Bridge of Spies (Disney, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD, VOD), Steven Spielberg’s cold war drama, stars Tom Hanks as insurance attorney James B. Donovan, an American idealist asked to represent Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a Soviet spy captured by the CIA in 1957 and given a public trial. He’s prize casting in a legal pageant that he’s supposed to lose but Donovan takes his oath—and the American values that the government and the CIA agents are quick to discard in the heat of the Cold War—seriously and defends his client to the best of abilities, ultimately taking the case to the Supreme Court. It makes him suspect in the anti-communist fervor of the late 1950s, but that commitment makes him the perfect emissary for back-channel negotiations for a prisoner swap for Gary Powers, the captured pilot of a U-2 spy plane shot down over Soviet airspace. It also makes him, at least in this take on history, the only hope for Frederic Pryor (Will Rogers), an American student on the wrong side of the border when the East German troops put up the wall.
The film features a period-perfect recreation of late-1950s America and a gloomily oppressive portrait of East Berlin after the construction of the Berlin Wall, a sharp screenplay co-written by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, and the directorial signatures that remind us again that Spielberg is one of the great directors. But it’s all a little too neat, more nostalgic than thrilling, without a palpable sense of urgency or danger, and lacking the nuance of Lincoln. Thomas Newman’s score hits the uplifting, string-heavy Americana hard and even the brilliant filmmaking of the opening scene, with a camera weaving through the border between East and West Berlin and cutting through the panic and chaos of a political upheaval in action, is so controlled it feels more like a showcase than a dramatic experience.
It’s Hanks who carries the film as a kind of Cold War Atticus Finch, a husband and father and an American idealist who refuses to betray his client simply because he’s a Soviet spy, and he portrays Donovan’s essential integrity and loyalty without sentiment. Hanks makes it look so effortless it’s easy to take that accomplishment for granted and Mark Rylance—one of the great actors of the British stage making a rare big screen appearance—is equally good as Abel, betraying almost no emotion behind his tired, resigned expression yet expressing both trust in and admiration for Donovan, who never abandons him. The most powerful moment of the prisoner swap—on a snowy Berlin checkpoint in the dead of winter—is neither the anxious wait nor the tension of distrust between the sides but the trust and friendship between the two men, enemies by nationality but friends by chance, in their last meeting.
Bridge of Spies is nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Rylance.
On Blu-ray and DVD with four featurettes: “A Case of the Cold War: Bridge of Spies,” “U-2 Spy Plane,” “Berlin 1961: Re-creating the Divide,” and “Spy Swap: Looking Back on the Final Act.” The Blu-ray also features bonus DVD and Ultraviolet Digital HD copies of the film.
Also on VOD through most cable systems, Amazon Video, Vudu, DirecTV, and other services.
Our Brand is Crisis (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD), inspired by the 2005 documentary of the same name, is a political satire with an engaging cast but a dull bite. Set in the 2002, it stars Sandra Bullock as Jane, an American political consultant lured out of retirement to work on a campaign to re-elect a former Bolivian President (Joaquim de Almeida) who is unliked by the public (and for good reason). She’s a reluctant player until she finds her nemesis (Billy Bob Thornton) working for the charismatic frontrunner and declares war. There’s no commitment to a candidate or political ideals here, only the sense of politics as a game she’s determined to win.
Director David Gordon Green plays it for comedy, a multi-national satire that frames its cynicism within slapstick antics and tit-for-tat gags, and Bullock and Thornton are marvelous together, pros who treat competition as flirtation. The Americans are little better than mercenaries in a foreign war, this one waged at the ballot box, and the lightweight tone can’t support the serious issues of globalization, exploitation, and corruption of the election process behind the snappy humor and Bullock’s marvelous mess of a character. Still, it is admirable that it even bothered to carry a real message behind the character comedy
On Blu-ray and DVD with the featurette “Sandra Bullock: A Role Like No Other.” The Blu-ray also features an Ultraviolet Digital HD copy of the film.
Also on VOD through most cable systems, iTunes, Amazon Video, DirecTV, and other services.
Suffragette (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD), starring Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, dramatizes the often violent struggle for women’s voting rights in Britain in the early 20th century. It’s interesting history— they became radicalized, turning to vandalism and acts of civil disobedience after 50 years of peaceful activism, and were treated like a terrorist organization by the government, which unleashed a campaign of intimidation and violence that recalls the American Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s—but filmmaker Sarah Gavron and screenwriter Abi Morgan fail to make compelling drama from the history lesson. Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai, and Anne-Marie Duff co-star, Brendan Gleeson is quietly commanding as a police inspector sent to put down the movement with similar tactics used against the IRA, and Meryl Streep gets prime billing for a few minutes of screen time as the firebrand movement leader Emmeline Pankhurst.
On Blu-ray and DVD with filmmaker commentary and three featurettes. The Blu-ray also features an Ultraviolet Digital HD copy of the film.
Also on VOD through most cable systems, iTunes, Amazon Video, DirecTV, and other services.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Walt Disney Signature Collection (Disney, Blu-ray+DVD Combo), the new edition of the very first animated feature (or feature film of any kind, for that matter) from Walt Disney Pictures, has some new supplements, removes some supplements that were on the 2009 “Diamond Edition,” and adds a Digital HD copy of the film. I review it later this week.
Also new and notable:
Batman: Bad Blood (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD), the latest DC Universe Animated Original Movie, is a sequel to Son of Batman. Based on the comics written by Grank Morrison, it’s a real Bat-team up, with Batwoman, Robin, Nightwing, and Batwoman uniting after Batman goes missing. With featurettes and bonus cartoons.
Rock the Kasbah (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD), starring Bill Murray as a once-famous rock and roll manager who finds teenage Pashtu girl (Leem Lubany) with a great voice in Kabul and sets out to make her a star, is inspired by a true story. Barry Levinson directs and Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, and Bruce Willis co-star. Blu-ray and DVD with featurettes, deleted scenes, and bonus digital copy.
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD), adapts the revered book as an animated feature. Salma Hayek produced and stars in a voice cast that includes Liam Neeson, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, and Quvenzhane Wallis, and Roger Allers directs.
The Beauty Inside (Well Go, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD) is a Korean romantic drama that about a man wakes up every day in a different body. Korean with English subtitles.
Digital / VOD / Streaming exclusives:
Available for digital purchase in advance of disc:
Steve Jobs (Universal, Digital HD)
The 33 (Warner, Digital HD)
TV on disc:
Show Me a Hero (HBO, Blu-ray, DVD)
Mercy Street (PBS, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (Sony, DVD)
Falling Skies: The Complete Fifth Season (Warner, Blu-ray, DVD)
From Dusk Till Dawn: Season Two (eOne, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Man From U.N.C.L.E: The Complete Second Season (Warner, DVD)
More new releases:
Truth (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD)
Effie Gray (Lionsgate, DVD, VOD)
Freeheld (Summit, Blu-ray, DVD)
Man Up (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD)
The Last Witch Hunter (Lionsgate, Blu-ray, DVD)
Big Stone Gap (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD)
Meadowland (Cinedigm, DVD)
The Piper (CJ, DVD)
The Veil (Lionsgate, DVD, VOD)
How to Win at Checkers (Every Time) (Wolfe, DVD)
Home Invasion (Sony, DVD, Digital HD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD