Tony Scott’s Spy Game sees Redford using his disarming charm to run circles around CIA.
Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to cinapse.twocents@gmail.com.
The Pick: Spy Game (2001)
For the rest of the year, we’re focusing on the great career of the late, great Robert Redford. In this year of great contention and struggle, celebrating some of the great American actors and filmmakers has been a solace for many of us here at Cinapse. With the recent passing of a true legend in Redford, it felt like it was only appropriate to do a deep dive into some of his great films. In fact, he was the heartbeat of so many great American films, calling a two month retrospective a “deep dive” is a false moniker. It barely scratches the surface of his almost mythological career. As we explore some films we love and films we are newly experiencing, we invite you to join us for our Redford Retrospective.
For the penultimate entry in a two month journey through the filmography of one of our absolute greats, we land on one of more underlooked roles, even though it, like the rest, is a top tier performance. That role is Nathan Muir, retiring CIA agent, in Tony Scott’s Spy Game. What would appear to be another bombastic blockbuster from Scott, Spy Game is much more of a cerebral watch, as we follow Nathan on his last day at the agency, as he looks to save one of his former trainees from execution. It is a film filled with twists and turns, as Muir secretly makes moves behind the agency’s back, using all of his skills and connections he’s made over a long career for one last covert mission. It is a top tier little spy film, and it is elevated by both Redford’s performance and Scott’s direction.
The Team
I’ll admit, coming into this week’s edition, that I’m naturally a bit biased, as I am a Tony Scott mega fan. After spending the first few features of his career making big, brawny action films, it seemed like many wrote off his career as “empty headed blockbusters”, unlike the higher brow drama work of someone like, say, his brother. But, for those that actually watched his films, they’d know that his ‘90s output is stellar, and filled with unique, engaging films, be it a geopolitical pot boiler like Crimson Tide, or a paranoid thriller like Enemy Of The State, or a quick witted crime caper like Modern Romance.
That same sort of waving off is also why most don’t know about Spy Game, the turn of the century thriller from Scott. Which is a shame, because, man, Spy Game is an absolute blast. Spy Game sees Scott use all the tools in his toolbag, from his unique scene structures and editing, to both the big action sequences and the tense verbal standoffs. It is a masterclass of thriller filmmaking.
A big reason for why it works so well is Redford, who is dialed in 100% as Nathan Muir, a retiring CIA operative who has 24 hours to help his former protege out of a Chinese prison. It is a role that sees Redford using his natural disarming charm, magnified by his age, as an advantage. Those around him view him as an old fool, with one foot already out the door. Muir uses that, playing dumb when he needs to, but secretly making moves in the shadows, collecting intel and setting up a covert operation.
Redford so perfectly plays a man who is strategically guarded, his cards close to the chest, playing the players instead of the hand. It is immensely satisfying to watch him continuously come out ahead and work his way out of sticky situations.
He, as apt for Redford, also has great chemistry with Brad Pitt, who plays Tom Bishop, the incarcerated operative. Played in flashbacks, Redford and Pitt have a natural “cool” energy, able to appear as the most interesting person in the room without ever making a move. When playing it off each other, they move like two apex predators, wary of each other’s abilities, but respectful of their strengths. It is an effective “passing of the baton”, between one generation of movie star to the next.
Spy Game is a top tier spy thriller that sees an auteur at the top of his game, working with greats from two different generations, creating a truly thrilling, kinetic, and fun time at the movies. What more could you ask for?
A few months ago, after the passing of an absolute legend, the Cinapse team programmed a number of that legend’s features for our Two Cents column. And it turned out that one of their late career roles, in a film directed by Tony Scott, served as somewhat of a pseudo-sequel to one of their most iconic roles from an earlier era.
That legend was Gene Hackman, who played an infamously paranoid spy in The Conversation, and then a similar character in Enemy Of The State many years later.
So, imagine my surprise when we decided to memorialize another recently passed legend, and programmed Spy Game, a film directed by Tony Scott, that served as somewhat of a pseudo-sequel to one of Robert Redord’s most iconic roles of an earlier era.
Sure, in Spy Game, Redford plays retiring master spy Nathan Muir, and isn’t the same guy as his young, idealistic, man on the run character Turner in Three Days of the Condor. But there’s almost no doubt in my mind that Spy Game, which I had entirely forgotten and which clicked remarkably well for me, intentionally trades on Redford being somewhat of a patron saint of government paranoia films from the 1970s.
What charmed me most about Spy Game, beyond the always stylish direction and aesthetics from Tony Scott, was the passing of the torch element of Redford to Brad Pitt, not to mention how well that translates to the characters themselves. On Muir’s last day before retirement, his erstwhile protege Tom Bishop, ends up in trouble. Most of Bishop’s more youthful action is out in the field, while Muir’s action mostly all takes place in interrogation briefing rooms. But Spy Game moves like its life depends on it, shows us the dehumanizing and deprogramming it takes to become a successful spy, and then goes on a redemption quest, with Muir breaking all his own rules to prioritize saving a friend and a brother as one final salvific act before retirement. Redford literally drives off into the sunset at the end of this thing, aviators on, behind the wheel of a Porsche, passing the torch to Brad Pitt but doing it in the coolest way imaginable.
Flashy, profoundly “Hollywood”, and slick as hell, Spy Game made me nostalgic for a different time, when studios and movie stars made programmers that hit like this. We didn’t know what we had with the likes of Tony Scott and Robert Redford, but it’s unlikely we’ll ever see anything quite like them ever again.
November and December Lineup: Redford Retrospective
November and December Lineup: Redford Retrospective
