Spy Game
Directed by Tony Scott
With Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack and Marianne Jean-Baptiste
At major cinemas
REVIEW BY ZANNY BEGG
Tony Scott's new film, Spy Game, is an intriguing investigation into how to construct a spy film after "the end of history". It tracks the last day at work of veteran CIA operative Nathan Muir (Robert Redford).
Muir expects to spend the day cleaning out his desk, shaking hands and accepting farewell bottles of scotch. But he wakes to find his former protege, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), is in a Chinese prison and is scheduled to be executed. Muir must fight to save his friend's life.
The film is constructed around a series of flashbacks: during the Vietnam war; border crossings from East to West Germany; and life in war-torn Beirut. During the first of these episodes, Muir meets and recruits the much younger Bishop to the CIA's supposed maxim, "Serve the greater good".
By the time we reach Beirut, the meaning of this maxim has become cloudy, but earlier the greater good is clearly defined as the defeat of the communists, their sympathisers and other evil-doers (at whatever cost).
The film's interest lies in the contrast between these conflicts and the post-Cold War drama unfolding in the Chinese prison. Muir discovers that the CIA is going to leave Bishop out to dry (his rescue might disrupt trade talks between China and the US). He rues the fact that the CIA has become all about "trade and money" and complains that he can't "tell the good guys from the bad guys" anymore.
The film has a strange nostalgia for the ideological battles of the Cold War (democracy versus communism/good versus bad) which contrasts with the confusing new world order in which US and China combine together against human rights advocates.
The film is also a personal drama between Muir and Bishop. Bishop quickly outpaces his mentor and the two are set on a collision path which tests both of their personal loyalties and value systems.
Spy Game is a bit of a ramble, but Robert Redford gives a crafty performance as the old school spy who learns a few new tricks from his former pupil. His battle with the pen-pushers in CIA HQ is very enjoyable and you end up willing him to win as the clock races towards the deadline for Bishop's execution.
From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
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