A million-dollar set-up that is not payed-off........

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2016)

Name every aspect involving making a film and thumbs go up with this one.The master speaks, uses his skills to the sublime. No one doubts. Spielberg at his best. Right?
Yes, but...
1/3 courtroom, 2/3 cold war suspense. Thats a rough outline of the scrips structure. The latter would be deeply satisfying for it's exiting, sentimentally old- fashion, home- cooked cold-war-spy-movie grandeur. But it is not satisfying to me. Why? Because there is a 1/3 courtroom part that is so much more, so much more promising, so much more layered, with so many exiting set-ups, that i miss - i miss him more often these days - good old Clint Eatwood to bring all that complexity to a satisfying end. The first part is not about cold war, not about a spy and not about court. The fist part is about.....us. Us people in modern days turmoil , caught in the middle of international terrorist fear. In the middle of fear for Muslims, in the middle of fear for 'the other' human being, in the middle of group pressure, consensus, media hysteria, etc..... The first part is showing a hero who thinks for himself, who is not giving in to group- thinking, who dares to stand alone, who uses reason in the right way, who is a hero because he keeps his brain sound and clear, his private property, not owned by Apple, Google or God knows who..... All in the setting of the 50s. This 1/3 part promises a movie that uses a cold war concept to dig deeper into the psychology of group thinking and the harmful consequences of it.
Instead, we turn to a good old spy movie, Spielberg forgets his million-dollar worth set-ups, leaves us alone with the moral expectations we developed and gives us goodies and baddies....with a twist, sure, but......
Americans that think, act straight and...... Eurpoeans that act weird and confused.
Great movie to watch, because it is nothing more than great popcorn. My favorite is white ceddar cheese btw...