The news that director Tony Scott took himself out in full action movie
style, by leaping from an L.A. area bridge, will be undoubtedly be
followed by eulogies in the press, most of them mentioning and focusing
on the movie blockbusters of his career. You know, films like "Top Gun"
and "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "Days Of Thunder" and "True Romance."
Friends and coworkers will tell stories about him and say "We never saw
this coming" and compare him to his more famous brother Ridley and do
all those things that people do after a Hollywood legend dies.
Me, I don't feel like doing that. I only met the man once, and then only
long enough to shake his hand after being introduced to him by a friend
who had starred in one of his movies. "He had a firm handshake" is all
that I can remember or come up with on the personal eulogy front.
So, while others are focusing on his more famous films, I'm going to rap
for a few moments about the two films of his that are my favorites. I've
seen each of them multiple times, and like the other movies, books, and
TV shows that I call my "favorites," they just keep getting better and
better with each viewing.
The first is a farily unregarded buddy flick called "The Last Boy
Scout." It paired Bruce Willis with Damon Wayans, and gave them both
some of the funniest, snappiest, and wittiest dialogue I've ever seen in
a movie. Although I don't consider this a great movie by any means, I
keep coming back to it because of the dialogue, written by Shane Black,
who has a real talent for that sort of thing ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," the
"Lethal Weapon" movies). I doubt very seriously whether this movie made
a lot of money for Tony Scott, and it certainly didn't win him any
awards, but I thank him for making it because it's just such a hoot.
The second I do consider a great film, and one that is almost criminally
overlooked. I was turned on to it by an employee at my neighborhood DVD
rental store in Paris, back when I lived there. He was young and I was
an old fart, but he had obviously developed an appreciation of my taste
in movies by watching what I rented from him. So one day I was in the
store, scanning the shelves, finding nothing that interested me, and was
about to walk out when he stopped me and said, "Have you seen 'Spy
Game'?"
I hadn't. He said, giving me the disk, which he already had in his hand,
"Take it home and watch it. If you don't like it, I won't charge you
anything for the rental."
THAT got my attention. And later that evening, so did the movie. I
watched it three times in a row before returning it to him, and gladly
paid him for the rental. This review is to some extent me "paying it
forward" by turning other people on to the movie.
"Spy Game" is in my opinion the best movie Tony Scott ever made. It just
*works* on so many levels that it transcends his other, more popular
stuff. It contains what will almost certainly be regarded as Robert
Redford's last great film performance when it comes time for *his*
eulogy, and that performance is matched step-by-step and
nuance-by-nuance by Brad Pitt's.
The casting is nothing short of brilliant. Redford plays Cold War spy
master Nathan Muir, on what is supposed to be the last day of his career
at the CIA. He's retiring at the end of the day, and going off to live
in the not-quite-paradise-but-good-enough-for-an-old-spy beach house
he's managed to scrimp and save for in the islands. He's one of the
rarest of the rare -- an Old School Spy who managed to survive long
enough to retire.
And then the phone call comes. A younger former colleague -- who Nathan
would refer to in spy-speak as an "asset," not a friend, or even a
surrogate son -- has been arrested in China trying to break another
former colleague out of prison. He's due to be executed for this.
Nathan is called into a tribunal of the people who now run the CIA, who
demand that he tell them everything he knows about this rogue agent who
has now embarrassed the Agency so thoroughly. Redford -- and Scott -- do
so through a series of flashbacks, starting with Tom Bishop's (Pitt)
recruitment, and going forward from there. To us in the audience it
quickly becomes clear that no matter how much Nathan may say that the
first rule of being a spy master is to "never risk anything for an
asset," Tom Bishop is not just any old asset. What makes the casting of
this film so perfect is that -- as Tony Scott clearly recognized -- Brad
Pitt could *easily* be Robert Redford's real-life son. The resemblance
is uncanny.
The questioning of Nathan Muir continues, on many levels. On one level
there are the smug assholes who are glad to see him go, leaving them in
charge of the Agency. They think he's over the hill, and just can't get
him out of the building fast enough, and are resentful that they've got
to rely on his information to figure out what to do about either trying
to rescue Tom Bishop, or just abandon him and allow him to be executed.
On another level, there is Nathan Muir, completely in charge, like a
chess Grand Master playing simultaneous games with 50 different
opponents, and never having to break a sweat in any of them. I will hint
no further at how this chess game turns out, allowing those who haven't
seen the film to enjoy it for themselves.
What I will say is that what makes this movie so great for me and that
makes me remember Tony Scott fondly is that it's a film about ethics.
Quiet ethics. The kind that lay low and don't advertise themselves, and
may even be characterized by the ethical character denying that he has
any ethics at all. Redford just ROCKS at this kind of nuanced
performance, and in my opinion he should have gotten a second Best Actor
nomination (his first was for "The Sting") for it.
Give "Spy Game" a try. I think you'll like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_EbWbr0HDs
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_EbWbr0HDs>
