Re:Question from FilmCouch #97: Are there any "pure" spy movies being made?

jsanto — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:35:59 GMT

The two that jumped to mind were Breach with Chris Cooper and The Schlesinger film from the 80's The Falcon And The Snowman, which has a great Sean Penn performance.

Re:Question from FilmCouch #97: Are there any "pure" spy movies being made?

joem18b — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:10:47 GMT

Because I have a Lucy Liu jones, I also want to mention Code Name: The Cleaner.

Re:Question from FilmCouch #97: Are there any "pure" spy movies being made?

mciocco — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:58:27 GMT

Spy movies have definitely gotten away from the sort of glamorous travelogues that the original Bond movies kinda were. Most portray the life as being a tough, gritty one filled with betrayal, sacrifice and other depressing stuff. Even the "action" subgenre of spy films has that sort of thing (i.e. Bourne features all sorts of stuff about how being the spy eats up your life, etc...)

So some examples of recent, less actiony spy flicks that you haven't mentioned in the podcast or in your post would include:

Traitor (2008 - can't find it with the link to a movie tool thingy) - This is the recent movie starring Don Cheadle. There is some action and it's actually pretty cliched, but it's somewhat entertaining and it's much more focused on the psychology of terrorists than the spy aspect of it...

The Good Shepherd - Again, not at all glamorous, but this seems to be a dry recounting of early CIA machinations. I didn't much care for this movie, but it's not an action oriented spy film and the one thing I did like was the sorta brinkmanship between Matt Damon's character and his Soviet counterpart.

Syriana - Not glamorous and another movie I didn't particularly love, but it's got some interesting non-action spy stuff going on (mostly in the Cloony plotline - the others are not as spy oriented). It's too bad the plot is so intentionally obtuse. I got the feeling that Gaghan was attempting to play obscurity and for depth here.

Three Days of the Condor - Ok, so this isn't anywhere close to recent, but it's a pretty good spy story told from a non-action-oriented standpoint.

But I also agree with your inclusion of Spy Game, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Breach, all of which I rather enjoyed (er, more than the films I listed above)

I also thought of the Tom Clancy movies (Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and yes, even The Sum of All Fears), but those might better be characterized as action movies (still, there's an inordinate amount of non-actiony stuff in those films that kinda works well).

Another that jumped to mind was Sneakers, though I'm not sure you could really characterize that as a spy film...

That's all for now, but I'm positive I'm leaving something out...

Question from FilmCouch #97: Are there any "pure" spy movies being made?

joem18b — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:16:39 GMT

My response to the question, based on five or ten minutes of deep thought.