Blu-ray Movie Reviews

In June 1957, Soviet spy Rudolf Abel is captured in New York City. Insurance attorney James B. Donovan is appointed to handle the defense, based on his experience at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Reluctant to take the case at first, Donovan ultimately accepts, passionate in his belief that everyone deserves a fair trial.

While Abel is convicted, Donovan convinces the judge to choose imprisonment over execution on the grounds that Abel might prove valuable to the government in some future exchange for an American held by the Soviets. That future arrives soon enough in the form of U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers. Donovan is again tapped to be point man in arranging for that exchange.

While the movie claims to be inspired by true events, brief Internet research turned up a few dubious sequences in the Matt Charman and Coen Brothers script. Donovan and his family were vilified by many both during and after the trial, but the drive-by shooting shown in the film is fiction. The timing of the events in the film was also dramatically compressed. But these are minor quibbles.

Director Steven Spielberg lived through this era, and he reproduces it brilliantly: the clothing, the attitudes, the cars, the atmosphere—and the paranoia. The later was fully justified: The Cuban Missile Crisis took place less than a year after Powers was released. Some viewers, however, will be disappointed. Apart from the depiction of the Powers shoot-down, this is a serious and intriguing drama, but in no way is it an action or spy-versus-spy film.

The cinematography (shot on film, not video) is brilliant. Even cinematographer Janusz Kaminski’s occasional preference for blown-out backlighting is effective (but not overdone). The video transfer is gorgeous, with crisp resolution, natural color, and excellent blacks when needed. This would make a gorgeous Ultra HD Blu-ray release, but until that happens, this 1080p Blu-ray is more than satisfying. The sound, while seldom spectacular, is loaded with subtle detail; the first 10 minutes alone is a cacophony of the street and subway sounds of New York, both then and now. Thomas Newman’s score is sparse but effective.

The extras include four short documentaries, from the re-creation of the building of the Berlin Wall to the filming of the U-2 shoot-down (the only obvious use here of CGI).

Blu-Ray
Studio: Fox
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Length: 142 mins.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan