A TV miniseries in six parts about spying on both sides of the Cold War. Kids, the term "Cold War" refers to the rivalry and occasional proxy wars between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, now known as Russia. Between 1945 and 1990, both sides poured enormous amounts of money, effort, blood, and general discomfort into espionage nd counter-espionage. Our agency was the CIA and the USSR had the KGB. We finally won, partly by forcing the USSR to spend itself into oblivion. Both sides played pretty dirty. "We made a lot of mistakes along the way," muses the central CIA figure, Christ O'Donnell. "We won, didn't we?", replies his pragmatic colleague, Alfred Molina.
I see no point in going into the forty-five year history of the Cold War, but I have to say that the film reminded me of Herman Wouk's massive works, "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance." Somehow or other, O'Donnell finds himself in the middle of just about every important incident in which the CIA was involved, like the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Nothing about Chile and Allende because that was less of a mistake and more like a CIA-backed assassination.
It's a reasonably good show. The production values are high and the historical details seem accurate enough for most purposes. Shooting locations included Ontario, Puerto Rico, and Budapest. The acting for the most part is professional, with standout performances by Michael Keaton, unusually subdued and convincing as a determined bulldog sniffing through mountains of data and hanging on to his conclusions, and by Rory Cochrane, who has the pudgy face of a comic and the deep growl of Russel Crowe. Both do fine work here.
As in Wouk's works there are a couple of romances sprinkled through the story but it's far from a soap opera. Most of the time is spent on ferreting out double agents known as "moles" within the CIA, which is known as "the company." The Romanian actress Alexandra Maria Lara is cast as a ballerina who is O'Donnel's contact behind the Iron Curtain and becomes his main squeeze, despite firm instruction against it. She's attractive and an appealing character. Less appealing (as a character) is Natascha McElhone, whose big, bulging eyes and bony nose are beautiful in their own way.
Chris O'Donnell as Jack McCauliffe, the sometimes doubtful protagonist, looks and acts more like a male model out of the pages of Gentleman's Quarterly or the New York Times Magazine. He's the weakest link in the story, more handsome and more bland than Kent Smith, and if it weren't for all the tension and mystery, he might easily have torpedoed it.
And it IS a good story. The first two hours of exposition are a bit slow as we must be introduced to three Yalies who go their separate ways after graduation. Thereafter, the pace picks up. At times, the action we witness is particularly brutal. People get the crap beat out of them or are shot while begging for their lives. It's a dirty business all around. Yet, with all the intrigue and enigmas, the tale is never really confusing. It takes some concentration but we can follow the characters in their peregrinations.
I see no point in going into the forty-five year history of the Cold War, but I have to say that the film reminded me of Herman Wouk's massive works, "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance." Somehow or other, O'Donnell finds himself in the middle of just about every important incident in which the CIA was involved, like the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Nothing about Chile and Allende because that was less of a mistake and more like a CIA-backed assassination.
It's a reasonably good show. The production values are high and the historical details seem accurate enough for most purposes. Shooting locations included Ontario, Puerto Rico, and Budapest. The acting for the most part is professional, with standout performances by Michael Keaton, unusually subdued and convincing as a determined bulldog sniffing through mountains of data and hanging on to his conclusions, and by Rory Cochrane, who has the pudgy face of a comic and the deep growl of Russel Crowe. Both do fine work here.
As in Wouk's works there are a couple of romances sprinkled through the story but it's far from a soap opera. Most of the time is spent on ferreting out double agents known as "moles" within the CIA, which is known as "the company." The Romanian actress Alexandra Maria Lara is cast as a ballerina who is O'Donnel's contact behind the Iron Curtain and becomes his main squeeze, despite firm instruction against it. She's attractive and an appealing character. Less appealing (as a character) is Natascha McElhone, whose big, bulging eyes and bony nose are beautiful in their own way.
Chris O'Donnell as Jack McCauliffe, the sometimes doubtful protagonist, looks and acts more like a male model out of the pages of Gentleman's Quarterly or the New York Times Magazine. He's the weakest link in the story, more handsome and more bland than Kent Smith, and if it weren't for all the tension and mystery, he might easily have torpedoed it.
And it IS a good story. The first two hours of exposition are a bit slow as we must be introduced to three Yalies who go their separate ways after graduation. Thereafter, the pace picks up. At times, the action we witness is particularly brutal. People get the crap beat out of them or are shot while begging for their lives. It's a dirty business all around. Yet, with all the intrigue and enigmas, the tale is never really confusing. It takes some concentration but we can follow the characters in their peregrinations.