The Fourth Protocol

Rogue spies try to undermine the Fourth Protocol, which is a secret agreement between the USA, Britain and Russia to cease smuggling nuclear weapons into their respective countries. A Soviet agent is sent to the UK to stage a nuclear accident that could be blamed on the Americans and set off a chain reaction of events to unbalance this stand-off.

The Fourth Protocol is based on a novel written by Frederick Forsyth. I have never read it but have read others by this author. His style focuses on the intricate detail of the spy/politics of his thrillers, while his characters contrastingly always seem to be really cardboard, with very little recognisably human about them. With this in mind it's not too surprising that The Day of the Jackal was his most successful book, seeing as the very blankness of the central character was an actual important plot point. But usually this weakness in characterisation is more noticeable. The Fourth Protocol is a quite typical Forsyth spy thriller, in that it has a fairly detailed plot and paper thin characters. Michael Caine phones it in as a Harry Palmer type spy who doesn't play by the rules. It's a quite weak and clichéd character and to be honest Caine doesn't bring much to the table with this one. Pierce Brosnan, on the other hand, is pretty good as the cold Soviet killer. Like in Day of the Jackal, it's this villain who is the more interesting when set alongside the dull heroes, meaning that its actually the bad guy whom we want to succeed, which I'm sure could not have exactly been the original intention. Unlike Caine, Brosnan is playing against type and certainly makes better work of what he is given and is certainly the best thing about the movie. On the whole, this is a pretty standard spy film, with nothing very distinctive about it. Despite its generic nature, it is quite enjoyable though.

I was quite surprised to see that this movie got a 5.9 rating. I think that it's a lot better than that. Brosnan is good, the plot is sufficiently tricky to be interesting, and Caine delivers the kind of reliable, excellent performance that you can count on (at least when the movie isn't total junk -- he only seems to phone it in when the movie is entirely hopeless). The ending is a little abrupt, but I can't find any fault with it other than that. (The cast is uniformly strong, too.) Maybe people underrate the movie because the movie is low-budget. It looks like a British TV-movie, and maybe it was, but I find it easy to get past the production values when the acting is good.

I've seen it twice, and it holds up to a second viewing.

A Brit agent, MichaelCaine, suspects something big is being smuggled into England, and his guess is accurate, as he discovers an atomic bomb delivery, putting the world in nuclear jeopardy. The nasty plot is supervised by Russian agent Pierce Brosnan, a totally dedicated undercover officer assisted by a Russkie engineer : Joanna Cassidy.

Thriller about political fiction with chills, thrills, intrigue, twists and turns. Based on the famous Bestseller that Frederick Forsyth himself updated. Michael Caine is the principal component of this political thriller giving a nice and believable acting in his usual style as British agent attempting to stop a conspiracy from destroying NATO . While Pierce Brosnan is ultra-cool as Russian agent prividing one of the best performances to date. They are well accompanied by a nice plethora of secondary actors, mostly Brits, as Ian Richardson, Michael Gough, Julian Glover, Ray McNally, Betsy Brantley, Cartwright, Joanna Cassidy, Matt Frewer, though marred by odd casting as Ned Beatty who is really miscast as a high rank Russian General.

It displays a poweful and suspenseful musical score by Lalo Schifrin with his ordinary sounds and similar to Jerry Goldsmith . Moreover, colorful and evocative cinematography by Phil Meheux. The picture was nicely directed by John MacKenzie. This British filmmaker was a good professional who made some successes and flops . John began working in TV plays , which inspired him and gave him the best training to shot , it also taught him how to work quickly . Mackenzie was one of Britain's finest directors with nice results in his enjoyable films . He moved to length features decisively with his biggest hit : "Long Good Friday" , but a decade spent in Hollywood that proved to be unfulfilling , artistically , shooting failures as "Honorary Consul, "The Innocents" , "Blue Code" and "Ruby" . Although he was never achieved the recognition he richly deserves , he was a notorious director , though sadly deceased in 2011 at 72 years old . Rating 7/10 . Well worth seing. The yarn will appeal to Pierce Brosnan fans .

some comments on this film have stated that there are unnecessary killings of agents or witnesses, this is done to show the politics of the film and how there must be no trace back to those who planned the operation, whilst also portraying that petrofsky is a lethal killer, and as Caine says in the film "the best". A great story, and very believable, spies that remain hidden from each other and no excruciating scene where the bad guy reveals his plot to the good guy. Would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the operation had turned out differently, or the ending for that matter!

Of course one of the best things about this film is the acting as previously stated by other people. Caine brings his character to life and is very believable in the role of John Preston, the agent who cares, and will "bend" the rules to make sure things get down. Brosnan is similarly good, his character will stop at nothing to complete his mission, he is a stone cold killer and this is portrayed well, he doesn't let anything get in the way of the mission.

All in all a very good little film, much better than some of the tripe we get from Hollywood and with one of the finest British casts i've seen in some time.

Forget Brosnan's performance in the Bond movies or the recent excellent Tailor of Panama. His cold, calculative KGB agent in The Fourth Protocol should have told us what a wonderful actor he is. Made in 1987, the film is closer to its older brother (The Days of Jackal, also by Frederick Forsyth) than the spy films starring Michael Caine, as I originally thought it would be. The pace is slow, but thoughtful. Like Jackal, we get to see Brosnan making preparation to bring in the bomb and piecing it together. We also get to see Caine, 'the rebel' of M16 tracking him down. Great show!