Tom Hanks rarely makes a bad film – I’m pretending The Da Vinci Code didn’t happen – and Bridge of Spies seems to continue this run of intense, thought-provoking performances. In what will be his fourth collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, Hanks is cast as James Donovan, an American lawyer recruited by the CIA to help rescue Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), a pilot detained in the Soviet Union. It is set to be a tense thriller, with Hanks going “eyeball to eyeball” (to quote a phrase) with the Russians to serve the needs of the American government.
The black, white and red poster for the film harks back to Spielberg’s most infamous monochrome creation, Schindler’s List. Thomas Newman – the man behind the haunting score to The Shawshank Redemption and American Beauty – has created the music for the film, after Spielberg’s composer of choice, John Williams, was ruled out due to poor health.
The rest of the cast is another exciting element of the film. Joining Hanks and Stowell are Alan Alda, Mark Rylance and Sebastian Koch. While there have been plenty of mundane cinematic offerings concerning the Cold War, I am convinced that the strength of the Hanks/Spielberg pairing is where this film’s success lies.
Bridge of Spies is released on 9th October 2015.
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