Posted on 10/18/2015 10:15:18 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
I'm wondering if anyone else on FRee Republic has seen Bridge of Spies, the new Spielberg movie? I don't see a review here, so I'll start with mine. However, I'm really interested in other opinions.
The movie was a little slow moving, but gripping and attention-holding to the very end. My concern is its accuracy. It says in the disclaimer right up front that it is "inspired by true events". Yet, the tale is spun as if it is all Gospel. Somehow, I doubt some of it, so I'm rushing to Google this AM to find out what is true and what is pure Hollywood revisionism.
I was alive and interested in politics during that period, but rather young and a newlywed. I had limited access to the news and (of course) the news, in those days, only told us what the government allowed. Somehow, I don't quite remember it the way it is told in the movie.
The story, as told by Spielberg keeps you on the edge of your seat to the very end. The movie is PG and safe for families. It is a story of life in the US during the height of the Cold War.
The tale centers around an insurance lawyer named Jim Donovan who is asked by his firm to defend a captured Soviet spy, Rudol Abel. Abel, supposedly caught red-handed (no pun intended) acting as a conduit for information to and from the Soviets. His "cover" is that he is an artist who paints scenes around town "plein air", which allows him the cover of setting up and working in unusual places (which also happen to be "drop" locations) where he picks up messages from other spies. Some of the spy craft he is shown to use is interesting. Some of the "evidence" the FBI uses to bring him to trial turns out to have been gathered illegally, in Donovan's opinion. Donovan had been on the prosecuting team that brought Nuerenburg criminals to trial at the end of WWII, so his credentials are impeccable and would show the rest of the world that Abel was given the best defense possible. The judge and the whole country seem to have Abel's guilt prejudged and they are shocked when Donovan takes his role as a defense attorney seriously and gives this man a vigorous defense which results in a lengthy prison sentence, instead of the death penalty. He then follows with an appeal.
Donovan becomes the most hated man in America, right along with Abel. The story spins from there until events coincide with the Russian downing of Francis Gary Powers and his U2 and the erection of the Berlin wall.
Its disgusting of you to call Powers a questionable character. Only a creepy CIA Col Flagg mentality demanding suicide could have expected more of him.
And there was no plot and secret landing. They knew the route, they watched it on radar. We knew they could see but thought we were safe at that altitude. That’s when the SA-2 made its combat debut and got a U-2.
The U-2 missions completely crossing the USSR weren’t exactly common. This one was on May 1st.
So essentially, on their 4th of july, we intended to fly across the country, and get away. There was intense debate as to whether or not it was possible to get away with one more fight. We didn’t.
Powers was an honest to god hero and nothing less. The bastards at the CIA who criticized him, and even Ike that claimed to know nothing, weren’t fit to shine his shoes.
Kelly Johnson at the Skunk Works thought he got a raw deal.
I can’t add anything to your knowledge of the topic. But, I would like to say that you have a talent for writing and your personal story sounds the most interesting. You should be a writer of books!
You are missing a first rate (4 star) film that is largely accurate. Don’t let your prejudices stand in your way of a good night out. Just go in eyes wide open.
It is so rare that Hollywood produces an action film that is PG rated. Spielberg and Hanks should be applauded for that.
BTW, there was a reference to those 6 U2 pilots lost over China. The Russians used that info in their torture of Powers. Something about their planes being designed (presumably by the government) to instantly kill the pilots. It didn’t say they were Taiwanese. They made it sound like every guy who went up would return dead — that it was some kind of deliberate governmental trick to sacrifice pilots.
Awww. You are so sweet. My mother would agree with you. However, my writing has never extended beyond a short stint reporting the doings of City and County government for a local newspaper, many years ago.
It’s a good movie for libs to see. Hard to watch it and walk away thinking that the Mexican invasion is not a problem. Some one here commented that it is like an infomercial for Trumps immigration policy.
“(But how did they know that it was NOT a weather plane that had strayed off course?) I thought that Eisenhower was a senile old fool for admitting our collective guilt.”
Yeah,,, maybe from the gigantic three lensed camera system with the 2 huge film reels and the lack of anything to research the weather?
Or maybe the utter implausibility of the story? An odd looking Russian jet crashes near Denver and they go, “oh hey, we were just checking the weather”...lol)
And he finally manned up. Doing it your way would mean Powers was on his own, abandoned by his nation.
You probably think he should have used his needle.
The SA2 goes to about 82,000 feet. Can reach a U2 in any of its operating altitudes.
He didn’t have a pill. Those were removed after a pilot got it from his pocket and popped it into his mouth thinking it was a lemon drop.
They replaced it with a needle with a shellfish poison concoction. He had one of those and didn’t use it.
Do you think he owed it to his country to commit suicide? If so, then why also not Dulles, Ike, and Kelly Johnson too?
That way they couldn’t say anything stupid either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUHk2RSMCS8
Suicide for the cause.
