SPY GAME

November 2001, U.S.)

There's this little game of pretend I like to play with Tony Scott's SPY GAME. Although Robert Redford's character of Nathan Muir is in no way related to his character of Joe Turner in Sidney Pollack's 1975 film THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, I like to imagine that Redford is once again Joe Turner in SPY GAME and we're getting a glimpse of what his life in the CIA has been like for the past twenty-six years, just for the fun of deluding myself and making things more interesting. Interestingly, I found myself doing the same thing with another Tony Scott film, ENEMY OF THE STATE (1998) and Gene Hackman's character in relation to his previous one in Coppola's THE CONVERSATION (1974).

Robert Redford and Brad Pitt is an instant attraction in the world of Hollywood chemistry. One only need to recall Redford's direction of Pitt in A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (1992) to know how well the two served each other. Now on screen together, that chemistry is not lost. Whether we choose to think of Pitt as a younger version of Redford himself or a direct prodigal son of the veteran actor and director, it works well, nonetheless. As Tom Bishop, Pitt may be very well be considered the intelligent CIA operative with the shooting skills of John Rambo. Still, he's not flawless. The start of the film is in 1991 and Tom has just been captured and imprisoned in Suzhou near China. Questioned under torture and refusing to divulge information, he's sentenced to be executed in twenty-four hours even and the United States and China are on the verge of a major trade agreement. Back home, the CIA will not claim Bishop as one of their own, for fear of jeopardizing the agreement. Nathan, on his last day on the job before retirement, has other plans in mind to get his "boy" that he ultimately feels responsible for, out of prison without the knowledge of his soon-to-be former superiors.

As Nathan sits in an endless debriefing among those that are deciding the fate of Tom's existence, he describes how he recruited Tom back in 1975 at the close of the Vietnam War. Like Col. Trautman and Rambo, he trained him and cut him loose on the world of our enemies when the time was right. These events included Berlin in '76 and Beirut in '85. Unlike Rambo, however, Tom is weakened by feelings of love toward a missionary woman he met in Lebanon. Because we know from the movies that the CIA inevitably means lies and deception, Nathan tips off the Chinese about the woman when he concludes that Tom's feelings for her will compromise his cover and his mission. We learn soon enough that it was that same woman Tom was trying to rescue at the start of the film when he was captured. Through his feelings of consciousness and skills as a former operative, Nathan creates and forges a plan to rescue Tom before his execution without the knowledge of those he's lying to. Deception and lies are now working on our side as it's a race against time to rescue the hero and the lady from certain doom. Rescued they are, and it's a rather intriguing moment when Tom realizes it was Nathan who was responsible for his rescue when the simple words of "Operation Dinner Out" are spoken. He understands, and so do we, and we're glad we were there to watch it all happen.

In any film about spies and espionage, the final outcome is often never in any doubt. We know the heroes will win and the American spirit will triumph. Perhaps it triumphs even more in a film released just two months after the events of 9/11. Still, it's impossible to deny that it works even better when we watch Redford and Pitt work together. They feed off each other with a degree of cleverness and intrigue that reminds us of solid acting crafts behind what is wholeheartedly a cat-and-mouse action thriller. Still, I can't help but wish that someone on the writing team of SPY GAME had, indeed, come up with the simple idea of re-introducing us to the former character of Joe Turner. As I said, it makes things a little more interesting.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Nathan Muir (over the phone): "We're on for tonight."
Commander Wiley (over the phone): "Roger sir, understand. Operation Dinner Out is a GO. Confirm."
Nathan: "Correct, Dinner Out is a go."
Dr. William Byars (overhearing): "Dinner Out is a go? Hell of a way to speak to your wife."
Vincent Vy Ngo: "Why do you think they keep dumping him."