Product Description
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In 1954, Berlin is a hotbed of spies eager to put down cash in
exhange for secrets,
.com
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Handsomely ed, epic in , and featuring an outstanding
cast, TNT's The Company might restore some much-needed luster to
the image of the Central Intelligence Agency (then again, perhaps
not). Based on Robert Littell's popular historical novel of the
same name, the show commingles real and invented characters as it
traces the CIA's role in several major events, from the earliest
days of the Cold War through the collapse of the Soviet Union,
with particular attention given to the division of Berlin into
East and West in the 1950s, the anti-Communist uprising in
mid-'50s Hungary, and the disastrous Bay of Pigs operation in the
early '60s.
The first of the miniseries' three parts introduces us to Yale
graduates Jack McAuliffe (Chris O'Donnell), Leo Kritzky
(Alessandro Nivola), and Yevgeny Tsipin (Rory Cochrane); the
first two are recruited by the CIA, but the Russian-born Tsipin
sides with the KGB. The initial focus is on the CIA's efforts to
find a Soviet mole who's been interfering with the agency's work
and putting many American lives at risk. Working with mentor
Harvey "The Sorcerer" Torriti (Alfred Molina), who calls him
"Sport" and delights in pointing out that such matters are
nothing less than a life-and-death struggle between good and evil
and right and wrong, McAuliffe skulks around Berlin, where his
principal informant and soon-to-be love interest is a lovely
young ballerina (Alexandra Maria Lara) with a few secrets of her
own. Meanwhile, back in Washington, the colorfully-named CIA
counter-intelligence expert James Jesus Angleton (a real guy
portrayed with low-key intensity by Michael Keaton) slowly
realizes that the mole in question is one of his old pals. And it
doesn't stop there. Turns out there's another double agent
(codename "Sasha") working for the Reds; this one's deeply
embedded in the CIA, and Angleton, a chain-smoking obsessive
whose behavior becomes increasingly cold and peculiar, devotes
years (and most of the series' third installment) to outing him.
The process by which he does just that, culminating in some
fairly excruciating interrogation scenes, provides The Company's
best moments--especially because we don't know until the very end
whether Angleton has fingered the actual Sasha or not.
Viewers unfamiliar with the CIA's history and methods arent
likely to be very encouraged by what's depicted here--especially
in the second part, in which the agency's misadventures in
Hungary and Cuba reveal it (as well as the U.S. government
overall) to be not merely ineffective but disastrously inept, as
well as shockingly callous and hypocritical when it comes to
lending material support to the causes it cls to espouse.
Still, the series does a good job with many of the elements
common to such fare (Robert De Niro's 2006 film The Good Shepherd
covers some of the same ground). Codes are written and
deciphered. Secrets are kept
and revealed. s are fired, and
some of them connect. People die, good and bad alike. And even if
some of the scenes are a bit overheated and melodramatic, all in
all, The Company (which was written by Ken Nolan, directed by
Mikael Salomon, and produced by John Calley and Ridley and Tony
Scott) is smart and entertaining. And some of it's even true.
--Sam Graham
Stills from The Company (click for larger image)
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Beyond The Company at .com
.com DVD editors listmania:
The CIA on Film and TV
(
/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R3M8NRJY5VD8OJ/%20ref=d_ap_thecompany_1%20>
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