A Lost Spy Game

by Betty Jo Tucker

Maybe it’s just me. But whenever I see a movie with flashback after flashback after flashback, my brain reacts with a troubled “Whoa!” I start losing track of the main story --- and worse, I stop caring about the characters involved. Spy Game, an espionage thriller staring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, had this effect on me. Because I’m usually fascinated by movies of this genre, I felt cheated. Three Days of the Condor, also starring Redford, is one of my all-time favorite spy films, and I try to catch it every time it’s shown on television. Guess I should have watched Condor once more instead of wasting my time viewing Spy Game.

Besides those annoying flashbacks showing how CIA officer Redford recruited protégé Pitt (The Mexican) into the spy business, the film’s intrusive camera tricks bugged me a lot. I found myself paying more attention to how everything was photographed than to the plot. When Redford and Pitt confront each other on a rooftop, the cameras circle around them like a Busby Berkeley musical. A big problem for me here --- especially since all I can remember is getting dizzy, when I should have been concentrating on the characters and their dialogue.

Although finding no fault with Redford and Pitt as daring players in the game of global intrigue, I wanted these fine actors to have more scenes unencumbered by cut-away shots, incongruous background music (Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons Concerto #1” accompanies the men on their mission in war-torn Beirut!), and sophomoric dialogue. When Redford tells Pitt his “high-tech” necessities as a spy include “a pocket knife, a stick of gum, and a smile,” I wondered if I was watching Spy Kids, not Spy Game.

In all fairness, this film opens with an exciting escape plan inside a Chinese prison. When Pitt’s rescue attempt fails, he’s arrested and scheduled for execution. The rest of the movie involves Redford’s efforts to make sure his former friend stays alive, and action shifts to a government conference room and office building --- except for those darn flashbacks. Bringing life to the generally dull interrogation proceedings, Stephen Dillane (from BBC’s The Cazelets) portrays Redford’s nemesis, a suspicious colleague. With his sneering facial expression and exquisite vocal inflections, Dillane steals all his scenes.

Catherine McCormack (Dangerous Beauty) enters Spy Game during the second half of the movie, adding a welcome touch of mystery. It’s no surprise when Pitt’s character, now undercover as a photographic journalist, falls for her. She’s lovely, works for a humanistic aid organization, and appreciates his help. But, as Redford asks Pitt, is she using him?  What is her relationship to terrorist groups? Why can’t she return to her own country? McCormack’s intelligent performance aroused my curiosity about this enigmatic woman.

Do the talents of McCormack, Dillane, Pitt, and Redford make Spy Game worth seeing? Not to me. The film’s pretentious camera tricks and confusing flashbacks overshadow their performances. Still, because the movie deals with compelling themes like friendship, loyalty, and betrayal, I almost regret giving it such a negative review. But, hey, in the movie game, I gotta call ‘em like I see ‘em.

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated “R” for violence and language.)

SPY GAME

by Jane Sumner

Spy Game, with the dream team of Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, may not do much for the Central Intelligence Agency, but it does a lot for those involved, including the audience.

Universal's taut, fast-paced thriller boasts a smart story and script by Michael Frost Beckner and David Arata, brilliant editing by Christian Wagner, and Robert Redford's most winning work in more than 10 years.

The location-driven plot, about friendship and redemption in spookdom, redeems Tony Scott as a director who's capable of more than macho machinations. But then producer Jerry Bruckheimer's name isn't in the credits.

After a feverish opener, the on-the-clock gripper settles down to a cool duel of wits with agency officials, punctuated by flashbacks to hot spots Vietnam, Berlin, and Beirut.

Set in 1991, the day before CIA veteran Nathan Muir (Mr. Redford) retires, he's tipped that estranged protégé Tom "Boy Scout" Bishop (Mr. Pitt) has gone rogue and tried to free a foreigner from a Chinese prison.

Although Bishop is scheduled to die in 24 hours, the CIA decides it's too risky to attempt a rescue mission. An outsider in the agency run by a new generation, Muir begins manipulating spook resources to try to save the kid he recruited.

This is the authentic, charismatic, enigmatic Redford of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The actor's scenes with Mr. Pitt, only a year and a half younger than his own son Jamie, appear relaxed and natural.

