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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold 
Actors : Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Sam Wanamaker, George Voskovec
Director : Martin Ritt
Studio : Paramount
by Paramount
Release Date : 2004-07-13
Publisher : Paramount
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780792198710
UPC : 097360650945
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 53 reviews)
List Price : $9.98
Our Price : $4.61
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Americancivilwar.com |
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John le Carre's classic spy yarn gets a suitably brisk, unromanticized telling in this quintessential Cold War movie. A British agent (Richard Burton) sets up an elaborate cover story for being lured into defecting to the Communists, but he hardly needs to manufacture his disgust and cynicism over spying. The grim business of point-counterpoint espionage has rarely been depicted with less glamour; Burton's great climactic speech on the subject is the definitive take on sinking to the level of the enemy. Claire Bloom is an offbeat love interest, and a bearded Oskar Werner is an East German investigator on Burton's case (the pecking order in the Communist spy hierarchy is a source of black humor). Director Martin Ritt extends his unvarnished approach to the movie's stripped-down look, which means that Richard Burton is constantly in a harsh, unflattering light. He looks terrible, but it's in the service of a fine performance. --Robert Horton |
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Superb adaptation |
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Having read the novel by LeCarre, I can't imagine anyone but Richard Burton as the burnt-out false defector Alec Leamas. The black-and-white of this film underscores the shades of gray in the moral no-man's-land in which Leamas takes on the most difficult, most insidious assignment of his trying career as a spy. The jacket of this edition of the film says "forget James Bond," a very apt line for what's inside. This film is made with raw, real suspense, fine acting, and excellent cinematography. There are no "super-spies," no gadgets, no kung-fu stunts, only the subtleties of people keeping secrets upon secrets. If you want to be cheered or excited, this is not your stop. But if you want to see brilliant work in film, check this one out. |
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grim story accurately portrayed |
This is an adaptation of the first popular novel by John le Carre (David Cornwell) who served in MI6 just after WWII. If you are easily depressed avoid this one. Otherwise it is close to the things that actually happened in that time frame.
The woman judge is modeled after a real person. She was from the German Aristocracy and was an opportunist who embraced the communist cause for what she could get from it. In stark contrast, her brother aided MI6 in WWII by being the source of the Oslo Report about German technological develoments. |
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5 stars for The Spy Who Came In From The Cold |
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This movie makes you feel like you are back in the cold war era. The main character's life and job are nothinglike James Bond or other fictional glamorous spies. This is a real person, flaws and all, struggling to do his very best to fight for what he believes in. And Richard Burton plays this character perferctly. It shows the changes he goes thru and the how forces he can't see or control affect his life. I highly recommend this movie for someone who wants to experience the cold war instead of a lot of special effects and car crashes. |
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More than a spy thriller |
As in all of LeCarre's works, there is a lot more shown than the machinations of Cold War espionage. The human element is always there. As much as the spies try to suppress their more human feelings in order to carry out their difficult missions, sooner or later they have to deal with them. That's what I find fascinating, rather than the plot complications of the spy business. Spy story fans will think differently. Here you don't have to choose--you get both.
Richard Burton gives a superb performance as the burnt-out, cynical spy who has lost any reason to do anything but drink. He claims not to do what he did for idealistic reasons and has nothing but contempt for his trade. He's offered a desk job in London after having been pulled in from active work in Berlin, but the safety of pushing papers doesn't appeal to him, either, so he takes it. He needs money and really has nothing better to do.
In the process of building an identity as a disaffected British spy, ready to defect to the Communists, he stumbles into a job as an assistant clerk in a library. There he meets an idealistic young woman (Claire Bloom) who believes that the Communist party is the answer to the world's problems--his polar opposite. Even as he scorns her naivetee, he falls for her sweetness and caring and promises to return to her after this one last job.
Complications ensue, as they do in complex spy stories and the outcome is truly a memorable one. The librarian's touching love for him has brought him out of his cynicism long enough to perform one truly heroic, human act. She has brought him in from the cold.
Burton's presence is so commanding that he held my interest during the elaborate twists and turns of plot. Bloom plays the idealistic young woman perfectly; it's a role one could easily over play but she carries it off with great subtlety. Oskar Werner, no lightweight himself, brings addition spark when he enters the picture. As impressive as Burton is, Werner hold his own with him in every scene; they are perfect sparring partners.
The black and white gritty photography, the bleakness of the scenes, the music, all add to the mood of the film, a reminder of a very grim and dangerous time in our history. The emergence of human caring at the end bring a spark of light to the darkness--that's the genius of LeCarre and that's what I'll carry with me from this film. |
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Gripping Cold War Intrigue |
I remember when this movie was first released, a friend saw it and afterward complained bitterly about how boring it was. This was around 1965 and he was expecting something more along the lines of James Bond, Our Man Flint, Matt Helm or any of the other James Bond knockoffs going around back then. But "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" was totally different. No flashy fantasy picture here; this is stark, cold reality showing cold war espionage the way it probably really was.
The movie is shot in black and white adding to the stark reality. The musical score is very subtle and low-keyed and used sparingly as the tension builds, but still manages to set the desperate mood of the story. The acting is superb; Richard Burton and Oskar Werner give outstanding performances. The tribunal and escape scenes toward the end of the movie are some of the most powerful you'll ever see as the many facets of the mysterious Operation Rolling Stone finally come together.
I really appreciate understatement and compactness in film and this is a good example of that. There are absolutely no wasted scenes or dialog, no throwaway gag lines and no laughs. Every minute of this serious film is vital to the story line. The audience must pay close attention. It must have been quite a challenge for director Martin Ritt to film such a complicated story, but he and the screenwriters pulled it off
A blurb in my copy of the book by John LeCarre says this is one of the best spy stories ever written and I totally agree. The screenplay is generally faithful to the book. The dialog is taken almost verbatim from the book in many of the most powerful scenes, and the story itself is a masterpiece of convoluted intrigue. I've read the book and seen the movie each several times and I see different angles to the story each time. This is one of the best spy films from the cold war era that you will ever see. |
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