Movies are, as with many forms of media, a reflection of our desire to indulge in escapism. The challenges are more exciting, the actors more attractive, the romance sweeter. That is of course one of the reasons that we love espionage movies: what could be more exciting and dramatic than imagining ourselves as international spies, with beautiful women at our side and dashing, Monaco-based enemies to overtake?
Alas, what little I know about espionage paints these tales to be, well, exaggerated. Real spies often spend less time in tuxedos than they do simply waiting, sometimes for years, and sometimes with nothing to show for their efforts even then. (Consider the group of Russian spies who lived in America for ten years under the so-called “Illegals Program” and reportedly never even obtained any classified information.) It may be a dangerous job, with exposure of your role leading to any number of unwanted outcomes (With the prisoner swap that the Russians underwent probably the best possible one), but the vast majority of spies, both official and non-official, probably never experience anything as dramatic as making it through Checkpoint Charlie by the skin of their teeth, or what have you. (And, now that I type this, I realize that someone really needs to make a location page for Checkpoint Charlie.)
Films, of course, will almost always opt for the dramatic and the dangerous over the sometimes prosaic realities of spy work, but that doesn’t mean that many espionage-based films don’t at least try to portray espionage as something other than glamorous gunfire. Many of them are based on real events, at least in part: think Breach or Rendition or Syriana, although it’s likely that the real best stories from the last fifty years of espionage are likely to be classified for a long, long time.
This week, as we look forward to the release of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a spy film that focuses on a complicated molehunt inside the British external intelligence agency, MI6, we're going to look at films that take a more "realistic" look at espionage, however you may interpret that. TTSS is not a story about gunplay and spy gadgets; one of the most exciting scenes in the book it's based on actually focuses on a man going through files in a library, to give you an idea. We’re not going to be talking about James Bond or Jason Bourne here; instead, we’re going to be looking at movies that at least attempt to portray some of the more realistic (if fabricated) complications about modern espionage. I’m still getting in feature ideas from our freelancers, but so far, we have Andrew Gray chiming in with historically accurate intelligence operations from WWII and previous as portrayed in films like The Man Who Never Was and Lawrence Of Arabia. Matthew Floratos will look at the more gritty style of spy film that we have in the 21st century, and how real-world events (9/11 among them) might have impacted that shift. I’ll be chiming in with a Besties for Spartan, which, even though it might feature a fairly ridiculous plot, also has a story influenced by the real-world experiences of special forces operatives.
Are you more of a fan of the newer, realistic espionage movies, or are you more in favor of the over-the-top 24s or James Bond films? Or can there be a happy balance between the two?
I love the Good Shepard.
Both have their ups and downs, but I'd rather watch a crazy popcorn flick almost anyday.
Though I'm pumped for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Breach is legitimately one of my favourite movies. Looking forward to the features.
Actually haven't seen any of the new more realistic spy movies mentioned above. As I'm not interested in Bourne and similar movies but really like for example The spy who came in from the cold, this should be a good week for me.
I think the happy balance of realism vs. action lies in the Bourne films (at least in the third), which is probably where most of the recent grittier spy films come from. Hell, even the Daniel Craig Bond films have all been watered down Bourne films with more over-the-top action.
Anthony Mann's fantastic T-Men depicts an actual case of two agents of the US Treasury Department trying to uncover a counterfeiting operation. It opens with an introduction by their real life supervisor. The voice-over commentary condenses the time-consuming agent work from weeks to seconds and makes room for tense action and interrogation scenes.
I don't know if it's still in public domain or if someone snatched the rights. The archive.org version is gone, but it's still on youtube:
@Daveyo520: Holy hell that movie knocks me right out. Snoozefest.
Looking forward to Andrew's piece and the Besties for Spartan should be awesome. I'm a fan Bourne-spy films (ok, they may be a lot more action than spy). Though not as outlandish as the older Bond Films or as menial as something like The Good Shepard, they find a good middle ground that I love.
Cool. But I would almost argue that since 9/11 -not 2000- films have tended toward the gritty. Maybe I am giving that day more influence than it deserves, but if anything brought our cultural eye towards modern day espionage and it's consequences I feel it's that. Films like Syriana, and even Munich feel like at least the influenced byproducts of a post-9/11 America.
I love the Bourne movies but I have to say I really enjoy the first one significantly more than the others. It's smaller scale and more homely locales really appeal to me more than anything in the others. Especially that ending in that farmhouse, amazing. I also just prefer the pacing in that one to the others as well.
I definitely prefer the more low-key more realistic spy movies to the bombastic ones, in the same way that I prefer movies like Collateral for hitman type movies. Although I'm totally pumped for MI4.
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is definitely one of the best (and most depressing) spy/Cold War movies I've seen. It's also one of those movies you can't imagine in color, because that world sure as hell didn't have any.
It's hard sometimes to figure out what's "realistic". I mean we call all agree that James Bond, Austin Powers, Mission Impossible and A Man Called Flintstone are not serious espionage films, but what about Three Days of the Condor, Enemy of the State or the Jack Ryan stuff? They're action packed with some wizz-pow added but nothing outside the realm of possibility. The presentation is just glitzed up for audiences. Maybe that in itself excludes these movies from being called "realistic". The truth of the matter is, realism in espionage can be rather boring since a spy's job is not to get caught, not to leave a trail, and remain remarkably ordinary.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a great one, but I also liked The Little Drummer Girl, The Falcon and the Snowman, and The Tailor of Panama. The original Day of the Jackal is excellent, too but it might be classified as more of a assassins genre. Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent is thoroughly enjoyable, but it might be a bit dated for some viewers.