The Amateur
Tags: revenge, intrigue, murder

Plot synopsis:
The movie starts off with a Baader-Meinhof Group-type terrorist group taking command of the American embassy in West Germany with a goal of getting jailed terrorists released. During a standoff between police forces and the terrorists, the group leader (Horst Schraeger) executes a young American woman (Sarah Kaplan) whilst the newscameras film it all. Schraeger demands (and gets) bussed to freedom behind the Iron Curtain and releases all the hostages.Sarah's fiance, CIA cryptographer Charles Heller is devastated when he sees her die on the TV. At Sarah's gravesite, he meets her father, Sam - an immigrant who spent time in a Nazi death camp, losing his entire family there.Kaplan tells Heller that he created a ritual in his mind, whereby he strangles the Nazi responsible for selecting his family for death. He tells Heller that he tracked down this Nazi and lived out the ritual. Heller says, "But it didn't bring your family back to life." Kaplan exclaims, "No! It brought ME back to life!!!"Heller then sets out to avenge his fiance's death, using much the same ritual.Using his computer access at the CIA, he digs up information about missions that the CIA would rather not have see the light of day. He uses this information to blackmail the CIA into training him as an assassin, finding the exact whereabouts of Schraeger (and his compadres), and putting him behind the Iron Curtain so that he might kill them all.Along the way, Heller meets an interesting adversary, and a woman, whom he falls in love with - all while he ruthlessly hunts for Schraeger and his terrorist buddies.The plot twists and turns quite a bit, and you might have to view it more than once to fully grasp all that is going on, because it is well-populated with characters.

Review: The hero is a very human, run of the mill intelligence analyst (not a super spy) whose determined to avenge the death of his love interest by terrorists.
Truth be told, I think this is much closer to reality than most movies of this genre.
Its beginning minutes include an ordinary man seeing the broadcast of an American woman being held hostage in a foreign country.
Having several personal intimate experiences with our Government to include within its employ, and having lived and worked in foreign countries as well, I find it real easy to dismiss the few negative feedback remarks on this film as being authored in ignorance or being naive.
The story is even more interesting now over two decades later after its making, having a beginning that parallels the recent American executions video-taped and published by Al-Qaeda early this 21st century.
This movie is by far one of John Savage's greatest performances.
If you get the chance to sit and watch this movie from start to finish, you will be entertained- try to see this one..
I loved how the plot leads you to the correct conclusion with all the subtle hints dropped throughout the movie, and was pleased by the "justice was served" ending.
As he seeks the answers to why the CIA doesn't follow up on the killing, it is interesting to note that even though they gave him training and supplied him with the weaponry, he was a target, just the same.As for the final outcome and the ending, it was interesting to find out just exactly who knew what about the whole affair.
This spy/action/thriller concerns about a CIA computer analyst named Heller(John Savage) , when his girlfriend encounters traveling across Europe, she's suddenly kidnapped in an Embassy by a terrorist group , a Baader Mainhoff-alike, and is shot by the leader named Brewer (Nicholas Campbell).
Later obligates his CIA superiors(Arthur Hill,George Coe), under threat blackmail(to publish it a journalist played by John Marley) , for becoming CIA camp agent trained by a veteran(Ed Lauter) and to send him to the Communist Bloc countries .
In Czechoslovakia he unites forces to Cia agent(Marthe Keller) and is pursued by a contra-espionage chief(Christopher Plummer) in Praga.
Meanwhile Heller investigates and aware a cobweb of lies underneath the company.This exciting film gets tension, suspense, action ,mystery and a bit of violence, however sometimes in a little confused and embarrassing .
The movie belongs to ¨Cold war genre¨ , whose maxim height were the John Le Carre novels and his various cinematic adaptations such as ¨The spy who came in freeze, The Kremlin letter and Russia House¨.Suspenseful musical score and colorful cinematography filmed in streets of Vienna(lookalike Praga) and interior scenarios shot in Canadian studios.
