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one of the best spy movie/mini-series here is a list of others ...

posted 19 years ago by Renard-4
31 replies | jump to latest

I've done this one before but it must have been deleted, I don't remember where I wrote it.

But in this last post where I wanted to know if there was other spy material out there. Someone point it to me this serie and Smiley's people. Which I'm grateful to, because I wouldn't have pick this one on my own.

So I know the list is getting (hopefully and not, because I want to discover other materials) complete.

So that's what I know of spy movie or serie, and that I like.
(of course the genre can be associated to war movies, and closer to our time; smuggling, detectives work... so I try to restrict myself whenever I could...)
The important thing is: it's about suspense, paranoia, action, riddles, and much more...

Tinker, Sailor, Spy, soldier
Smiley's people

3 days of the condor
The man who never was
Marathon man
The Jack Ryan trilogy
The Hunt for Red October
...
The James Bond serie
...

The manchurian candidates
The spy who came from the cold
The taylor of panama
The russia house
No way out
Spy game
Alias
The man who knew too much
North by northwest
Notorius
Charade
The day of the jackal
The quiet american
The conversation
Mission impossible 1 & 2
the Bourne trilogy
The man from U.N.C.L.E.
Conspiracy Theory
Firefox
The good shepherd
Breach
The Company

Some I had seen but forgotten

The constant gardener (thx Slowrain)
Spartan
Sneakers (thx Agrippina121)
The Perfect Spy (thx CmdrCody) I didn't got as involved as the others series... maybe I guess where it was going. I ought to finish it.
Danger Man (thx marjoriem)
The Third Man (thx ubu55)

Agents secrets french movie, but not so good despite the great actors.

Those are border line: (more like investigation than spy works or having spies in it not doing much... NDLR: only my opinion)

The sea wolves
All the president's man
The prisonner
La femme nikita
Point of no return
Little nikita
Conspiracy Theory
Ronin
The name of the rose
Casablanca
The maltese falcon
Syriana
The good german
Shooter
Gorkin Park
The Rhinemann Exchange

24 The TV serie...

Those are not so good: (to be polite in some cases)

The recruit
The saint the movie
XXX??

I know also there is some comedy spoof on the theme:

Austin powers
Top secret
Spies likes us
True Lies

I spy
Our man Flint Haven't seen those two

OSS 117 I didn't fancy it.

I don't know how is the serie : spooks or MI5 PS unfortunately Spooks seems unavailable, and only the edited MI5 would be, I don't know if I want to see that.

Haven't seen it but want to:

Arabesque
Philby, Burgess and Maclean

So what am I missing?

Here is a resume of what you (gratefully) suggested and That I didn't know about:

The Assignment
The Spanish Prisoner
Heist
Decision Before Dawn
Little Drummer Girl
The Fourth Protocol
Sandbaggers
Edge of Darkness
Callan
Reilly: Ace of Spies
The avengers ?
The Kremlin Letter
Our Man in Havana
Cambridge Spies
Operation Crossbow
Topaz
Cloak and dagger

thx also, for their input, to :
davidcronan, matthewormrod, mapsnmad, bmwhtly, bris_krs, bytor4,

Looking forward to purchase in Bluray : The Company (http://imdb.com/title/tt0488352/) thx Ridd. [edit]done!

Well that somes up the spy stuff... so far.
I need now to get to the store, since there is a lot more to see. Cheers everyone for your input, and keep them coming.

I might be stretching it, but is there some asian movies about spy, That we don't know about... Some Hong Kong stuff: maybe like James Clavell's Noble house just came out... I presume there is spy stuff in it, but would it be the premise of the show?
I would love to see a spy movie made, for example, by Johnnie To; he would take the time to built up suspense.
Of course, some of those movies might be more or less spy movies. I'll try to get the list down if the needs arise. And I'm a bit shy for not having more french spy movies in the list (being francophone) I'll try to scratch my brain for some good ones.

Once again many thanks.

Salut
my growing DVD collection
http://www.intervocative.com/DVDCollection.aspx/chauffard

[–] SlowRain 19 years ago

Nice list!

Seeing as you like John le Carre, you may want to try The Constant Gardener, his latest book-to-movie.

How about trying the movie Spartan, written and directed by David Mamet. It's a thriller about a conspiracy surrounding the kidnapping of the president's daughter. I find it to be a slowed down version of Ronin (Mamet also worked on the script for Ronin). Many people have difficulty with Mamet's dialogue, but if you look at it as something original and surreal, it is really quite beautiful. If you like Mamet's style, try The Spanish Prisoner, a movie about con artists, and Heist, a movie about professional thieves.

I'd also recommend the movie The Assignment about the pursuit of the infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal.

I'll suggest more if I can think of some.

The only second chance you get is to make the same mistake twice. - David Mamet

[–] Agrippina121 19 years ago

Sneakers -

A goofy spy (sort-of) movie with Robert Redford and Ben Kingsley. Definitely worth watching.

[–] CmdrCody 19 years ago

"Decision Before Dawn"....WWII. Winter 1944-45. Based on fact. Story of an American intelligence operation using captured German POWs as agents working for us.
It was called G-2, SSS, Seventh (US) Army. Shot in B+W right after the war in ruined Germany, it has that realistic, gritty feel. Lots of tradecraft shown while the Germans get trained by the Americans. Then they get parachuted behind enemy lines to gather tactical information about the XI Panzer Corps near Munich. Great ending. Not in video yet, but shown on Cinemax and other cable channels in the States.

"Little Drummer Girl"...Diane Keaton is an actress who gets involved in a PLO operation. Another leCarre novel made into a movie. Great stuff.

