Family of Spies

The TV Guide ad for this movie said that Powers Boothe brings to the role of an American traitor the same chilling conviction that won him an Emmy award for the 1980 tv movie Guyana Tragedy: The Story Of Jim Jones. Boothe is both an actor whom you don't see enough of and one who has never been given just due. He is a really great bad guy with his sinister handsomeness and deep baritone voice. John Walker was truly a despicable traitor who was motivated by simple greed. I just cannot understand how he could get his own son involved! This movie is a masterful adaptation of Pete Earley's book. What gets me is that Walker thought he was so smart (Earley said that he reminded him of a dog chasing his own tail around and around) but he was a fool. If our country had gone to war with Russia and they defeated us, they wouldn't have shown Walker any special treatment. He would have been in the prison camps along with everybody else.

This is one of those made for TV films (and there aren't many left like this one) that grabs your attention fast and your hooked. The true story of U.S. Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Walker who had access to Top Secret material and sold these goods to the Soviets. The film covers several years as Walker spies for the Soviets along with his brother and a buddy then retires from the Navy and enlists the services of his own son who was serving in the Navy. Powers Booth does not resemble the real John Walker in any way and I found this to be a little distracting but nonetheless gives a solid performance, as does Lesley Ann Warren as his wife. The film is a little on the long side but well told.

It was interesting that when the Walker case broke the U.S. Navy then began to crack down on security. Having been stationed on a Navy Combat ship at the time every crewmember on board became a suspect to the same things Walker had done. Everyone with the exception of Officers and Chief Petty Officers who it was claimed didn't do such treasonous things. However Walker his brother Arthur and their buddy Whitworth were Officers and Chief Petty Officers. This film helps expose the often times hypocritical nature of the military yet also shows that the nation can never truly be safe from espionage.

I was driving home one sunny day when I heard on the radio that a Naval officer, John A. Walker had been arrested for expionage. I had to pull over for a minute to stop hyperventating. You see, When I was serving in ComNavSurfLant's communication (a little hole in the wall on the Norfolk Naval base) I was his Leading Petty Officer. My desk was just in front of his.

He would go into the vault and shut the door to "take inventory" of the key cards and other classified information. Never occured to me what he was doing.

He took my wife and I sailing on several occasions. I thought he was a real nice guy, a little self-centered.

When I got home, i received a call from the FBI. They wanted to set up an interview with me.

They called again and cancelled the interview, as it was no longer necessary

The traitor had copped a plea.

I was a Naval Officer at the very tail end of John Walker's career (about the time when the ring was busted). Access to the information that he provided the USSR was likely as damaging or more than any other information compromised in US history, either from within or without the military.

He ultimately leakef information that potentially could have provided the Soviets with the capability to successfully launch a nuclear first strike against the USA, it don't get any worse than that.

I can understand espionage when you're doing for your own country. I can understand it when you're doing for another country for ideological reasons (but still frown on it). but john walker did it out of unmitigated avarice. he wanted to live the high life of fancy apartments, a private plane, a boat and women. he did it for the money and only the money.

America maintained its upper hand in the spy business with most of the time superior technology, ie computers, satellite lenses, and other electronics. the russians maintained their position mostly by financing a huge payroll of traitors plus the advantage of freer movement in an open democratic society in the u.s.a. in the walker case it stretched to his military associates including his own children whom he encouraged to join the military and continue his spying.

the first time I heard about this area of spying was in a PBS documentary called 'spys secrets and submarines'. the safety of the entire population of north America was compromised by a dude by the name of ames who like walker, sold secrets for cash. the Americans had laid a listening device next to the cable the russians had put under the water going from moscow to their submarine base east of scandinavia. they were so confident they did not encrypt the transmissions. it provided a staggering wealth of intelligence until ames told them about it. lives of American agents were lost because of that betrayal. why ames and walker escaped execution is a mystery considering the American justice system routinely executes the poor and minorities for lesser offenses. the case of the rosenbergs comes to mind. every spy for the russians had a code name, but with the end of the cold war, break up of the soviet union and opening a previous classified documents, the truth came out that Ethel Rosenberg did NOT have a code name. the conclusion is that she was NOT a spy. yet she was executed and walker was not.

I found this video amongst the dreck at the discount bin at wal mart for 5 bucks. if you ever have a chance to pick it up do so. Powers Boothe did an excellent job of portraying the gradual slide of walker into full time spy. Lesley Ann Warren somewhat overacted but that could still be explained by the difficulty walker's wife found herself in finding out she was married to a spy for the russians. I was very fond of Ms Warren for a long time and liked that saucy slight lisp she has and those big eyes.

other players in this film have gone on to bigger things. for instance the chap who plays the brother also played the rear admiral in the TV series 'JAG'.

anyway, a very good portrayal of a true and very sad episode in American military intelligence.