It paved the way for me to appreciate several important historical points that have served me well in the ensuing years of my education.What attracted me to this movie was the aspect of a complete amateur being caught up in the world of terrorism.
You care for him and his pain...you feel his frustrations and his victories.Yes, this is intrigue at its most real depiction (within the framework of a commercial movie.) Human life is important, cherished and defended.
John Savage plays 'The Amateur' of the title a CIA code scrambler who convinces his superiors to send him to the eastern bloc in order to avenge the murder of his Girlfriend by terrorists, Savage Uncovers a web of deception whilst in the Eastern Bloc, Marthe Keller costars in her typical role as a seductively mysterious German, Christopher Plummer is an intellectual lecturer who is also involved.
the cipher would of been a much better title than 'The Amateur' other than that it is an entertaining film packed with lots of action and twists and turns..
This movie explores revenge, why, the morality, the effects, so it is somewhat deeper than your usual simple blood revenge flic.The movie starts out portraying the CIA as a bunch of boy scouts.
I won't spoil the surprises.The movie has a very relaxed pace by modern standards.Nicholas Campbell plays a terrorist.
It is hard to whip up fear or hate for someone so startlingly handsome.The movie keeps you guessing who is behind the relentless legions out to kill our naive hero.
It makes you see things from his point of view.The scene where the hero dispatches the female terrorist is shocking, even by today's gruesome standards, with much the effect the piano wire assassination had way back in From Russia With Love..
I happen to love this type of movie.
However, much of the dialog and editing are plodding, awkward, and slow.Additionally, John Savage is one of the most wooden actors ever to find work in Hollywood.
Keanu Reeves is positively Shakesperian by comparison.I can only imagine how good this film might have been with a little quicker editing, and, say, a young Paul Newman in the lead role.Still, if you're a fan of the genre, and can stay seated through the boring scenes, this is not a bad movie.
This movie will certainly not influence my decision  but Czechs might like to watch it.
Some terrorists (not oriental Muslims for once but German home grown nut cases) storm the American consulate in Munich, take all people hostage and ask for the release of some of their comrades.
For good measure they kill a young woman right after formulating their demands.
As fate would have it, it's the fiancée of a CIA ciphers specialist who decides that he wants to go after the killers (who got away) and kill them in turn, cost it what it may.The terrorist's area for occasional relaxation and training sessions is the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia.
But among bad to brutish Czechs he finds good Czechs who will gladly risk their lives so that he can fulfill his (perfectly understandable) dreams of revenge.Very often this movie is outright ridiculous.
But there are a few very good and excellently filmed scenes.
The highlight for me is the young yet very bald terrorist who takes a swim in a luxurious old Czech hotel, all on his own, only to get blown up by our hero with the help of plastics taped to the glass pane which separates the pool from the bar.
The Czech outdoor scenes were partly filmed in Vienna, there are also a few great shots of 19th century Munich..
The hardboiled team demands the immediate release of a number of fellow terrorist, otherwise the US hostages will be shot dead at a rate of one per hour.
As the terrorists' demands aren't met within the imposed deadline, one of the hostages gets executed in cold blood.
The young woman who got shot dead was the girlfriend of a CIA computer specialist.
But at the same time -strange coincidence- , the killer too is working for the CIA, and has infiltrated the terrorist cell.
The boyfriend of the executed girl -although an "egghead" or CIA bureaucrat- wants to avenge her death by killing systematically all the members of the cell.
As the CIA doesn't seem to be inclined to help him, he uses some arm twisting techniques to force the Director of Central Intelligence to change his stance...The film certainly isn't bad, but at the same time I couldn't call it fantastic either.
Also, the idea of the non-experienced CIA man managing to do unlikely things, exactly because he's no trained and therefor predictable field agent has been treated in a much more convincing way in "Three Days of the Condor".Christopher Plummer was doing a relatively nice job as Professor Lakos, but on the whole, I found the actors too neither sensational, neither incredibly bad.
