  |
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||
spy game by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - February 25, 2002 |
||||
| Although the geostrategic and geopolitical analysis remains shallow, the film does have some nice touches that have been overlooked by its John le Carre-seeking critics. When Muir leaks news of Bishop's arrest to CNN Hong Kong reporter Mitch Alford (James Aubrey), for example, The Agency responds with disinformation that Bishop had been killed fourteen months previously. Alford is later revealed as an MI6 “asset.” This series of reversals captures how intelligence campaigns are nested within diplomatic overtures and crisis management. The much-touted "CNN Effect" (when network news-feeds effect change in diplomatic, military and political circles) has become a casualty of psychological operations fought using the global communications infrastructure. When Muir negotiates with Duncan and his Chinese colleagues, Scott deftly sums up how globalization has changed China's regional governance. Muir learns to play a new game: a shift from Western neo-classical economics to Asian network economics in the newly industrialized countries. When Muir trades Company money through a Grand Cayman Islands account for Bishop's life, he enacts the unauthorized resource allocation described by the late Col. (ret.) L. Fletcher Prouty. Scott trades broad strokes for telling details. Check-mate Spy Game has been criticized for its geopolitical shallowness in the wake of 9/11. These critiques are relevant but overlook what Beckner and Scott have contributed. Spy Game hints at the transition that intelligence agencies faced in the early 1990s to a multi-polar environment where geoeconomic imperatives were paramount (external) and the push for greater accountability and reengineered efficiency (internal). Spiraling technology costs and differing visions imperiled the "humint" factor. Spy Game also lies at the post-cold-war cusp where several geopolitical frameworks would battle for the public's consciousness. Francis Fukuyama was catapulted from a minor State Department official to prominence when his book The End of History and the Last Man (New York: The Free Press, 1992) argued that Western liberal democracy was the end-point of civilization. Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996) created a vast macrohistory that warned of a coming war between the West and Islam, which is why Huntington has become the most influential geopolitical strategist in the post-9/11 world. Robert Kaplan's The Coming Anarchy (New York: Random House, 2000) played into the pessimistic vision of ethnopolitical conflict, besieged city-states and new resource wars. Thus the moral vacuum at the heart of the film, agonized over by critics its, also reflects a real-life fracturing of geopolitical discourse. Which theory do you prefer? Spy Game doesn’t propose simple answers because there aren’t any. Scott’s primary aim is to create a surface impression of intelligence for Cineplex audiences, to venerate popcorn entertainment over moral re-examination. Don't expect the latter in the climate, during the film's release. of domestic propaganda and feverish US patriotism. Leave the polemics, the self-affirming declaration and exposing the global arms trade industry to a director like Oliver Stone. Rather, the post-release debate about Spy Game reveals the agendas of key stakeholders--stagecraft-observing politicians, technocrat-obsessed pundits, reawakened activists and a self-devouring media--and how each group has only part of the wider picture. The success of Spy Game can't be judged by these merits. Scott's film will be successful if his techno-wizardry sparks some audience reflection, after leaving the Cineplex, of how geostrategic thinking now covertly defines their lives. Welcome to the world of critical realism. John Badham's film WarGames (1983) ended with the Pacifist insight that "the only winning move was not to play." The never-ending War on Terrorism--with its hydra-headed specters of instantly-emerging threats, biological and chemical warfare, and 'loose' nukes--has changed the type of game without an exit strategy. Crisis Alert received: the subjective impact has now become inescapable. It's no wonder that Spy Game triumphantly proclaims that "it's not how you play the game, it's how the game plays you." The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd. |
||||
|
||||
 |
||||
|
||||
|
Spy Game IFilm People: Tony Scott E! Online Credits: Tony Scott The Spy Game Rotten Tomatoes: Spy Game Internet Movie Database: Spy Game Screenwriting: Spy Game (2001) Script Review Salon Magazine Review: Spy Game (2001) MetroActive: Uninspyred Entertainment Weekly Review: Spy Game (2001) Empire Movies: Spy Game (2001) ScreenIt! Review: Spy Game (2001) Gum, a Pocket Knife, and a Smile: Spy Game (2001) Premiere: Spy Game Alt.Movies: Spy Game Disinformation Dossier on Black Hawk Down |
||||
|
||||
|
|
