How To Disparage Steven Spielberg

In some snooty circles, it has become popular to disparage Steven Spielberg because of his undeniable commercial, mainstream appeal. Spielberg may not be the most innovative or surprising director in the business anymore, but he is still an American icon. He ranks right up there with baseball and apple pie as symbols of America. In the case of Bridge of Spies, a movie about a great American, this national treasure has delivered another excellent film.
This film focuses on James Donovan (Tom Hanks), an insurance lawyer from New York assigned to defend a Soviet spy (Mark Rylance). It’s a thankless job, but Donovan takes it because it is the right thing to do. After the case has been decided, the Soviets shoot down an American pilot (Austin Stowell) who was taking pictures of Soviet military installations. The task falls to Donovan to travel to East Berlin to negotiate a prisoner exchange between these …show more content…
On the whole, the film gives a balanced, unbiased portrayal of these two superpowers, showing that both sides were willing to commit unsavory acts for their cause. Nevertheless, the movie excessively vilifies the communists. Viewers know they are the bad guys, so Spielberg and company do not need to underline it much, if at all. But, in one sequence in particular, they highlight the vileness of that evil empire. In this sequence, Kahn shows how the Soviets torture the American prisoner, waking him up at night to interrogate him and playing with his psyche. He then cuts to show how the Americans respectfully wake up Abel by calling him sir and telling him he needs to wake up, not for torture, but transportation. These scenes should have been left on the cutting room floor because the Berlin Wall sequences better highlight the Soviets’ evil and feel less ham-fisted. Given that, these sequences of mistreating prisoners come off as unnecessary and slightly