In The Three Days of the Condor, Mr. Redford was a lowly CIA researcher caught up in a web of intrigue. This time around, he's a wiser game player, one who has forsaken personal relationships in favor of his work, but filmmaker L.M. Kit Carson swears that's the same tweed jacket he wore in 1975.

While good to look at, Mr. Pitt's character doesn't really fill out, and Catherine McCormack, looking sharp and drawn, has an odd, undeveloped role as Bishop's no-chemistry love interest.

But Tony Award-winner Stephen Dillane impresses as Muir's nemesis, as does Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets and Lies) as his clever secretary. Charlotte Rampling, looking positively robust, and David Hemmings, of Blow-Out fame, make the most of brief moments on screen.

Set to shoot in Israel for war-torn Beirut, Spy Game moved to Morocco when the Mideast heated up. Chinese jail scenes were filmed in a 16th-century English prison. Budapest subbed for Berlin in the 1980s.

And no, that's not Langley, Va. The CIA sets were built inside London's Shepperton Studios. The corridors and main gates were shot outside a London pharmaceutical house.

SPY GAME  * * *

by Michael Wilmington

In "Spy Game," Robert Redford delivers a prototypical big-star performance with a heat and intensity he hasn't shown in a decade or so. Playing maverick CIA officer Nathan Muir, a cynic/romantic on his last day before retirement, he's trying desperately to save his favorite field operative (Brad Pitt) from execution in a Chinese prison.

Redford gets to do all the things audiences want to see him do: to be wily, charming, anxious, quietly heroic and breathlessly smart; to outclass and outwit the people around him; and to show loyalty, humane sensibilities, cunning expertise and a brave heart.

It's an almost perfect Robert Redford role, in the ways that the Sundance Kid, Johnny Hooker of "The Sting" and Bob Woodward in "All the President's Men" were. And after his comic-bookish last movie, "The Last Castle" (Redford Lite), it's a pleasure to see this far-too-inactive actor back on top of his big-star game.

The movie isn't bad either - even though you have to throttle your sense of plausibility at the climax. "Spy Game" is a fast, flashy CIA thriller of incredible complexity, and it's also a buddy-buddy movie in the grand Redford tradition. Written by Michael Frost Beckner (of TV's "The Agency") and directed by Tony Scott in maximum overdrive, it races past at lightning speed, covering 16 years (1975-1991) in the volatile friendship of Nathan and protegee Tom "Boy Scout" Bishop (Pitt), plus the evolution of American foreign policy from the hot war of Vietnam to several years past the Cold War's end.

Two stories unwind at the same time. On one track there's a race-the-clock thriller, unfolding over a day's time, with Nathan battling his CIA superiors to find out how to save Tom after he's caught on an unauthorized Chinese jailbreak.

On the other track, we see a series of flashbacks - in Vietnam ('75), Berlin ('76) and Beirut ('85) - chronicling the arc of the Nathan-Tom friendship through three missions, related by Nathan to a table full of gruff CIA bigwigs. These superiors, including the snaky Charles Harker (Stephen Dillane at his most villainous) and the more paternally enigmatic Troy Folger (Larry Bryggman) are an intimidating lot - and it's fun to see the old-style Redford sparring with them, weathered but still crackling with impudence.

It quickly becomes clear that this movie is about personal loyalty vs. big-state realpolitik. Again and again, Nathan has to put Tom in harm's way, without fully tipping the game or its rules. Finally, he costs his buddy the love of a woman, Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack) whom he thinks is politically "dirty." Now, on that last day of his career (and maybe of Tom's life), Nathan tries to redeem himself by outfoxing Harker and Company while they ransack his offices. (Nathan's long-suffering secretary, Gladys, is played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste of "Secrets & Lies.")

In some ways, this movie suffers from bad timing. It's skeptical about the American government at a time when the audience might want to feel otherwise. But the romanticism and iconoclasm of "Spy Game" is hard-core American movie stuff, and this picture makes near-perfect bookends with Redford's classic 1975 paranoid anti-CIA thriller "Three Days of the Condor," where he played a low-level CIA guy who becomes a pawn in deadly "Company" games. Just as "Condor" celebrated the individual against the system, so, in its way, does "Spy Game."

Spy Game

An Overt Operation: Film is smartly made with solid story, winning performances

by Mike Burger

JOURNAL ARTS REPORTER

Spy Game is a sleek, gritty bit of cinematic hugger-mugger from director Tony Scott, an old hand at this sort of fare (Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State).

