Flick of The Day: Spy Game

The cold war in general and espionage in particular has been a well that many film-makers have gone to over the years. It is in short a well travelled genre however very few have tried to chart the machinations and manoeuvrings of a life spent in the service of the CIA during this period. Today's flick of the day, Spy Game does so through the eyes of two career spies, who were once friends but now estranged.

Spy Game [Blu-ray]

Set in 1991, the film opens with Nathan Muir, played with unselfconscious cool by Robert Redford, on his last day in the Agency. He is alerted that an old colleague who he has not spoken to for years, Tom Bishop ably played by Brad Pitt, has gone rogue and been captured while trying to break somebody out of a Chinese prison. It quickly becomes apparent that the Agency wish to disassociate themselves from Tom and leave him to rot. Nathan is brought in to give the top brass a run through of Tom's career. Told in flashbacks, the story begins in Vietnam before the final pull out in 1975 and details how Nathan recruited him before moving onto their escapades in the eastern bloc, Berlin and Beirut. In a two hour running time, it packs in a hell of a lot of assassinations  double crosses and political manoeuvring. By the end, Nathan realises he has to act to save his old friend in a poignant finale.

In the hands of director Tony Scott, this is an overly flashy film and at times, it gets in the way of what is a great story. There is enough material here for a better director to fashion a true classic rather then the merely engrossing thriller it is. There is a wonderful feeling of authenticity and a great script really gives the film an air of living history.

Tom Bishop: All right, so what else? What else do I need to know? 

Nathan Muir: Put away some money so you can die someplace warm and don't ever touch it. Not for anyone, ever. 

Tom Bishop: Okay, is that it? 

Nathan Muir: Don't *ever* risk your life for an asset. If it comes down to you or them... send flowers.

That said, this is a well crafted film with much to enjoy. Redford gives a performance better then anything he has delivered in years and Pitt is well cast as the young idealist who gradually gets dragged into the web of international espionage.

If anything, the film doesn't make enough use of some of the talent at its disposal. The likes of Charlotte Rampling and Omid Djalili pop up in blink and you will miss it roles as we move at pace from the Jungles of North Vietnam to the streets of 70's Berlin and the chaos of the war in Beirut. There appears to be genuine chemistry between Pitt and Redford and this is important because this relationship is the crux of the entire film. Is Nathan willing to put himself on the line to save an old friend?

Overall, it is an enjoyable and thoughtful walk through some of the darker days of the cold war. Pitt and Redford give strong performances and the film feels short enough at just over two hours. While the various music video stylings of Tony Scott can grate at times, overall it is well put together. An engrossing well made thriller, worth a look.

Flick of The Day: Sneakers

spyIt is strange how often film's can be of their time, existing only in the zeitgeist and seeming out of date very quickly. Some things age very well, comedies like Laurel & Hardy and Some Like It Hot are as funny today as they ever were while others age unfavourably, particularly anything involving technology unless there is a deeper message. Today's film is a high tech thriller from 1992, Sneakers, that has aged well for precisely this reason. It raises questions about the effect of technological advance on how we live rather then focusing on it.

Sneakers (Collector's Edition)

Possessed of a cast to die for and a great script, director Phil Alden Robinson makes good use of both. The cast reads like a who's who of some of the best talent of the last forty years; Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, James Earl Jones, Ben Kingsley, David Strathairn, River Phoenix and Dan Aykroyd. The film opens with a prologue on a snowy University campus in December 1969. Two students are hacking into bank accounts and making illegal wire transfers from the likes of Richard Nixon to the likes of committee for the legalisation of marijuana. One of them, Martin played by Redford goes for Pizza while the other Cosmo, played Kingsley waits. The police come, Martin escapes while Cosmo is caught and sent to prison. Fast forward to now and Martin runs a private security contractor with his partners ably played by Poitier, Strathairn, Phoenix and Aykroyd.  He is approached by government agents who are aware of his true past and offer to clean his record if he obtains a little black box from a mathematician called Gunther Janik. Of course nothing is as it seems and the box turns out to be a very valuable piece of equipment that can break any code and any encryption.

The film raises some interesting questions about how much we as a society rely on computers and their encryption to manage our everyday lives. As Ben Kingsley's character puts it:

"There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information! "

This is as relevant if not more relevant today as it was then. With each passing day we become more reliant on technology. Almost all governmental records in relation to taxation, income, marriage are computerised with no paper record. The question the film poses is what if these records weren't as safe as we thought them. If anything could be accessed, what might the consequences be? 

"Pollution. Crime. Drugs, poverty, disease, hunger, despair - we throw GOBS of money at them and problems only get worse. Why is that? Because money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."

The film is a thriller at heart though and it delivers on this front. The attempt to steal the black box back from Cosmo is a highlight with some wonderfully tense moments to keep you involved. Perhaps the film's strongest suit is it ensemble cast. All of the main performers are likeable and Ben Kingsley is devilish as the bad guy with a twisted ideology. The interplay between the team is excellent with some funny sparring matches between Dan Aykroyd's conspiracy theorist and Sidney Poitier's ex-CIA agent.

In summary, this is a memorable film with an interesting story driven by some excellent performances. The film is greater then the sum of its parts and is rounded off nicely with a good ending. There is something enjoyable about the bad guys losing out at the expense of the good guys. Well worth a look.