STEVEN SPIELBERG Q and A
BRIDGE OF SPIES
IS AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL HD ON 14TH MARCH AND BLU-RAY AND DVD ON 28TH
MARCH FROM TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
“I’m really
proud of it,” begins Steven Spielberg about his newest film Bridge Of Spies. His
fourth collaboration with Tom Hanks following Saving Private Ryan (for which
Spielberg won a Best Director Oscar), Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal, it
follows insurance lawyer James B. Donovan (Hanks) as he is recruited to defend
Russian spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) at the height of the Cold War, an
assignment that leads to a life-threatening mission to East Berlin to secure a
swap between Abel and US pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell). Full of
great performances, tense confrontations and bravura filmmaking, Bridge Of
Spies continues the absorbing view of history contained in Spielberg classics
like Schindler’s List and Lincoln combined with the nerve-shredding suspense of
crowd-pleasers like Jaws and Jurassic Park. In an in-depth interview, he talks
history, his personal connections to the Cold War, spying and a visit from one
of the most powerful leaders in the world.
One of your great gifts as a filmmaker
is finding stories from history that feel fresh and relevant. How do you do
that?
I’ll make a
sweeping statement that I will have to take back someday: I think history
writes better stories than fiction. When you see something in history that is
so compelling, you say, “Nobody could have made this up!”. History offers us
stories that are almost beyond belief. Every time I pick up a biography or a
book about an incident that happened, I immediately want to make a movie out of
it. I could always find that one nugget, that piece of truth that no one has
ever really talked about. I’ll go right to the footnote and say, ‘That is the
story!”
How does that apply to Bridge of
Spies? You seemed to have unearthed the last untold Cold War story?
Somebody came
to me and said, “Do you want to make a movie about Gary Powers being shot down
above the Soviet Union in his U2?” And that might have been enough for one
whole movie. But Tom and I later found out that there was so much more to it
than that. We came to realise that, as incredible as it might seem, these
events really happened.
At the centre of the film is the relationship
between US insurance lawyer James Donovan and Russian spy Rudolf Abel. It isn’t
the usual mismatched duo we’ve seen a million times before.
It avoids
stereotypes because the true-life incidents of Donovan and Abel avoided
stereotypes. It was a very unlikely partnership. I wanted this movie to be the
kind of relationship story where the audience couldn’t wait to see Abel and
Donovan in a scene again.
What are your personal connections to
the story?
I was a
teenager during this time. I remember how scared I was. I remember the air-raid
drills where we had to duck and cover under our desks and put books over our
heads. I remember the films they showed us about what to do if you see a flash and
what a nuclear bomb can do to a city, let alone a small suburban home in
Phoenix, Arizona. I was very well aware
of all this.
How would you describe the film’s view
of spying?
It’s not the
most glamorous view. There’s a lot of gumshoe work and a lot of conversation.
There’s a lot of waiting and pausing. There
is a preposterous moment straight out of a Hollywood spy movie when the CIA
operative gives Donovan a phone number to memorise and then immediately burns
it. Donovan scoffs and gives him a look that says, “That’s right out of a movie
but it’s not out of the movie I’m in!”
The film is about timeless values —
integrity, moral courage — but it also shines a light on a lot of contemporary
concerns and issues?
Back, in
those days, we had an eye on each other. These days we have a jungle of eyes on
each other and not even when there is important information to be snatched.
Today hacking is a sport. Occasionally a hacker will hit upon actionable
information that can make him some money or get him to flee the country. Anyone
who knows how to manipulate electronic devices can spy on anybody else.
Power’s U2 mission is nothing if not a
forerunner of today’s drones?
There’s a lot
of spying today. We’re also in, not a Cold War, but what I would call a world
of frosty relationships between Putin and Obama and China. There is a frost in the
air today.
When you were shooting on Glienicke
Bridge, the actual Bridge of Spies, you had a visit from Chancellor Merkel. How
was that?
We saw her
twice that day. She asked very appropriate, compelling questions. She actually came
on the set on the coldest night we experienced throughout the shoot. We were
dressed like we were making Everest and Chancellor Merkel came dressed in what
I would call fall clothing. She didn’t look cold.
The film ends on a classic moment of
Spielbergian suspense based around a phone call. Are those the kind of scenes
you love to do as a filmmaker?
You know what
I love? I love the waiting before the
phone rings. It’s the kind of scene where, in the clichéd version, you would have
the ticking of a clock. You would hear the ticking of a clock and suddenly the
phone would ring. We just had them sitting in silence, waiting for someone else
to do something first. I love those moments of waiting for the other shoe to
drop.
Finally, which other historical
figures would you love to make a movie about?
I would love
to do a story about the Wright brothers one day. Ever since I’ve been a kid,
I’ve been interested in that. I’ll have a character say, “The Plane! The
Plane!”
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