Instructors:  Barbara Burns

Steve Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies was a box office success worldwide and yielded 6 Academy Award nominations and won Best Supporting Actor for Mark Rylance. The story follows James Donovan, an insurance lawyer who negotiated during the Nuremburg Trials, who is recruited by the CIA to defend Russian Spy Colonel Rudolph Abel of the KGB. Trials ensue. Abel is eventually sentenced to prison, saved from execution by Donovan’s expert and moral lawyering. During this time, the US is training men to spy on Russia. Francis Gary Powers is shot down and sent to a Russian prison. Donovan is chosen to secretly arrange a prisoner exchange. The harrowing story of his mission ensues and climaxes on the Glienecke Bridge between Potsdam and Berlin. Donovan seeks and achieves the inclusion of another POW from America in the deal and Frederick Pryor is released as well as Francis Gary Powers. It is of interest that Spielberg’s father active in service during the Cold War was a stimulus and resource for the true story.  The screenplay was written by Matt Charman and the Coen brothers. Join us for a viewing and discussion as we explore the idea of the Hero with A Thousand Faces, Spy, and Criminal archetypes.

About the Instructor
Barbara Burns is a Registered Nurse and received her Masters in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago. In addition to being a Clinical Social Worker, Barbara has been teaching Tai Chi for over 35 years.   She is very interested in women’s spirituality and completed the certificate program at the Jung Institute in 1989. She resides in Evanston and is a member of the Board of Trustees at The C. G. Jung Center.