OK spy drama with John Savage....
1st watched 5/12/2007 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Charles Jarrott): OK spy drama with John Savage; who typically plays supporting characters; in the lead role.
The movie starts with his significant other getting killed by what he thinks is a terrorist after they hold-up hostages in an American embassy in Germany asking for a couple of their cohorts to be released from prison.
They plan to kill a hostage every 15 minutes until their demands are met and Savage's wife or girlfriend happens to be the first one and is shot, and then mysteriously the demands are then met.
The focus is on Savage's character, who then blackmails the CIA, whom he works for as a code specialist(a kind of geeky position in the company), so they have to train him to hunt down the terrorists and he can have his sweet revenge.
Savage is OK in the lead, and the story keeps your interest but he doesn't have the charisma to carry a lead role -- especially one that requires a wide range of emotions like this one.
The supporting cast is not very good or convincing and the plot seems to leave out things that could have fleshed-out the characters more so we could understand their plight and care for them more deeply.
This movie came out at the time when the Iran hostage situation had ended.
The only thing that terrorists can understand is their own language of terror.
This is a great entertaining movie, and perhaps what is left with you for a long time is the coldness and cruelty of how Sarah is shot in the head - an innocent soul who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
It requires a complete suspension of disbelief for the viewer to engage in the baffling circus of events that make up the groaning plot of this film.
Savage is a CIA cryptanalyst who upon the murder of his girlfriend in Munich decides to blackmail his employer into allowing him to carry out a reckless revenge plot in Czechoslovakia with a .45 and some plastic explosives.
The government, who refuses to negotiate with the terrorists for his girlfriend's life at the beginning of the film, rolls over with hardly a grumble to Savage's demands and simply trains him for his "mission." Once he has received a good day or two of training, he eloquently tells them he is done -- he "would flunk out anyway" by golly.
Then John Savage entered the plot.
Has there ever been a John Savage movie that was any good?
Some good things, but doesn't work overall.
Unfortunately, I felt kind of let down at the end.The movie has some good attributes.
For a Canadian movie, most of the production values are pretty good.
Also, Christopher Plummer gives an effective performance in his supporting role.But as I said in my summary line, the movie doesn't work overall.
I was not demanding an unbelievably fast pace, but things definitely could have been tightened a bit.Other faults in the movie include the photography (the colors look muddy for the most part), and that the idea of the movie - someone taking on a task that's clearly over his head - didn't come across.This is far from the worst movie ever made, but it's still disappointing.
As of this date, they are working on a remake of this movie.
It would have been better toned down and with a few twists snipped out.For a realistic look at what was involved in sending one lightly-trained man behind the Iron Curtain to accomplish one simple task (not the ridiculous mission undertaken in this film), check out "The Looking Glass War." And compare to much better films like "MacIntosh Man", "Smiley's People", or especially "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold." And as hard as John Savage tried, he could not hope to equal Richard Burton, Paul Newman, Anthony Hopkins or Alec Guinness..
Very Good Action/Thriller for its time.
reviews should be about the movie, not someone's political agenda OUTside of the movie.Heller's girlfriend is taken hostage & killed at the beginning of the movie by terrorists from an eastern block country (sorry, can't remember which).
Heller (John Savage) works for the CIA doing ciphers.
From there the movie goes into the main plot of how he attempts to make this all work.The direction and pacing is fine...
John Savage gives a very sensitive and believably vulnerable performance.
These are the kind of details that set up the credibility that this man would be so determined to revenge his girlfriend's death.
This is a good movie, just enjoy it & stop saying to yourself, well, but what about _____?
just go with the flow & you'll be very entertained.Another movie I recommend that is a good thriller that came out 2 years later is Enigma w/Martin Sheen..
Maybe it doesn't occur exactly as displayed in the sometimes confusing and poorly paced 'The Amateur', but if recent films like 'Syriana', which are based on the documented experiences of agency insiders, then it is not entirely impossible.
