Post by Eλευθερί on Dec 21, 2017 3:42:49 GMT
Just came across this John le Carré Cold War thriller. Anyone seen it?
After a British spy is killed while investigating a suspected Russian missile program in East Germany, MI-6 recruit a Polish refugee seeking asylum in the UK to cross the Iron Curtain and continue the investigation.
I decided to watch the film partly because it featured a young Anthony Hopkins (when he still had a full head of hair) and the inestimable Ralph Richardson. The real star, though, was Christopher Jones, whom I had never heard of before watching this film. He'd been in a few tv shows and films in the mid-to-late 60s but abandoned acting after 1970, when he was in David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (which, incidentally, garnerd Academy Awards for best supporting actor and best cinematography). According to Jones' IMDb trivia, he had been a friend of Sharon Tate and had been devastated by her grisly murder by the Manson family cult--he had a nervous breakdown and couldn't act afterward.
The pacing of the film is a bit too slow for a thriller, and it probably deserves its less-than-enthusiastic ratings on imdb and rottentomatoes. But it was an eye-opener for me due to some of the adult subject matter it includes. There is an erotic poster of a naked woman on a wall in one scene, for instance. There are two discussions about abortion, including one obnoxious character complaining about "free abortions" offered by the Swedish healthcare system. There's a scene in which the lead character quarrels with his wife and smacks her in the face, bloodying her lip.
A lot of the story is about how emotionally draining spywork is for the intelligence agents, including senior officers. Several scenes show agents fighting with their wives, who are angry about how secretive and withdrawn the agents are in their family life.
After a British spy is killed while investigating a suspected Russian missile program in East Germany, MI-6 recruit a Polish refugee seeking asylum in the UK to cross the Iron Curtain and continue the investigation.
I decided to watch the film partly because it featured a young Anthony Hopkins (when he still had a full head of hair) and the inestimable Ralph Richardson. The real star, though, was Christopher Jones, whom I had never heard of before watching this film. He'd been in a few tv shows and films in the mid-to-late 60s but abandoned acting after 1970, when he was in David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (which, incidentally, garnerd Academy Awards for best supporting actor and best cinematography). According to Jones' IMDb trivia, he had been a friend of Sharon Tate and had been devastated by her grisly murder by the Manson family cult--he had a nervous breakdown and couldn't act afterward.
The pacing of the film is a bit too slow for a thriller, and it probably deserves its less-than-enthusiastic ratings on imdb and rottentomatoes. But it was an eye-opener for me due to some of the adult subject matter it includes. There is an erotic poster of a naked woman on a wall in one scene, for instance. There are two discussions about abortion, including one obnoxious character complaining about "free abortions" offered by the Swedish healthcare system. There's a scene in which the lead character quarrels with his wife and smacks her in the face, bloodying her lip.
A lot of the story is about how emotionally draining spywork is for the intelligence agents, including senior officers. Several scenes show agents fighting with their wives, who are angry about how secretive and withdrawn the agents are in their family life.