With the increase in popularity of the “Mission: Impossible” and numerous James Bond films, the idea of a spy movie has been drastically altered. Fast cars, high-tech gadgets and fancy action sequences have overtaken the public’s natural fascination with the secretive world of the spy.
“Spy Game,” the new film from director Tony Scott, chooses to ignore the explosive gum and endless supply of expensive, yet expendable, cars, instead favoring the more realistic subtle tactics of the CIA.
Brad Pitt opens the film as Tom Bishop, the standard young spy sneaking into Su Chou Prison in April 1991. Dressed as a doctor to give the prisoners shots, Tom sabotages the prison’s power, killing all video recording equipment.
In typical spy fashion, Tom manages to rescue his mysterious target seconds before the Chinese electricians get the power back online. Unfortunately for him, Tom’s not quite quick enough to make it back out of the prison again, getting arrested by the Chinese government for espionage.
The stage is set for Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) to make his grand entrance. Nathan is the standard aging CIA spy, on his last day before retirement.
As the man who recruited Tom, the CIA bigwigs are set to have Nathan help them discredit Tom, so the United States can avoid claiming him as one of their own. With the arrest coming at 8 a.m. Virginia time (CIA headquarters are located in Langley, Virginia), the U.S. has just 24 hours to claim Tom before they execute him. Without the CIA’s help, it’s up to Nathan to track down the necessary information to try to get Tom out.
Instead of following the ’90s trend, Scott seems to have watched “The Sting” a few too many times while filming, even inspiring him to bring Redford back. Instead of playing the same role, Redford takes over Paul Newman’s role as the intelligent, experienced member of the duo, with Pitt stepping into Redford’s old shoes as the newcomer.
Although by 1991 (the time of the movie) Tom is an experienced, and very well-trained spy, the majority of the film takes place in flashbacks, stories told by Nathan to his superiors at Langley. It’s in 1975 that Nathan first meets Tom, an army sharpshooter. One year later, Tom is officially invited to join the CIA, getting his initial training from Nathan in West Germany.
Only during the training montage does the film resemble a typical Bond film, which is also the most entertaining sequence. It’s also one of the many scenes that showcases cinematographer Daniel Mindel, who’s short list of credits sadly include the Tony-Scott-directed bomb “Enemy of the State.” Mindel’s style is quick, but precise, catching the same little details which elude the in-training Tom.
Not surprisingly, Redford and Pitt both come off like seasoned professionals, working their way through the movie with more ease than their on-screen counterparts. Even when avoiding enemy fire in Beirut, the two banter back and forth as though filled by the same spirit Redford found with Newman (in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” as well as “The Sting”).
Fans of the trailer will be sad to learn the scene in depicting part of Pitt’s training was cut. Being the most memorable part of the preview, the scene, in which Pitt can describe everyone around him in detail, failing to notice Redford’s gray sweater, is noticeably missing and slightly disrupts the flow of the film. With that problem being the largest, the film can hardly be called a failure.
In the last James Bond film, “The World is Not Enough,” Denise Richards said to Bond, “You put that in English for those of us who don’t speak spy?” Even if you don’t speak spy (but then again, does anyone talk like James Bond?), “Spy Game” is filled with the rich character development lacking in the Bond films, without losing any of the appeal of the sexy spy world.