In fact, such movies should've done a better job of shattering the ultra-patriotic myths that, at least within the vocal majority, define the perceptions of America.This is the story of a CIA agent who's wife was a hostage in a terrorist invasion in Munich.
The idiot agent, however, decides to ask for official permission to personally avenge the terrorists that murdered his wife.
But, the terrorists are not exactly who they seem to be, and his travels in Czechoslovakia, tracking them down, soon turn deadly when he is chased around by other agents looking to kill him.The problem with a lot of political espionage films is that they tend to involve too many characters who are introduced into an already complex plot of treason and dispute.
Moreover, a good deal of the beginning of this film, setting the ground work for what the agent wants to do, is played out with such slow pacing, none of the action really seems to come about until the later half of the second act.I suspect this one was based on a true story, judging by the words summing up the post-film fate of the characters..
I believe that these are the main reasons the movie didn't get great credit.
John Savage is a very good actor, but not spectacular; he's a low-key cameo and supporting type.
The parts are developed to the necessary point, and the action is slow (if you're looking for Chuck Norris stuff, don't bother), but steady, with the hits spiking the inexorable pressure of the plot.I know I haven't told you very much about the content, save the basic design, but, see it for yourself, and decide how you'd feel, and what you'd do.
I always thought this was a good spy film.
Don't read below: ################################################################# Savage works for CIA in a non spy boring job.
His wife happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and is part of a terrorist hostage taking operation.
The terrorists make demands and threaten to kill hostages.
They bring out a hostage (savage wife) on TV.
Terrorist kills his wife and Savage see's it on live TV.
Officials give into demands and terrorists fly off to Eastern Europe during Cold war.
Savage is told nothing CIA can do as they are protected in Eastern Europe.
Savage is not buying it and as a cryptographer he gets hold of embarrassing CIA files and basically black mails the CIA to send him to the FARM and be trained as a field agent.
Behind the scenes CIA is trying to track down the black mailed files which Savage has hidden and also given to a reporter friend for protection.
Savage gets his mission for revenge.
Meanwhile Savage tracks down the terrorists...
I will stop here and say that the following plot point ends up making the US gov't CIA look badly while the Soviet KGB officer in film comes out looking good.I think this is a good spy film.
A lot of Hollywood big films take small films like this film's plot points and use the idea's for larger films knowing the general public may not have seen it.
The main plot points would make an interesting updated film.
By today's standards it seems that every film must have action and unbelievable stunt work sequences every few moments to maintain the audience's attention span.
I, on the other hand, found this film to be fairly good.
It's about a CIA operative who works as a cryptologist who's girlfriend is murdered by terrorists.
He seeks revenge on the terrorists after being refused by his superiors for the company to take any action to bring the terrorists to justice and manages to come up with some incriminating evidence that the CIA denied having.
He discovers that the terrorists are in Czechoslovakia and of course, his hiding place for the evidence is found by the CIA after he's in Czech territory and before you know it he's trying to dodge both the Czech soldiers and the CIA agents out to silence him once and for all, with a surprising twist at the climax of the film.
John Savage does a fairly good job in the title role and Christopher Plummer is a convincingly likable Communist baddie.
As I said, if it's action you like then don't bother.
But for a more slow paced and realistic film then you may enjoy this..
This movie takes place back when you had terrorist gangs from East Germany infiltrating into the West, robbing banks and killing business executives, then skipping back into the East.
The movie deals with a botched CIA effort to infiltrate one of these terrorist groups which causes an innocent American civilian to get killed.
The movie makes the CIA into the villain and actually has the KGB chief in East Germany (the guy controlling the murderous terrorists) as a sympathetic character.
I WANT the CIA to have teams of assassins going around looking for fluking Al Qaeda operatives.
During a time when the country is at war, take a book in which the CIA represents the good guys and turn them into the bad guys!