I remember the prisoner exchange, but not much else. As I recall, perhaps not correctly, I read the abridged story in Reader’s Digest during lengthy wait at the dentist’s office; it was a very gripping tale as I remember it.
I am just trying to reflect the American public thinking at the time. Of course, none of us really knew what happened.
Just reflecting the thinking at the time. And trying to separate fact from fiction.
Remember, the American public was deathly afraid of nuclear attack. That is the propaganda we were being fed at the time. And we were all still remembering tales of the noble glories of WWII heroes. We were a naiive bunch that believed in our American morality. We had “Americanism” infused in our education from the earliest days. Their spies were bad and our spies (when we admitted we had them) were noble and heroic.
Right, might, and the American way!
Several locale scenes were familiar to me personally. The entrance to Luke AFB on the westside of Phoenix is shown as being surrounded by stark desert, when in fact it is surrounded by heavily populated, middle class, suburban homes with trees and lawns and backyard pools. The lone bar scene at the "Wild Horse" bar in the film, is in reality the Sliver Pony Country bar in South Phoenix. I recognized it immediately because my high school buddies and I would go there for drinks and settle our bets every Friday afternoon for twenty years after our weekly golf game. Best neighborhood bar ever. And in the early-to-mid-70s, I made frequent trips to Juarez with my friends when I was stationed in the Air Force at Holloman AFB, just north of El Paso in New Mexico. While it is rougher and more dangerous now than it was 40 years ago, it still was a rough border town and corridor for drugs back then too.
I believe if the Washington DC politicians and elites lived in this dangerous area along our southwest border controlled by the Mexican drug cartels and human trafficking criminals, that a secure border fence would have been built yesterday and the influx of illegal immigrants and the resulting increase in crime, would be stopped immediately. But because they live on the opposite side of the country from this trouble spot, they exist in their own bubble of ignorance and denial regarding illegal immigration and their desire for blanket amnesty, because it doesn't affect them directly.
Sicario is a great movie. If you don't like blood and guts, stay home. If you like lush, green landscapes, forget it. If you want comedy and romance, go see another film. But if you want to be seriously entertained by a film with a sharp edge, go see this film.
I want to like this movie (haven’t seen it yet). But if there is one thing I’m tired of it’s Spielberg’s courtroom drama crap. Whether it was Amistad, or Lincoln and the passing of the 13th amendment. So when I watched the trailer and saw a good portion was about the trial of a Russian spy and how everyone hates him and his lawyer and the obligatory brick through a window this movie went down in my estimation. But I’ll still see it eventually.
I haven’t seen it, bit franchised Francis Powers soon spike to my reserves unit. He was a consultant on the film, but he did say they had to take artistic liberties to make it entertaining. He didn’t see the final movie when he spoke to us but he did share concern about it representing reality.
Also your memories are accurate. His son said he spent years righting the wrong impression of good father.
Not too much courtroom drama. A brick through the window is NOTHING compared to what happens (I don’t know the truth about that yet.) Much of the film centers on the touchy negotiations with the East Germans and the Soviets and Donovan’s stubborness in standing up to his CIA handlers. There’s a lot of spine tingling action crossing the border from West to East Berlin and back again.
The genre is considered an espionage/action/thriller.
Thanks for your input. Did you mean that Francis Gary Powers, Jr. spoke to your Reserve unit? If that is what you meant, then his reserve was the same that I felt upon seeing the film. But I found it largely accurate (because I looked up the facts that I didn’t quite remember afterwards — those events that didn’t exactly jibe with my memories).
It was also highly entertaining and good family fare for teens over 13. A little bit of real history. I would see it again, and rate it 4 stars out of 4. Don’t wait for it on Netflix, or DVD. See it in a real theatre with a big screen. You won’t be sorry. See a matinee, if the ticket price deters you, or wait for it to come to a Budget theatre. (I’m old enough to get a Sr. discount, so it’s not so bad.)
I read that Supreme Court decision in law school. IIRC, the Government argued that Abel had no constitutional rights because he was in the country illegally; the Supreme Court rejected that argument, but upheld his conviction anyway, on the grounds that the search, albeit warrantless, was nonetheless legal (I think because the FBI searched his hotel room and not his house).
too bad the fbi isn't so concerned about the rights of AMERICAN gun owners
In the book “Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed” the author (Ben Rich, who worked on the U2 and SR71, and was the director of the Skunkworks from 1975 to 1991) said it was only a matter of time until one got shot down, they were developing new SAMs, and we thought they wouldn’t be able to see the U2, but they could because they improved the lend lease radars we gave them. There were missions where they scrambled 20-30 fighters, but they couldn’t go high enough.
At the time Powers got shot down, overflights had not been banned, but they had to be approved at high levels.
And if I remember correctly, Powers took the same route flown only a few weeks before by another U2, which was a big no-no. Word, was, they were waiting for him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.