SPY GAME  3.2 ***  ( a 2001 Movie)

        Spy Game centers on the relationship between a cynical senior CIA operative Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) and his protégé Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt). The movie begins with the capture of Bishop  following a failed non-CIA rescue mission in a Chinese prison. This sparks a crisis between the USA and China and, as tensions escalate, Muir is forced to reveal to the upper level CIA officials all he knows about Bishop. . From their early days during  the Vietnam War in the 70's, to the end of the cold war in Berlin during the 80's and then to the mean streets of Beirut in the 90's where Bishop's relationship with Muir ends..Bishop’s capture occurs on  Muir’s final day before his retirement and Muir must call upon all of his negotiating skills, his contacts and his intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the CIA to find a way to free Bishop before he is executed because the CIA has decided to abandon him.

Although Redford and Pitt receive equal billing, this is really Redford's movie. He is the focus for the complex plot and Pitt appears mostly in flashback. Redford is at his best  and is well cast as the ageing CIA warhorse who has seen it all and done it all. Pitt is reliably good but  his character doesn’t have enough screen time.

 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.

Ultimately  “Spy Game” is about the conflict between loyalty and friendship versus betrayal and treachery. Muir attempts to make up for a lifetime of politically motivated deception  with a final act of selflessness. Compared with any number of action thrillers about secret agents,  this movie refreshingly  tells it the way it is or the way you might think it should might be. The meticulous day to day  "tradecraft" actually makes way more sense than say, a watch with a laser cutter built in or a car with missiles and an ejection seat. All in all, a very watchable and believable film.

 

One of the lapses in the movie is when Redford is supposed to be 25 years younger in the flashback  to Vietnam. It's a sad fact that no amount of makeup, aviator sunglasses and 70s-style sideburns can disguise the fact that he looks just as craggy then as he does in the present day.

 

Rated R for language, some violence and brief sexuality

 

Clark