Great Movie

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2007)

A three hour movie usually is not going to appeal to me, yet this one was just fine for an afternoon's viewing. Be sure to bring your drink inside the theater and don't go in hungry.
I loved the photography that brought me right into DC of the 1960s and back to Yale in the 1930s. Someone needs to receive a reward for the photography and music that bring you deeply into the secret world of Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) super-spy, the OSS and CIA. We see the almost accidental development of the current US Central Intelligence Agency from its World War II beginnings in the OSS to the present.
The story gives a hint of all the old stories of how the intelligence agencies began with Ivy League recruits who managed to hold on into the post-war era and further recruit more Ivy League spies, both for good and bad. With wide-ranging intellectual talent that many of these men brought with them, they had a surer hold on how other parts of the world, especially their governments, would act in a given situation.
The tough guy spy is not left out, however, but shown to be a sort of assistant who can be counted on to beat the hell out of someone or even kill them when it is in the national interest. Apparently, according to this movie, recent CIA misbehavior did not begin on 9/11 and the rounding up of Alcada suspects all over the world.
You should love the stage setting scenery where we can feel that we are watching Skull and Bones secret meetings, recruiting of spies for the USA and recruiting double agents and defectors. A few blunders are thrown in to cover that part of CIA history, as are various incidents of attempts to blackmail US agents with sexual secrets. Sometimes we note that the American agents rightly do not trust fellow agents and others in their own government.
Personally, there are a few things that I did not understand at all. Wilson, the iceman's, married life is one big mystery in the movie. It does give the writers a chance to show off the often frustrated CIA wife and how she can make trouble for the agent, dedicated to his job and sometimes tempted by others.
A few incidents were not explained enough for my thick head and I will not go into them since asking any questions or commenting might possibly give away a little bit about this movie. That they remained puzzling is, in some way, fitting as we would not have answers in real life either.
Having spent a lifetime in the State and Defense Departments, in Washington and overseas, I can say that much of the movie rang true. Without knowing any specifics many of us heard and saw enough to recognize some incidents in the movie were loosely based on true happenings.
If you have ADD, this movie is probably not for you, but if you want to see a well-made drama, based on some general truth about our spy agency, then you should go see this on the big screen, not on DVD.