"The Fourth Protocol"...one of the best!!! Fredrick Forsyth novel about the Cold War...Russian sleeper agents and British counter-espionage ops. Great stuff. Michael Caine as the good guy chasing Pierce Bronsan, a scary KGB guy who kills without hesitation, who is under "special orders." Also, great "tradecraft" exhibited in the film. Aviable on DVD. SHOULD NOT BE MISSED!!!

"The Perfect Spy"...leCarre again. Story of how a British master spy gets recruited into "The Service." Big plot twists and flashbacks. Absorbing.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

CmdrCody

[–] SlowRain 19 years ago

I think I read somewhere that le Carre hates the movie version of The Little Drummer Girl. How does it compare to the novel?

How could I forget A Perfect Spy? Good call. Great novel and great mini-series.

The only second chance you get is to make the same mistake twice. - David Mamet

[–] CmdrCody 19 years ago

Yeah...I read that, too. He's hard to please when his books come to life. I think he didn't like Diane Keaton...not believable as a Shakespearian actress, I guess. Too much Annie Hall.

CmdrCody

[–] davidcronan 18 years ago

The father character in "A Perfect Spy" is supposed to be based on John le Carre's actual father. By all accounts he was a con-man and villain ,just like the fictional character.

[–] mapsnmad 17 years ago

"spies in it not doing much" is more like real espionage stories, so I'd rather see more of those: intelligent, complex thrillers where plot and conversation are important, rather than being simply filler between the car chases [yawn], the gasoline fireball explosions [yawn], the improbably choreographed martial arts fights [yawn], the attractive male spies sleeping with fashion models [yawn].....

"Spy Game" was a good spy story. "The Conversation" is a great spy story. "The Quiet American" was a good one.

The recent Bourne movies are just more James Bond silliness, but I enjoy 'em more than a Lindsay Lohan film -- that's about all I can say for 'em.

I'm just starting to watch "Tinker, Tailor...." and I have high hopes.

The trouble with David Mamet is that he keeps casting his regrettably untalented wife, and then directing the movie to make it seem like a wooden, monotonous, flat personality was what he wanted for that character. Ridiculous waste of his talent. What can you say, he loves his wife. You gotta admire that.

"Heist" was, in a way, a spy story ... a web of deceipt and intrigue.

Is "The Package" a good spy story?

[–] bmwhtly 19 years ago

I really think you should check out Spooks, preferably the first 2 series. I like Le Carre, and spooks is much MUCH closer to this than Bond. there are two versions of this series as you pointed out spooks and MI-5. Just to clarify, spooks is better because they edit out approx 15mins to show as MI5. but its good, I really think you'd like it. As would any le carre fan.

'I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis'

[–] marjoriem 19 years ago

I don't think anybody's mentioned a great old British television spy series: Sandbaggers. (Mid 70s, I believe.) Roy Marsden (who later got the role of Adam Dagliesh in the P.D. James detective series) plays the head of a super secret division within M-5. I believe it is available on DVD. Not all the episodes are of the same quality, but most of them are good enough that you almost forget the rather absurd 70s clothes and hair cuts.

Another old British spy series (black and white) still worth taking a look at: Danger Man (it was Secret Agent when it ran in the US) with Patrick McGoohan. The cult favorite, The Prisoner, grew out of Danger Man. McGoohan's character tries to resign from the British Secret Service, only to find himself imprisoned (by whom, we never know for sure) in great confort in a picturesque little village, but imprisoned anyway.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] BristleKRS 18 years ago

in addition to some of the excellent recommendations already made (especially 'edge of darkness'), i would recommend 'callan'[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061238/], a very gritty, downbeat, unglamorous take on life as an intelligence agent, with edward woodward in the title role.

[–] bytor4 17 years ago

I have recently discovered Reilly: Ace of Spies thanks to this website, I think its one of the best spy series I have ever seen.

[–] ubu55 17 years ago

Others you might like...

The Kremlin Letter, as cold-hearted as a Russian winter. Great performances/cast, particularly Richard Boone
Our Man in Havana, from the Graham Greene novel. Alec Guinness, Maureen O'Hara, and Ernie Kovacs, as a Cuban Police chief!
The Third Man, one of the most beautiful b/w films ever, imo

[–] Ridd 17 years ago

I enjoyed the Cambridge Spies (http://imdb.com/title/tt0346223/), a rather good BBC mini series featuring Tom Hollander.

I am also looking forward to The Company (http://imdb.com/title/tt0488352/) which also stars Tom Hollander, aswell as Michael Keaton, Alfred Molina and Chris O'Donnell.

[–] kyzasoze2003 16 years ago

Add to the list

Munich
The Quiller Memorandum
Female Agents
Black Book
Agents Secrets
Body of Lies

The Ipcress File and the other 4 Harry Palmer films - Midnight in Saint Petersburg, Bullet to Beijing, Billion Dollar Brain and Funeral in Berlin.

See the original Bourne Identity with Richard Chamberlain, the new Bourne films are not really spy films, but action films with a spy as the lead character using his skills to survive. Films like Taken and Man on Fire fall into the same category.

[–] kennellygerard 11 years ago

'Black Book' is gorgeous 100% amazing

i love it

[–] Numerobix 16 years ago

Just saw :
Ipcress File with Michael Cain. I liked it, Harry Palmer is going on the list.
I haven't seen the others Harry Palmer:
Billion dollar brain
Funeral in Berlin

Cheers!

[–] BlackiesDad 12 years ago

"Funeral in Berlin" is awesome.

[–] jimboearthling 16 years ago

Army of Shadows:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064040/

[–] jimboearthling 16 years ago

Traitor:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0988047/