Although it's not a particularly emotional film - and limited as an involving drama as a result - Spy Game makes some pointed (and potent) observations about covert American involvement in foreign lands.

The timing may be precarious - or, maybe, perfect - for a film that is so critical of the American intelligence community, although it's hardly inaccurate to suggest that said community has dirtied its hands from time to time. Although Spy Game is a work of fiction - and should be regarded as such - this lends it a solid story foundation. The film also has moral and ethical shadings that place it (far) above a jingoistic slaughter-fest.

Nevertheless, some viewers might cringe at a scene depicting a CIA-sanctioned suicide bombing against an international terrorist. (The film was completed well before the events of Sept. 11.)

The story, courtesy of screenwriters Michael Frost Beckner and David Arata, is a tasty mixture of bits and pieces familiar to readers of such authors as John le Carre, Robert Ludlum, Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy and Alistair MacLean - served up in style by director Scott and garnished with charismatic performances by its leading men: Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.

Redford portrays Nathan Muir, a veteran CIA operative who's hanging up his trenchcoat for the last time. Pitt plays Tom Bishop, Muir's protege and heir apparent, whom Muir recruited and trained. When Bishop goes rogue in Red China and is captured, it sparks an international incident that could endanger a U.S./China trade negotiation. The CIA is ready to let Bishop hang out to dry, but Muir decides to do a little digging - reflecting back on his and Bishop's relationship to reason why he'd engage in an unauthorized mission. The film's globetrotting, time-shifting approach disseminates character information slowly but surely, assembling the plot pieces from the outside in. It occasionally seems as if a couple of the pieces don't quite fit - or went missing - but Spy Game is a polished, smartly assembled entertainment with more than just a faint whiff of credibility.

Bishop is due to be executed in 24 hours, which the film's subtitles periodically remind us (as well as the locale) - all familiar to fans of the spy-movie game. With the clock ticking away, Muir must outsmart his own colleagues, all the while wondering if Bishop learned his lessons a little too well and pulled a fast one on him.

Pitt does well in his role, but this is Redford's show all the way - and he clearly relishes the opportunity to play a darker character than he usually does. A good supporting cast includes Stephen Dillane (sporting a perfect American accent) and Larry Bryggman as CIA hatchet men and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Muir's faithful secretary. An unbilled Charlotte Rampling has a slinky cameo in one flashback, and David Hemmings pops up as Bishop's Hong Kong contact.

Mark Burger can be reached at 727-7370 or at mburger@wsjournal.com

'Spy Game' makes for slower but smarter thriller

by Christopher Abel

For The Outpost

There are two types of spy thrillers: those filled with fantastic action and those deeply grounded in reality. Each sort of movie has something to offer, whether it’s Swiss Army-style gadgets or an intriguing look into the world of the intelligence community.

James Bond is an excellent example of the former, while “Spy Game” fits nicely into the latter category. Neither one is necessarily better than the other; they are simply different.

While Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) has seen more than his fair share of excitement during his 30 years with the Central Intelligence Agency, it is far less likely that he has ever worn a tuxedo with stun gas cufflinks or driven a bulletproof Aston Martin. What he has done is played the CIA’s shadow games (and played them exceedingly well) with the Soviets and America’s other enemies during the Cold War era.

After those 30 years of service, Muir has decided to hang up his hat, his game with our country’s enemies finished. However, his last day is interrupted in dramatic fashion by the apparent capture of an American operative, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), by the Chinese government. The CIA must now decide whether it is worth their efforts – and worth weathering the certain political backlash - to rescue their lost operative from the hands of the Chinese. And Nathan Muir is called in to help them decide.

Through a series of flashbacks, Muir recounts how he met Bishop in Vietnam. After completing various shadow operations, he offers Bishop a position within the company and teaches him the tricks of the trade. As a sort of father/son relationship develops between the two, Muir teaches his young pupil everything he needs to know about not only being a spy but also being the best in the game.

His principal lesson is to never become involved with anyone. “If it comes down to you or them, send flowers,” is his coldhearted advice.

But while on assignment in Beirut in the ’80s, Bishop becomes involved with Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack), an English national with a checkered political past. The two spies eventually part ways as they disagree about the nature of Bishop’s relationship with a woman Muir regards as a dangerous distraction. It isn’t until the company man is ready to retire that he must decide how deep is his devotion to his surrogate son.

