Issue 47.15
I do not usually use this as a forum to review media such as films, music, etc. even though I enjoy and understand the power those venues have in forming and supporting perceptions. I saw a film last week that I feel I must recommend to anyone who loves freedom.
Bridge of spies is a thoughtful and intense look at real events during the cold war. There is a little artistic license, but most of the events and personalities in the film are real and are portrayed well. Tom Hanks does a great job portraying an insurance lawyer who is asked to defend a Russian spy so he will have representation in our court system. He does a good job, but the fix is in and the conviction a foregone conclusion. James Donovan was the lawyer and is played well by Tom Hanks. The principles and passion this lawyer exhibited in a case he knew was likely fixed shows his character and endears him to the people around him, but not so much to the government and the public. One of the interesting aspects of the film is the way people look at him when he is defending the presumed spy and then how they look at him a few weeks later as he completes the second phase of the film – the trading of prisoners with Russia – the spy he has defended for U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and a student who was arrested (falsely) as a U.S. spy in East Germany.
The film is full of dramatic tension and moments that make you want to cheer (or at least made me want to cheer). The reason it was so powerful for me is that Mr. Donovan was an ordinary though talented and intelligent lawyer. He was told repeatedly to compromise his principles to serve the “greater good” but he wouldn’t do it. If he had, he would be a footnote in court records and would have made very little difference in the world.
Because he stood up for the principles our nation was founded on instead of caving in to bureaucrats and politicians, he was successful in bringing Mr. Powers and Frederic Pryor home before and instead of the Russians being able to wring secrets from Powers and jailing or killing both men.
The film is, at least in my eyes, a powerful exposition of why integrity works when politics and lying would have failed. It is good to note that, at the end of the film, Mr. Donovan is noted to have saved thousands of lives and the freedom of many people as he continued to negotiate for the United States. They didn’t like his tactics or unwillingness to compromise his principles, but they liked his results.
Too bad most politicians don’t understand that the reason for the results was his integrity and tenacity.
It warmed my heart to have this story told and that it was told in such a good way. Steven Spielberg deserves credit for again crafting a great story, one that is true and one that matters. I encourage everyone to see this at least once. I for one will watch it again and share it with others that might enjoy and learn from it.
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.