Spy Game

Spy Game will probably never be considered among the best spy movies to come out of Hollywood, however, it is a really entertaining movie with quite a few surprises.

The movie is set in the early 1990's. Nathan Muir (Redford) is a retiring CIA officer who learns that his former protégé Tom Bishop (Pitt) has been captured while attempting a prison rescue in China and will be executed shortly. CIA brass want to know what motivated Bishop to attempt this unauthorized action and they interview Muir to find out. Muir tells the story of how he met and trained Bishop: from Vietnam to Berlin to Beirut. While Muir is setting the background, he is also working secretly behind the scenes to free Bishop. Will Muir's cloak and dagger antics be discovered before he has a chance to free Bishop? Overall the movie is not as good as other spy genre films such as Three Days of the Condor, Spy Who Came in From the Cold, or Hunt for Red October. I think Redford does well in the role of the retiring, slightly jaded CIA officer Muir. Pitt does well with what he's given, though I think his character suffers from poor writing, especially near the end of the film. Think of Spy Game as a more sophisticated Mission: Impossible (that's no knock on M:I) and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

That's my big takeaway for this film. It reminds me of good old-fashioned filmmaking where there was a good script, there were good actors and there was good videography. You just can't make them like this anymore. People who have seen the Sting with Robert Redford will feel a bit nostalgic watching this film. I also put the Mechanic in my title because it reminds me of when Jan-Michael Vincent and Charles Bronson made another fabulous film about spies and espionage.

Some people call this a spy film but I disagree, this is a film about two spies who have a deep respect for each other and know their craft well - or at least Mr Muir knows his craft so well that he fools even people he works for, anticipating their suspicions. It's about not leaving someone behind.

Redford is such a stand out actor, he's truly one of a kind. Many reviews mentioned that Redford and Pitt seem to work well together but what a lot of people don't know is that Redford actually hand-picked Brad Pitt and his first feature chatacter was in a Redford film called A River Runs Through It in 1992. Redford is quoted as saying that Pitt reminded him of himself and he had big plans for him. So one would assume they are probably friends, which probably also answers the question someone else had which is why Pitt did not choose to star in the Bourne identity instead of Spy Game - he already had a successful working relationship with Redford. Furthermore Pitt did not need to do the Bourne identity, he had already done Oceans 11 and Ocean's 12 along with a myriad of other incredibly High grossing films, much higher grossing than those that Matt Damon did in a similar time period.

As for people saying that the plot was confusing or poorly written, I disagree on that point as well. Because it has a beginning, it has a middle and it has an ending. The film starts out showing us how Pitt's character gets thrown into prison in a foreign country; the middle part is kind of shown along with the present activities of Muir setting up Tom's rescue while at the same time telling how he and Tom met and worked together in the past. And all this while the audience knows that Muir is planning to rescue Tom but we don't know how until really the final moments of the film, which is the sting more or less. The inserted memories were masterfully done.

For anyone who watches AGT and wonders how those illusionists trick the panel into saying certain numbers and drawing certain pictures, you will learn a lot by watching this film because those psychological mind games of training your audience of what to chose and what to see are very real and they did, in fact, start in the spy arena.

You can rely on Robert Redford and Brad Pitt for polished performances and action director Tony Scott (Crimson Tide, Enemy Of The State, True Romance, Top Gun) will always keep the pace of a movie galloping along, but will the mix necessary produce a quality movie?

Spy Game is essentially about the foibles of humanity. Even seasoned hard nosed spies can have softer moments you know.

Nathan Muir (Redford) is on his last day as a spy with the CIA when his protégéé Tom Bishop (Pitt) gets nabbed on an unauthorised mission trying to break someone out of a Chinese Prison. Bishop is going to be executed in 24 hours unless Muir can do something.

Muir realises that the CIA is going to dump Bishop for the sake of impending trade talks. We are treated to a series of extended flashbacks to Vietnam, Berlin and Beirut which chronicle Muir and Bishop's relationship.

Spy Game is mostly a boys own story with lots of explosions showing smart men outwitting the opposition. As Muir teaches Bishop his tradecraft we're introduced to how spies are taught to case a restaurant, fix a radio, vomit on demand.

We're told how they are trained to be callous, to look at the big picture, to stay remote, to sell out people if that's of use. They're taught how to kill.

And we're shown again and again the CIA assassinating people, causing civil unrest, authorising explosions, arranging murders. The film makes no apologies for this but implies that for the good of the free world, well someone has to do it. Spy Game certainly surfs sweetly on American patriotism.

Spy Game is predictably interesting though mainly because of Robert Redford who still has that million dollar smile and Brad Pitt who mixes boyish charm with a slight degree of angst.

Tony Scott's film making style however really needs to slow down. Relentless pace and swooping cameras are eventually tiring and they don't give time to contemplate. Still, Spy Game is slick and informative. I'm damn glad I don't live in a war zone.

3 Blown Apart Flys

I made the mistake of only watching this film once the first time around. I did end up buying it, though I was never sure why. Then, years later, I got around to watching it again... and again... and again... While Spy Game is so fast-paced that it's difficult to keep up the first time around, I think that's what makes it such a great DVD.

There are performances in this movie that defy description. You almost get a sense that if you were to meet him in the street, you'd get someone named Nathan Muir playing the part of Robert Redford - the transformation is that complete. In several scenes, but especially the scene on the Berlin rooftop, Redford gives a performance that is unlike almost anything I've ever seen in cinema. It's that perfect. Brad Pitt also does an amazing job, but Redford steals the whole movie.

I had to re-watch Spy Game three times before I felt I got a complete understanding of everything going on. There is almost nothing given away for free in this movie - none of the standard Hollywood "shove-it-in-your-face-so-you're-sure-to-get-it" fare. Every decision, most plot points, and a lot of what would normally be called "meaningful looks" are written on Muir's face for a split second, then they're gone.

This is one of the few movies that's intellectually challenging to watch. It takes patience and a quick assessment of each scene to understand and keep up. None of the acting is over the top or explicit; most everything is controlled, subtle, and delicately handled.

All in all, Spy Game is an exceptional movie, IMO, to watch and in some ways to study.

Spy Game is everything we're not supposed to expect from a major Hollywood movie: engrossing, intelligent, well written, acted and directed. But that's just what it is and more, this is definitely the best thing I've seen since Memento. Although Pitt is really good and Redford plays himself as well as he has in years, I think the most credit should go to Tony Scott. In the hands of a lesser director this could have been something more like Mission Impossible. But Scott stays right on target, keeping us interested, developing the characters, and keeping the pacing nearly perfect. Scott also shows us that he's stayed with the times: he employs the full array of modern camera tricks like fast motion, reverse zooms and funky lenses but in a way that actually makes the film better instead of being an annoying distraction. The dialogue feels natural, all the actors do good work, no one tries to steal the show or be the star. The story is interesting and almost never lapses into the kind of hyper violence or sappy sentimentality one has come to associate with modern studio pictures. You get a feeling this is pretty close to how the CIA really operates, a place with fantastic technology at its disposal but who's ultimate effectiveness is determined by the fallible people who run the missions and take the chances. I really enjoyed this film, I hope it's a sign of things to come and not a rarity.