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Bridge of Spies will be Steven Spielberg's first film since The Color Purple not to have a score by John Williams. Thomas Newman has stepped in after a "minor health issue" interrupted Williams' schedule.

Huh, I figured he would have gone with Hans Zimmer for some reason.

Although I know Spielberg has expressed admiration for Hans Zimmer in the past, I would guess he still wants a more "classic" sound than Zimmer generally provides.

EDIT: Not that Thomas Newman "generally" provides that either, but there's more overlap between the more subdued scores Williams has provided for Spielberg (like Lincoln or Saving Private Ryan) and some of Newman's work (I'm thinking of things like Shawshank and The Good German) than there is between Williams and anything Hans Zimmer has done.

Not even scores like Thin Red Line or Interstellar?

Kirkinson wrote:Bridge of Spies will be Steven Spielberg's first film since The Color Purple not to have a score by John Williams. Thomas Newman has stepped in after a "minor health issue" interrupted Williams' schedule.

I would have thought he'd go for Michael Giacchino.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Not even scores like Thin Red Line or Interstellar?

I mean, this is getting deep into speculation (because I really have no idea what inspired Spielberg's choice) and my own subjective perceptions of their music, but I would say no, that Hans Zimmer's music, even in those scores which are superficially similar to the style I'm talking about, is structurally quite different, with a more modern (with a lower-case "m") emphasis on rhythm and looping as opposed to the development of melody and harmony. And they also have a distinctly different approach to orchestration (Williams' is generally much more complex and nuanced, which I don't mean as a criticism of Zimmer—it's really just an instance of shifting trends in film music) and to mixing & mastering, with Zimmer usually preferring a much heavier and somewhat synthetic sound, even when he records with a real orchestra.

In general terms, Williams is very much an old-school film composer. Newman and Zimmer are both from the same generation, but Newman (though it's probably not what he's best known for) has done several scores with what could vaguely be referred to as an old-school sound. Obviously this is open to debate, but I don't think Zimmer ever has.

I'm certainly not debating the choice (I'm a big fan of both their work), and it's easy for me to overlook that this was a last-minute replacement and that Zimmer may be busy elsewhere. Newman's not that strange of a choice if you take Zimmer out of the equation, he's done several scores for DreamWorks going back to American Beauty. I just would have assumed Zimmer because Spielberg chose him to head the studio's film score unit back when it was getting off the ground and he more recently contributed to The Pacific which both Spielberg and Hanks produced obviously.

I just assumed he'd go with Clint Eastwood.

Trailer

This looks like it could go either way. It seems like the material is there for another mature, late-period Spielberg film. Or it could be one-dimensional, patriotic silliness. I'm hoping that the hints of the latter are just the work of the marketing department.

What is Ethan and Joel Coen's role in the movie?

Co-writers of the screenplay.

The trailer makes it a hard film to read, as most of the pleasures of late period Spielberg are not easily marketable in a 2 minute promo. It's promising territory, so we'll have to wait and see.

I don't know, that trailer looks pretty bad. Big and slick, painted in broad strokes…in other words, embellished grandstanding. The machine gun fire alone feels ridiculous and dubious.

This other, Saul Bass-aping poster gives a different take

Except that's a fan-made poster. It even incorrectly lists John Williams as the composer rather than Thomas Newman. I do like it, though.

I'm never very excited by Spielberg in prestige-mode. Go back to sharks, aliens, robots and space trolls please!

i know it's a pet peeve held by many on this forum to lazily label a movie boring or pretentious without really going into detail about the film but sweet jesus!! what a snooze this was...no dramatic tension whatsoever. Spielberg has nothing to say here at all. here's your movie: Hanks' character tries to do and then does exactly what he's been talking about for about 2+ hours. end of story, roll credits. thank you, good night...

I'm never very excited by Spielberg in prestige-mode. Go back to sharks, aliens, robots and space trolls please!

Amen...

Lost Highway wrote:I'm never very excited by Spielberg in prestige-mode. Go back to sharks, aliens, robots and space trolls please!

What, worse than Munich? That was, along with Crystal Skull, the bottom of the barrel. Munich can also lay claim to woeful miscasting. Eric Bana - Jesus wept!

Empire of the Sun is the lone exception to award-baiting Spielberg, but even that feels somewhat restrained, and I wonder if the significant chunk of footage cut to give it a brisker running time might have helped

How rude! wrote:

Lost Highway wrote:I'm never very excited by Spielberg in prestige-mode. Go back to sharks, aliens, robots and space trolls please!

What, worse than Munich? That was, along with Crystal Skull, the bottom of the barrel. Munich can also lay claim to woeful miscasting. Eric Bana - Jesus wept!

Why do you think Munich is bottom of the barrel?

I can't even imagine finding this film boring; I found it riveting. I think it completes, along with Munich and Lincoln, a trilogy of near-masterpieces wherein meticulous historical re-creations of political machinations serve as metaphors for modern policy questions. Here, Spielberg is asserting that America's constitutional principles of due process apply to all engaged in its legal system, even enemy combatants and those in the country illegally. He argues that if we can't adhere to our principles even when in conflict, the principles aren't worth defending.

Spielberg certainly has something to say (and he says it bluntly), but more importantly, this is meticulously crafted, propulsive cinema. The first reel is a near-wordless sequence of sublimely efficient visual storytelling, introducing us to a brilliant Mark Rylance and the plight of his character. Then, as he introduces a series of political pawns, Spielberg uses a number of witty match cuts and other visual rhymes to establish the two sides of an exchange across a divided city, like the two sides of the multiple phony coins that figure into the proceedings.

I can't dismiss arguments that the film is full of Capraesque hokum. Hanks is indeed in full Jimmy Stewart mode, and Spielberg unfortunately does indulge his recent penchant for a series of increasingly maudlin endings. Bridge of Spies is so brimming with masterful cinematic craftsmanship and storytelling though, that such complaints seem petty. Janusz Kaminski's trademark steely grey cinematography often wears out its welcome for me, but feels perfect here, and Michael Kahn's editing is beyond reproach. Hanks and Rylance both deliver knockout performances and every smaller supporting role feels perfectly cast too (even if Amy Ryan is wasted as usual). The longish screenplay unfolds a complicated series of events in an admirably economical and compelling way, and is punctuated by welcome wry dialogue and bits of business by scripting guest stars Ethan and Joel Coen.

Spielberg has been batting around .500 for me since his 80s heyday, but this is my favorite film of his in a very long time, and indeed my favorite film so far this year.

There is very little of Ethan and Joel Coen in this. Tiny bits here and there. They may as well not have been credited. Spielberg probably insisted on it to get cinefiles to go see this fairly uninvolving film.
Anyone going in to see this just to see some Coen fingerprints is going to be disappointed that they watched a Spielberg film for nothing.

Wasn't that the same with Unbroken?

Yes, I forgot about Unbroken. BOS is not as completely worthless as Unbroken was. And there was also the same situation with Gambit (2012). I think there is a pattern emerging here.