An excellent (9 star rating from both of us) cold war spy movie which takes place in 1957. No one in the theater was less than 50 years old; to be expected.
Tom Hanks plays an attorney who was selected to represent Abel, a Russian spy. Abel was a great character. He was gentle, an accomplished artist, a man of few words who progressively became friends with his lawyer Jim Donovan. (Hanks) Donovan is reviled and verbally assaulted for representing a spy and for not being patriotic and a 'real American'. His house is fired into also.
Donovan represents Abel to the best of his legal and moral ability, using all his skills and knowledge to get him acquitted.
At the same time, another plot is being developed involving several pilots one of them Gary Powers. He and some others were selected to fly special planes and take pictures of the Soviet Union. They were NOT to allow themselves to be captured. It was either complete a successful mission or die. Well, Powers didn't do this so he was taken prisoner and jailed after the Russians shot his plane down.
Donovan is then enlisted to broker a prisoner exchange; Abel for Powers. Powers was not well thought of either; Donovan at one point said he was held in contempt almost as much as he and Abel were. This is because the american people believed that Powers gave secrets to the Russians for his release.
This was an extremely well acted movie and even though it was over 2 hours long, it captivated me totally. A lot of suspense and tension and I loved the relationship between Donovan and Abel.
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