Love in the time of war

No other spy adventure film put me on the edge of my seat, held my breath and restrained me from any attempt at blinking than Robert Redford’s Spy Game.

In 24 hours, renegade secret agent Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) will be shot. Chinese police caught him during a jail quarantine as he tried to bring an ex-lover, imprisoned missionary Elizabeth (Catherine McCormack) to safety.

A former sergeant, Bishop disguised himself as a photographer in the 1991 Cold War. He used every undercover protocol CIA operative Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) had taught him, from espying people at the corner of his eye, to manipulating their naivety and extracting information from a beautiful girl without appearing like a clod.

By this time, Muir had bonded with Bishop, who had begun to treat him like a father, and who was not forsaken by the seasoned sleuth until the very end.

Spy Game treats you into a blinding roller coaster, kaleidoscopic adventure. It shows you the outwardly calm but inwardly turbulent world of the CIA with all its clandestine contrivances and the deceit and disturbing severity that mark the Cold War.

Redford appeared to me as a venerable figure: quick-witted, sprightly as a cat and never a victim of human frailty. Pitt is a fine actor who portrayed youthful idealism effortlessly.

The film shows us the senselessness of war and the universal theme that "Love conquers all."

Bishop found love in Elizabeth. If he pursued her and gave up his tightrope job, he would be at odds with his patron, Muir. Moreover, he realized that the entire espionage game is all about manipulation and that Muir was willing to sacrifice some lives without remorse for the "benefit" of the masses.

Bishop is disgusted.

"What kind of devil could abide by such inhuman principles?" he asks. But Muir sticks to his guns and Bishop deserts him.

Love triumphs over bitterness and hatred. Father cannot leave his son to die; man cannot bear seeing his woman suffer.

Although director Tony Scott employed the most dramatic and visually (and psychologically) engaging plots and scenes, the theme clearly floats above the mayhem of the moment.

It made me weep, much to my surprise. The scene where Bishop hacks his way through the crowd just to bring the timid physician to the building of a ranking official of the land in order to poison him, found me twiddling my thumbs, musing on my own ethics.

Then, a bomb explodes as the doctor wends his way past the security lines, and he dies along with the many other civilians. My mouth hung open. I was aghast.

Only when the popcorn dropped from my jaw did I realize, "Hell, this is one great movie." And indeed, it is.