Spy Game

Sometimes you feel in the mood for a political thriller, for most of us it makes us feel smarter, and it makes you more "involved" when you watch the news, the majority of them are totally disposable though (remember "the sum of all fears" with Ben Affleck, horrible) but "Spy Game" is a cool one, and for many reasons.

Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) is a veteran CIA agent, who has operated in several parts of the globe, on his last day in the agency's headuqarters in Langley, news break in that one of his protegées Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been arrested in China, and is facing an ill omen, the dilemma being that major trade negociations are happening at the same time at the highest political level, so the agency convocates Muir to "fill some gaps" on Bishops missions, and through that, he has the chance to tell the story of the recruitment and the training of Bishop, and also his various missions especially in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war.

Beirut in the eighties was CIA's paradise, of course before the bombings of the Us Embassy and the Marines HQ, and both Muir and Bishop were stationed there, undercover of course, but the former boy scout Bishop, treads on the red line when he gets involved with Elisabeth Hadley (Catherine McCoramack) a British activist who is responsable of some bombings around the globe, this conflictual situation leads to dire consequences for evreybody, and nobody gets away with a clear consciousness.

The fun of this movie is that it' juxtaposes the highly formal conference room in Langley with all the suits playing mental chess with Muir, and him using every chance he has to do things to help Bishop, and all the flashbacks, to exotic places, like Berlin and Beirut, the editing is brilliant, and it goes back and forth like a good yo yo, the weakness of the movie is Brad Pitt's acting, not a good match for Robert Redford, well he can be a great actor but not here for sure, but still there is a good father-son parallel between the two actors, because Redford was the Brad Pitt of his time also, on the time this movie was released there was a picture on french "Premiere" where both were standing smiling you'd swear he was his father.

So it's a nice lesson on the CIA disasters in Lebanon and the people invloved in them, the best scenes are the conference room scenes where Muir's brilliance shows, the film is visually superiour thanks to the technique Tony Scott aquired through the years, especially one famous scene on top of a German building, and at the end, agents on the field are human beings with emotions and feelings, this is not an anti James Bond per se, but it is much closer to reality.

Year: 2001
Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack