“That Actually Did Happen”: Oscar-Winning Spielberg Movie Gets High Accuracy Grade From Cold War Expert

Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies gets a high accuracy rating from an expert on Cold War history. Bridge of Spies is a 2015 historical drama about an American lawyer who is hired to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and help facilitate the exchange of said spy for American spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers. Bridge of Spies features a leading cast of Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, and Amy Ryan.

Nearly a decade after the film’s release, Cold War historian James Hershberg speaks with Insider surrounding the accuracy of Bridge of Spies. To start off, Hershberg stated the argument that “this is very accurate and faithful to the events” on which the film is based.

The historian went on to break down specific scenes, including a scene wherein CIA agents confront Abel, and pointed to the relative adherence to the history of said scenes. Overall, Hershberg was impressed with the accuracy of the history depicted in Bridge of Spies, giving it an 8/10 score for accuracy. Check out the full analysis from Hershberg below:

As historical accuracy goes, this is very accurate and faithful to the events of the swap of Francis Gary Powers, the American U2 pilot, and the Soviet spy Rudolph Abel. The scene in which he gets a message inside a nickel is realistic, because that actually did happen although apparently the nickel got lost, and he lost track of it, and it was given to the police when a newspaper boy, you know, discovered it.

I can’t verify that Abel was in his underpants, the agents had their guns drawn, and all of that. But, you know, he was arrested, um and you know, it was determined that, you know, he had been part of a ring.

Generally, the Soviets were presumed and verified to have more human intelligence capabilities inside the United States than the US had in the Soviet Union. This was true, for example, of atomic intelligence. The Soviets were able to have a ring that included scientists associated with the Manhattan project. So, intelligence was a game that went on. But generally it was believed that the US tended to rely more on technology for intelligence.

I think it really does reflect the historical events. It doesn’t have everything, for example it shows the shooting down of Powers’ U2 on May 1, 1960. It was not known until decades later that the Soviets also accidentally shot down one of their own planes that was chasing the U2, and killed the pilot, which was rather unfortunate.

I don’t believe Powers ever claimed he was tortured persay, like the torture at Guantanamo or that kind of thing. But the idea of preventing sleep, that was not unrealistic.

Prisoner exchanges were made. I wouldn’t call them common. You know, it was not unheard of when one side had something the other wanted, and the other side had something that could be exchanged, for there to be a negotiating process.

I would give this scene an 8.

Bridge of Spies Fits Into Larger Spielberg Trends

Hershberg’s review of Bridge of Spies shows just how much care Spielberg and his teams put into making accurate historical narratives. Spielberg has had a wide-ranging filmography over the course of his decades-long career, but historical films have been a significant piece of his oeuvre. Said work has included The Post, Lincoln, and his tour-de-force Nazi drama Schindler’s List.

Bridge of Spies received ample recognition at the time of its release. The film received a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes among critics, and an also-impressive 87% approval rating among audiences. Bridge of Spies went on to be nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Production Design. It ended up winning Best Supporting Actor for Mark Rylance’s role as Rudolph Abel.

It is easy for Bridge of Spies to get forgotten within the Spielberg oeuvre. After all, the film was preceded by Lincoln, a far better historical narrative from Spielberg. Nonetheless, it is interesting to hear perspectives like Hershberg’s, who praise the film for its impeccable attention to historical details.