Review of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) by Jeremy B — 04 Mar 2009

A remarkable film contained in a crystalline casing made of stylish spy material meant drive a complex story of oppressors and those who are oppressed. It's a story that has been repeated throughout history. Those in power have always stayed in power and whenever they choose to reconstruct themselves we are led to believe it's in the name of the people and so they throw them their scraps and they call these scraps money. People work in offices or take out loans, they murder or kill at war- people grovel under the construct that's been built for them and it's disguised by evils too: by differences in ideology and race and continental boundaries and all of it part of a strange chain of events that those in power have either devised or have simply allowed to continue so that they can subjugate us and control us.

This spy that Burton plays so well is man who is led to drink and work and set up people to be killed by a government that finds him an expendable peon in a big game to keep themselves in power. With their Oxford accents and their nice suits they impress a hard working man into doing things for money. It would work best for them to have a man (like Oskar Werner's Feedler) that is fueled by ideology and nationalism but he's too smart for that. He knows his fate.

The adapted screenplay's themes flourish with clean black and white cinematography guided with the absolute craftsmanship of Martin Ritt. This movie takes no ideological stand because to do so would show very little understanding of the way things work. Feedler, a communist, tells the spy, "Americans fight for ignorance." He suggests the Communist fight is that for truth and societal growth. I agree with both and both characters agree with each other and at least in Burton's case he can see that both fights leave a trail of innocents and all in the name of power. This movie is a masterpiece and why? At the end the spy has a choice between love or the system. What both of these choices are connected to are ultimately what makes us human and the conflict of such has always been deciding between the two.