Review of Spy Game

Introduction

Interesting that it`s Tony Scott, the once intractably decadent director of films like `Top Gun` and `Days of Thunder` who has become the `reliable` Scott, as brother Ridley continues his jaunt wistfully off the map with films as increasingly tedious as `Gladiator` and `Black Hawk Down`. ‘Spy Game’, a definite stylistic successor to the techno-fetishism of `Enemy of the State` posits a mentor/pupil dynamic between Robert Redford`s surly CIA tough guy traditionalist and Brad Pitt`s driven, charismatic idealist. It just so happens that it`s the last day on the job for Redford, when said pupil is nicked in the act of espionage in China (while trying to rescue his girlfriend, natch.) Redford has only 24 hours to prevent Pitt`s execution, while simultaneously recounting his relationship with him to a bunch of Agency heavies (headed by the reptilian Stephen Dillane), which allows the film to support its flimsy present day story with flashbacks that take up the bulk of the movie.

Video

Excellent anamorphic transfer, as one would expect from a film made only last year, and also from a film made by someone like Tony Scott, to whom visual tricks are clearly everything.

Audio

An eclectic 5.1 sound mix, dominated by an enhanced, almost baroque palette of sound-effects and Harry Gregson-Williams fairly generic (but loud) mix of Arabic chants, Clint Mansell style techno and mournful, Eno-esque electronic bubbling. No DTS though.

Features

Tony Scott’s commentary is interesting, if a little dry as he talks about the changed climate (both politically and cinematically) post-September 11th and how it affected the editing process of potentially contentious material. There is an interesting collection of deleted scenes, with some intriguing subplots that were dropped entirely from the plot to make Redford’s character more sympathetic. A wide range of featurettes deal in EPK style with everything from location filming to the on-set military weapons advisor. We also get the theatrical trailer and the desire for a proper documentary instead of fluff.

Conclusion

Reliable this may be, but `Spy Game` can`t help but feel like a no-win prospect that spends the majority of its duration treading water in the deadly ocean of pathological-flashback-syndrome. The central character clash is never really raised above the banal conflict between heart and policy, with Redford predictably vanquishing his own by-the-book ideals to rescue his protege. Scott seems more interested in constructing a work-man-like delivery of the narrative that thankfully doesn`t rely on set-piece destruction to buoy our interest (although a cataclysmic suicide bombing is staged with frightening logistical detail.)

What it does rely on however, is the ho-hum stop/start discord of an episodic structure as the story globe and time-hops from war-torn Vietnam to the tribal battleground of mid-80s Beirut. The script sketches out historical background with little in the way of contextual analysis, allowing supporting characters to wander into the narrative with the sole mandate to complicate the bond of the central relationship; including Catherine McCormack, an English aid worker who becomes a pawn in a crisis of work vs. love for Pitt`s character. Guess which one he chooses?

Despite the unwieldy nature of the narrative, Scott`s efficiency allows the story to tumble along at an engaging pace, with Redford taking particular zeal in his performance which types him as a kind of Hollywood ancestor to Pitt. If Scott`s visual-tricks are rather over-hammed in places, the law of averages states that they must find appropriate material at least once in the duration of a 120 minute movie... and they do: in a dizzying roof-top discussion between Redford and Pitt filmed with cameras running opposing concentric circles, one around the roof, the other on a helicopter. The story is also kept pleasingly down-beat, without the usual fan-fair that greets tinsel-town`s re-assessment of recent history: i.e: `we`ve made our mistakes, but we`re still better than these sick assholes.` However, the film remains a cliche-padded and rather unexciting pot-boiler, despite the appreciably somber approach to incendiary material. Still, watchable enough.