Directed by Stephen Spielberg, Bridge of Spies is a gripping, well written and comfortingly old school Cold War spy drama based on real events, starring Tom Hanks as Insurance lawyer James Donovan and Mark Rylance is the Russian spy Rudolf Abel. The story sets off in the US with an exhilarating chase sequence when KGB agent Abel is intercepted by the CIA. Donovan uses his powers of persuasion and sense of morality to defend Abel in court, ensuring due process and abiding by the ‘rule book’ to save him from the electric chair. Donovan’s foresight enables a spy swap across the famous Glienicke Bridge in Germany returning Abel to the Russians in exchange for captured US spy pilot Gary Powers.
The film provides a glimpse of what life in America was like during the Cold War era (fought between Russia and the US without weapons or combat, based instead on information transfer and posturing); recreating an atmosphere of subterfuge with men wearing fedora hats and trench coats, and people driving Buicks, reading Life magazine and stockpiling on canned food and potassium tablets - due to the ever present threat of nuclear war and the atom bomb. Events move to a desolate and snow swept East Germany soon after the construction of the Berlin Wall.
Rylance’s enigmatic and inscrutable Abel resembles his characterisation of Thomas Cromwell in the recent BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. Hanks is the 'all American' good guy in the vein of James Stewart in his portrayal of Donovan. But the film surmounts national boundaries and has contemporary significance, highlighting the importance of fair play and upholding human rights in war.