C.I.A. Secret Story

This film is a recreation of the trouble the CIA has caused over the years around the world. Its done in a mondo style with recreations for most of the first hour before settling on the insanity on Central and South America.

I'm not what to think of this film. Certainly its graphic in its violence and tough to take as a catalog of violence. But this film aspires to be more than just being an exploitation film. It wants to be an anti American tract on the evils of the CIA. The problem is that the CIA's dirty laundry has been aired so many times in the last 30 years that the film's revelations are far from shocking. With the shock of the "laundry" gone we're left with just the plot of the freedom fighters in Central America, and the film falls rather flat. Its not bad, its just unremarkable and we're it not for the violence and torture there really wouldn't be any reason to see this. In an exploitive mood this film isn't bad, but I wish I could have seen this 30 years ago when its revelations and graphic violence would have rocked my world. Now its just sort of there.

If you're looking for an exploitation film with a little meat give it a try. Otherwise this is a film that can probably give this a pass.

"Faccia di Spia" is kind of a mondo movie.It is a propaganda film I think(I have it in Italian,so the plot wasn't fully understandable to me)and re-creates certain political events.The first hour is pretty tame,but after it the film suddenly crosses into sicko territory-it features some of the most shocking and cruel torture scenes I have ever seen!There's a brutal rape,a metal pin inserted into a guys penis and heated,eels shoved graphically into woman's vagina,arms hacked off with an axe and eyes gouged out.Apart from such sickening scenes the film is well-made and interesting.Recommended only for fans of extreme mondo movies.

Whether or not this film was supposed to be powerful I don't know, but despite some ghastly images and a sort of documentary feel, Faccia di Spia is a mostly boring Italian effort. The film, as the English title ('C.I.A. Spy Story') suggests focuses on events surrounding the C.I.A. I'm very interested in sickening filthy cinema, but most of this film is concerned with army related stuff and it really turned me off. There are a few good scenes of torture, however, and they include people having their limbs chopped off, eyes gouged out, set on fire and some unfortunate soul gets a piece of metal inserted into his penis. These scenes may prove to be of interest for some; and indeed they may have for me too if they were involved in a more interesting film. I'm guessing that this film was meant to put a bad light on the C.I.A., and it may have succeeded in doing that for some, but not for me. Italy has made a million exploitation films like this one, and that considerably lessens its impact as rather than showing the ills of the C.I.A. - it just shows that the Italians found a new way to film exploitation. Overall, I can't really recommend this film...although it may appeal to some.

I saw part of this film about 4 or 5 times because it was aired in cable television in Mexico many years ago... Most of the times while changing from one channel to the other i just found the film in the middle of the torture scenes (which were somehow very extreme for cable television i remember). I gotta tell that apart from the exploitation formula, i remember the film being really depressing. I've always been curious about the name of the film until today that i've finally found this review in IMDb. Does anybody knows if this one is out there in DVD? Also if by casualty someone in Mexico reads this, do you know if this one was released as a VHS? Thanks...