While “Spy Game” packs an action film’s punch at times, it more often emanates the feel of a political thriller. Much of the story unfolds inside a CIA conference room where Bishop’s fate is decided with calculated precision. Yet all of the shuffling of documents and gathering of intelligence, slower paced than gun battles and gadgets, is still intensely exciting. Muir most dodge very nearly the whole of the agency as he maneuvers to aid Bishop and fend off the picture’s wonderfully subdued villain, Charles Harker (Stephen Dillane).

Still, true to his action film roots, director Tony Scott adds to the film’s intensity with several fast-paced sequences such as a riverbed chase complete with helicopter gunship and fiery explosion. Both forms of action play off each other as the audience develops a taste for the old-fashioned style of Muir and the guns-blazing style of Bishop.

While the Bond films are filled with adventure and flare, “Spy Game” presents a more intelligent and realistic look at the nature of espionage. Everything about this picture feels right, from the impetuousness of the younger Brad Pitt to the cool experience of the older Robert Redford to the highly effective blending of action and intrigue from Tony Scott.

Script Review: SPY GAME Written by: Michael Frost Beckner

Reviewed by Darwin Mayflower

WARNING: SPOILERS!

NOTE: The screenplays we review are often in development and may experience many rewrites, some could end up being completely different than what is reviewed here. It is our hope that our reviews generate more interest in the film. Thank you.

SPY GAME stars Robert Redford and Brad Pitt (in mentor/protege roles). Tony Scott (LAST BOY SCOUT, CRIMSON TIDE) directed the film.

That’s it. That’s all you should need to know to want to go see it.

SPY GAME, for all its inside info on the CIA and scenes of war in Vietnam, is really a love story. Between Nathan Muir (Redford) and Tom Bishop (Pitt). But I’ll get to that in a second.

When we open Bishop is trying to help an imprisoned foreigner escape a Chinese prison. Bishop doesn’t make it, is caught by the Chinese, and what he’s done sends shock waves across the world: Bishop was not sanctioned to make this move. He has gone rogue. Many people’s butts can get kicked because of this. Not to mention what it does to American-Chinese relations.

The CIA, who Bishop is an operative for, needs to look into his past to find out why he would take such an insane risk. Nothing in his file would indicate this type of move. They go to his boss, Muir, who is retiring that very day. Muir knows his own people and what Bishop is up to and burns the files his superiors ask for. He wants to tell Bishop’s story to them verbally. To find out what’s going on (to read them as they are reading him) and also...well...because it’s a nice narrative device for the writers.

Muir explains how he came to know Bishop and we find out who Bishop is, how he got into the CIA, and the circumstances that led to his current situation.

They met in Vietnam, when fresh-faced Bishop was handed a nearly impossible assignment when the sniper who was supposed to do it "caught mortar fire with his teeth." Bishop, bright-eyed and patriotic (he volunteered just like Stone’s clone in PLATOON), is made to think this will be a simple kill. It’s not. The man he has to take down is followed by a truckload of NVA soldiers and a helicopter monitors his reinforced limo. Bishop gets the job done, despite being spotted, and makes it out alive. Much to the admiration of Muir. Witnessing the obvious skill, Muir secretly enrolls Bishop into "the program" and puts him to task without Bishop even knowing it. Bishop is sent to Germany, with nothing to do, dealing with people that don’t speak his language and ignore his requests. Muir "spontaneously" arrives, Bishop remembers him, is flattered when Muir remembers too, and an instant (though horribly manipulated) friendship is born. Muir easily slithers his way into Bishop’s head (even acting as though he knew his killed-in-action Marine father) and soon enough Bishop is put into spy school.

I don’t know how real it is -- I’m sure it’s way off base -- but this section of the script, where Bishop learns to be a spy (more like be an anonymous James Bond), was its high point. It’s just plain fun and goofy and it’s hard not to love every minute of it. SPY GAME is not cute and not a comedy, but the writers do know who will be watching this film and I think they realize this is what we hope for in our craziest fantasies.

