Le jeu du faucon

Based on a true story, Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) quits the seminary, and fall into a menial job at a military contractor. He has father issues and angry at US foreign policies. He, along with his drug dealing criminal friend Daulton Lee (Sean Penn), sold secret communications to the Soviet Union.

Sean Penn is great at playing low life sleazebag. He is at his jittery best here. His is the juicier part. Timothy Hutton does a good all America guy. I wish he had more depth and something more sinister to his character. He doesn't have enough to explain his motive. There has to be a more compelling character in there. But in the movie, Sean Penn is overshadowing Timothy Hutton. I don't think Hutton got enough of the character.

Fascinating true-life tale stars Timothy Hutton as Christopher Boyce, a government employee in charge of guarding sensitive documents, who becomes disillusioned and decides to sell those documents to the Soviets. He enlists the help of his drug pusher/user friend Daulton Lee(Sean Penn) to be the go-between. Things go well at first, but of course they are eventually discovered, which leads to devastating consequences for them and their families.

Well directed by John Schlesinger, and solid acting from the two leads, film is a quite interesting and compelling look at the foolish choices these two men make(and why), which makes them traitors. Future "Poirot" star David Suchet is excellent as their Soviet contact.

Excellent drama about 2 alienated, spoiled punks who go afoul of the federal government, each for his own reasons. One, a druggie, just wants to score some bucks for his next fix, but the other has a far more sinister agenda fueled in part by a resentment of his father. Good performances and a hot script makes this a winner.

For the 1980s, this is a very dark movie. At this point, filmmakers were beginning to operate under the assumption that all films require smarmy comic relief (which, of course, is taken to the extreme today), flashy action scenes (even more overdone today), or steamy sex scenes.

Hutton and Penn are stupendous in their roles as childhood friends turned Soviet spies. Penn in particular is brilliant as hapless drug dealer Daulton Lee.

What you have here is a true thriller/drama. There is no eye candy to speak of, but the story is so compelling and the acting so superb that (hopefully) most people wouldn't miss it. There are a couple amusing scenes, in particular the one where Penn tries to get his Soviet benefactors involved in a major drugrunning deal.

Well worth watching.

There is something about true stories that makes them so much more interesting than fiction. I guess it is the fact that truth has always been stranger than fiction. The Falcon and the Snowman tells the true story about Christopher Boyce and his buddy Daulton Lee. Boyce (Hutton) is a former alter boy and intellectual, trying to find an occupation that can support and entertain him. His FBI father is able to pull some strings and get his idealist son a job working in the defense department. Boyce has few responsibilities and seems to be complacent drinking and goofing around with his co-workers. However, as time goes on, Boyce starts to learn top secret information that causes him to doubt the morality of his government. The idealist Boyce soon sees the illegal operations that the CIA is carrying out in above all places, Australia. Boyce eventually decides that he will leak some of the top secret info he is privy to, to the KGB. Of course, Boyce's mistake is the assumption that because the USA is doing bad things, the USSR is the good guy. Over time, Boyce and his drug-dealing buddy Lee (Penn), start to sell their top secret information to the KGB. What was once idealism, turns into capitalism and espionage. The strength of this movie is the incredible performances by Hutton and Penn. Although one of them starts off with the best intentions, they will both soon find themselves in an unending downward spiral. Great direction, music, everything. Not only a great film, but one of my all-time favorites.