The First Time U2 was in Russia

That's right, fifty years before they performed, Francis Gary Powers was shot down in 1960.  This is why my next review is Bridge of Spies nominated for Best Picture in 2015.  Also received nominations for Original Screenplay, Score, Sound Mixing, Production Design and winning Supporting Actor for Mark Rylance.

The film is based on the trial of communist spy Rudolf Abel in 1957 and Tom Hanks who plays James Donovan is tasked to act as his defense attorney.  A few years later after the U2 fighter jet is shot down, Donovan is used to broker a deal to trade Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel in Berlin at the time the wall was being put up.  Toss in an American college student who is arrested whom Donovan attempts to broker along with the trade, and you have the film in a nutshell.

Well acted, not very historically accurate, but then again that isn't that what poetic license is for?  Remember, this is Hollywood here.  The story co-written by the Coen brothers, so you know there are no plot holes and the story has a solid beginning, middle and ending.  That is a trademark of their skilled screenwriting.  And Stephen Spielberg directed the film, again his work is always top quality. So it is rather obvious why it was nominated for Best Picture.

This is now the fifth of the eight films nominated that year, and I would have to place this in third place.  So to catch up on the scoreboard, The Revenant is still top, Brooklyn is still second, The Martian is pushed to fourth and Max Max still last.