, talking to people. And if you know the history, you already know how the whole thing turned out before you even bought your ticket. So it didn't really have much impact for me.I would've liked a movie about Gary Powers more.

We also get Hollywood's usual odd take on the 50s and early 60s. The FBI guys are all beefy, the CIA guys are slightly sinister and look like WASP's from the Yale Skull and Bones club, the Military guys are macho, vulgar, and somewhat stupid, and the Russian spies are painfully correct uber professionals. We get a lot of "Rah, rah, the constitution" including the weird idea that Donovan's getting a soviet spy off on an absurd legal technicality is somehow a great noble thing. And then there's all those mindless NYC Anti-communists shooting bullets into Hanks' house and sneering at him on the subway for defending a "Commie rat". Who knew NYC was such a Right-wing hotbed.