The script moves onto the real deal and shows us the downside of spying: namely, losing your "assets": people you have recruited for a mission. Bishop, unlike Muir, cannot brush off the death of someone he employed as simply "the way things go." It means something to him. The first time we see this -- how the players are nothing more than a particle of dust dancing in the air (unimportant except for the overall plan) -- is effecting in a simple, honest way.

SPY GAME has a great story. That is original writer Michael Frost Beckner’s strength. SPY GAME scooted me along with its involving glimpse inside the do-or-die spy world. What it doesn’t have, even with added help from rewriter David Arata, is any ability at all with dialogue or character. What the people are given to say here never matches the flair and zest of their vocations. You always get the sense the dialogue is only there to explain details of the plot. It’s never entertaining and there’s never anything beneath it: it is shot full with cliche holes.

The characters, too, suffer. Muir never rises above a smart-ass. Bishop is a do-what-he’s-told, obedient sidekick. Later in the story a woman, Elizabeth, becomes instrumental to the plot. We never get to know this woman at all, and her total lack of personality puts a huge dent into the project because she’s so extremely important to the characters’ motivations and actions.

The plot to the script has Muir sitting in a room in the old CIA building, recounting the story of his life with Bishop to the higher-ups. We spend quite a bit of time with these people -- including a doctor who is so fascinated and can also be used to say, "I’m sorry, who are we talking about?" to clear things up -- but no time is taken to toss a little color these guys’ way. A couple of funny lines or a hint of individuality would have gone miles to improve this section. As it is, you wince every time you go back.

Despite its numerous shortcomings, SPY GAME is a knowledgeable, tense, intelligent script that nicely melds action-movie entertainment with a few scenes that actually provoke thought. I find its view of the CIA absurd, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fun. It’s one of the rare big-budget, big-star projects that gets the job done.

This is everything I wanted from the script THE BOURNE IDENTITY and didn’t find. I’m relieved to say there is not one chase scene in this script. Well, there’s one, but it’s hardly the forty-minute time-fillers we found in BOURNE.

I mentioned that this is really a love story. And that’s one hundred percent true. The writers do not really try to shade the fact. Muir cares deeply for Bishop. Always keeping him at his side and looking out for him. Over the years I think Muir has fallen in love with Bishop. When Bishop starts a serious relationship with Elizabeth, Muir ruins it. Not just because she is dangerous for Bishop to be around, but because he’s jealous. Muir goes above and beyond trying to hurt Bishop because he has to express his disapproval, pain and rejection and can’t stop himself. It’s so obvious that Muir goes out and gets drunk after seeing Elizabeth and Bishop together and when Bishop finds him Muir begins to make fun of him (to hurt him because he himself is wounded). This scene is right out of a romantic comedy. Further proof: Muir at one point, meeting an angry Bishop after some time apart, says, "I missed you too."

I think it’s this relationship, which is complicated and unconventional, that rises SPY GAME up a notch or two. Even more so than its great plot and espionage.

Brad Pitt actually dropped out of BOURNE IDENTITY to make this film. A good choice in my eyes. I think Redford and Pitt (who worked as director and actor on A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT) make a perfect match and the expertise of Redford should bring out Pitt’s best instincts.

Unsung master screenwriter John Lee Hancock (who wrote one of my all-time favorite scripts, A PERFECT WORLD) has rewritten the draft I’ve read. And this, folks, is all the proof I need that when SPY GAME comes out in November it is going to be one bad mother of a movie. Hancock’s specialty is dialogue -- every line from A PERFECT WORLD is quotable -- and with his language in these people’s mouths -- and his ability with conflicted characters so powerful -- SPY GAME should be just about perfect.

Tony Scott, who last directed this script’s steroid-enhanced brother ENEMY OF THE STATE, doesn’t get the respect his brother, Ridley, gets. But he’s easily as talented and possibly even better with his camera. This will be another CRIMSON TIDE for Tony: enough star power and serious material to get people to praise him and not refer to his films as breasts-and-bullets trash.

SPY GAME’s finale isn’t very spectacular -- it doesn’t follow the creed that all movies must end with an explosion -- but it is smart and I hope they at least partially keep it. Even if it means they just keep the tone.

Muir, like so many past movie heroes, is a man that can manipulate everyone and anything: the world is his. In the footsteps of his predecessors, he will finally manipulate for the good side and it will set his unhappy soul free. It’s not nearly that lame in SPY GAME and, in fact, you’ll have a smile on your face.

Notes