Movie Review: Spy Game (2001)

Rating: (5 stars out of 5)
Audience Rating: R
Cast: Robert Redford and Brad Pitt
Director: Tony Scott
Writers: Michael Frost Beckner and David Arata
Awards: Nominee, Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing | Nominee, Golden Satellite Award for Best Original Score
Genre: action, crime, thriller
Run Time: 2h 6m
Premiere Date: November 21, 2001
Country: USA

Deja Vu
I've seen Spy Games once or even twice before. I no longer remember the details except that it was a great movie. When it popped up as a free full-length movie on Youtube, I couldn't resist it.

Synopsis
Redford, a retiring CIA operative, uses his remaining 24 hours to save his protege, Brad Pitt, from execution in a Chinese prison. This was all done in the backdrop of CIA boardrooms where the players had conflicting interests. This is an intelligent movie where quick thinking, relationships, and agency know-how saved the day.

Acting
This is a spy thriller, but not in the way of blowing up buildings or gratuitous killings. This is a movie about 2 characters who played their roles superlatively - Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. Nothing was over the top. In fact, there was a lot of underacting. But it added more to the realism of what goes on in the espionage game.

Redford and Pitt had such chemistry I'd like to see more films with the 2 of them (A River Runs Through It).

Cinematography
Lighting was subdued with half-shaded scenes, typical of covert spy thrillers. This added suspense and tension.

Editing / Soundtrack
The editing together with soundtrack made for a riveting play-by-play. A benign walk from one room to the other packed tension, urgency and suspense. This can be great material for a masterclass.

Ending Thoughts
The partnership of Redford and Pitt brings to mind another Redford film, Indecent Proposal with Demi Moore. That was a superb movie except for the fact that I felt Woody Harrelson was too weak to be pitted against Robert Redford. That was a miscast. There wasn't even any tension there since everyone was rooting for Redford and Moore Harrelson was a foregone footnote at the outset. Consider the movie, Casablanca. It was a pairing of Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, but Bergman's current love then was a man of stature - Paul Henreid (Victor Lazlow) who had a strong presence and played the powerful role of leading a resistance movement. Bogart vs Henreid - this is a good match instead of the Redford vs Harrelson. The reason I bring this up is because Brad Pitt could have played Woody Harrelson's character in Indecent Proposal. That would have provided balance and tension to the movie, given the great chemistry and screen presence of Redford and Pitt.

Even though it's an old movie, it comes very refreshing from the mindless genre of fast-paced spy flicks rich with CGI and bigger-than-life action figures. See it...again for the nth time!

--- Gigit (TheLoneRider)
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Movie Review: Spy Game (2001)

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