It was either a trip to Costco an hour away or a trip to the movies just up the road for our Saturday time together. The first snow of the season settled it for us, so Earl and I headed to the cinema.
We don’t go there together often, because one of us likes blood and guts and one of us likes cartoons.
But both of us wanted to see “Bridge of Spies,” a film about the cold war between the United States and the USSR in the 1950s. About American pilot Francis Gary Powers and Russian spy Rudolph Abel. About one man, Jim Donovan, who helped both sides win.
Earl and I lived that period. While he was older and remembers the Powers story more do, I remember the school drills in case the USSR bombed us. It’s all portrayed in the movie.
We went out to dinner afterwards and talked about the film. We loved the acting, the cinematography, the music. We quite possibly came down on the same side of the political fence too. (It’s amazing what a good movie can do for détente.)
Today is the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, he who inherited the Cold War situation. By the time he was elected President, Powers and Abel had been exchanged and the wall had been firmly fortified between East and West Berlin.
Kennedy had other fish to fry, so the swap between East and West faded. Until now, when the movie “Bridge of Spies” comes along to remind us in the middle of the present refugee crisis what our country is really about.
In case you’re unsure, it’s about the rule book called the Constitution. ”Bridge of Spies” shows us that; we are who we are because of the Constitution. I only hope that today’s citizens read it
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