Bridge of Apple Pies

Bridge of Spies, Stephen Spielberg's latest film, escaped onto DVD and VOD recently. As is usual with Spielberg's films it received some awards attention but in the end won very little with the exception of Mark Rylance's supporting performance. These days Spielberg alternates between lighter, more fun fare (the Indiana Jones films, Tintin etc) and more 'serious' films (Munich, Lincoln) but all exist in an old school Hollywood world that owes very little to the real one. Bridge of Spies falls into the latter category. Tom Hanks heads to Berlin during the early 60s to organise a swap between a Russian spy held by the US government and an American fighter pilot held by the Russian government. Based on a true story, the idea had been floating around Hollywood since the 60s before Spielberg took up the reins.

The problem with Spielberg's supposedly grownup films is that they have the same simplistic mentality as his lightweight outings. Saving Private Ryan's nasty Nazis aren't that far removed from the comedy ones in the Indiana Jones films. Spies' Eastern Bloc bureaucrats wouldn't be out of place in one of Tintin's adventures.

Post E.T. I'm not the biggest fan of Spielberg's output. The last film I actually liked by the director was A.I., all of sixteen years ago. It took a fantasy subject matter and attempted to treat it with all the gravitas he normally would bring to the likes of Schindler's List. The project originated with Stanley Kubrick (by all accounts Spielberg pretty much stuck to Kubrick's script) and A.I. is a unique combination of Kubrick's cold intellectual approach and Spielberg's sentimental feel good one.

A.I. is a science fiction take on the Pinocchio story with a cybernetic boy searching for the robo equivalent of family bliss. While it has major flaws there is enough interesting going on to make it standout in Spielberg's later filmography. Especially fascinating is the climax where, after millennia of searching, our little cyber-hero finally finds happiness for a day and then promptly switches himself off. The message I took from this is that if you've had a good day you might as well go home, find something comfy to sit on, put your head in the oven and turn on the gas. Obviously given the sentimentality of Spielberg's usual endings I presume this wasn't the reaction he was aiming for. He's expecting us to believe that our lovable robo-hero has ascended to cyber-heaven. My thought-he's just made himself about as useful as a broken toaster.

Spielberg films often have an unfinished feel about them. You get the impression that he starts on his next one before finishing the one he's currently making. Schindler's List and Jurassic Park were made simultaneously. Both have some great set pieces (Jurassic's T-rex attack and raptor sequence, Schindler's List's rout of the ghetto) but outside of these sequences there's a perfunctory "this will do" quality to the rest of the films. The beach sequence in Saving Private Ryan is spectacular but what else sticks in the memory? War of the Worlds had that great city destruction scene and...um...

In Bridge of Spies Spielberg and his DOP Janusz Kaminski paint America in cosy, warm browns. Berlin is all unappealing cold, steely greys. Hank's character trudges through the snowy cityscape. Not long after arriving he's mugged for his overcoat. Well it is the cold war.

It would have been just as subtle to give Hanks a white hat to prove the point. I'm guessing it's US good, Eastern Europe bad. Not since Clint Eastwood's American Sniper have I felt so bombarded by pro US sentiment.

Hanks is a good actor in the right role. He was tremendous in Capt. Phillips for example, but in Spies he's on autopilot. With an expression of slight discomfort on his face Hanks stumbles through the role, looking for all the world as if he's eaten something dodgy and is wondering whether he can make the nearest toilet in time. Much was made of the titular bridge sequence being shot at the Glienicke Bridge where the real handover took place. The way Spielberg lights and shoots it, he makes it look like just another expensive Hollywood set.

The nadir of this simplistic approach occurs late in the film. Spielberg reprises an earlier sequence of Hanks watching defectors in Berlin being shot at as they try to climb over the wall. We're back in the good ole USA and this time Hanks is watching children climbing over garden fences, playing. Hanks looks on and finally smiles.

I didn't. Walking out of the cinema I expected to be presented with a free slice of Ma's apple pie. But it wasn't to be.

Maybe Hanks had eaten them all-that would explain his dodgy stomach.


Bridge of Spies trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBBuzHrZBro