As zeitgeist capturing movies go, there’s nothing at all fashionable about Steven Spielberg’s latest drama, the Cold War thriller, “Bridge Of Spies.” An earnest love letter to bygone eras and démodé men, it features almost no handy or culturally relevant metaphors for today’s information age and much like its subject matter, the long-gone, mostly-immaterial Cold War, “Bridge Of Spies” features an unadulterated idealism that feels outdated. A valiant throwback drama about noble men that Spielberg might have made twenty years ago around the time of “Saving Private Ryan,” the picture is a quaint and romanticized look at largely unsung American heroes who did the honorable thing for their country in times of fear, paranoia and mistrust. As hokey as that may sound, there’s also something admirable, even refreshing in swimming against the current tide of cultural filmmaking trends. It’s a classicist movie, made for adults, that dares to say there’s nothing unfashionable about...
