Review of The Looking Glass War (1970) by Pieter-Jan V — 01 Dec 2009

Itâ??s mainly the intriguing opening scene with its imagery of mirrors and the final scene with the snappy sequence of artistically appealing images of close-ups of the grass, airplanes flying over, children playing with the retrieved film, etc.

that persuaded me to regard this as a 3-star movie after all. During the main part of the movie, my attention span was heavily challenged and I was afraid I wouldnâ??t be able to rate The Looking Glass War more than 2.

5 stars at most. The imagery I just mentioned plus the valuable message at the end (expressed most explicitly by Hopkins) made me change my mind. This film has an espionage plot with action scenes, but it is clear that the emphasis is on other things â?? interhuman relations connected with the dirty job of spying in particular.

In itself that is not a problem, although it will mean we will have to do without a certain degree of suspense spy thrillers tend to be famous for. It is a problem, however, when one doesnâ??t like the hero, whom, judging from the behaviour of some other characters, one is supposed to like.

Unlike most of his colleagues, Avery (Hopkins) really cares about his job and the people in it, including the main character (see the final scene). Avery and Leiser (Christopher Jones) even have some buddy rapport in the middle of the film.

Leiser also seems to be surrounded by young women who think the world of him and would do anything for him. Iâ??m surprised to see that much sympathy for a young opportunist with an unpleasant attitude.

Personally, Leiser annoyed me from the first minute: he is impolite, selfish, unkind (explicitly says he is with his English girlfriend, not because he loves her, but because of his baby she is carrying â?? and after her abortion he hits and leaves her), unloyal (tries to run away from his responsibilities on several occasions), and ruthless (why kill the truck driver?).

His actions in East Germany arenâ??t always very clever either (why not remain calm during the police interrogation?). So heâ??s not even an able agent. In short, I just didnâ??t take to the guy, which I guess I should have done to appreciate this film.

The unpleasant atmosphere in The Looking Glass War is also supported by the ample use of spicy dialogue that tends to be unpleasantly confronting and unfeeling (countless examples, between most of the characters).

This does however seem to serve a certain purpose (= underline the movieâ??s final message), so it canâ??t be held against the film as such.