The Looking Glass War (1970)

Why so much hype?

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Hunted down this movie, as it appears a rare beast. The cast is stellar for a British movie. The main protagonist appears to have been likened to James Dean. He spends much of the film striking louche poses - less angry young man, and more 'hip cat'. He appears miscast in this movie, as he inhabits a different plain to the rest of the cast. The storyline, in retrospect, is quite straight forward. However, it has managed to become inextricably entangled in elongated scenes of travel across the agricultural swathe of the then East Germany. There are also some unnecessary fight scenes that appear neither relevant nor truly aggressive. Conceivably, aspects of this movie are conceived out of homo-erotica? I truly wanted to love this movie. I adore 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' and the BBC Smiley series, but this was to flaccid and languid for my tastes. Something of a shame when one notes the immense cast that was at the director's disposal. If you love Cold War dramas - and Le Carre adaptations, you will, no doubt, want to watch this movie - with much sadness, I have to say - be prepared to be underwhelmed.

The Cold War era was highly resourceful with fictional (sometimes real) material, books and movies on espionage, ranging from cheap or fun entertainment to complicated and intricate plots full of suspense. John Le Carré is a master of the latter, at least when it comes to writing novels, and usually they turn into great movies, let us not forget the recent "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", not only a resurrection of the genre but it also was a complete modernization in style, treatment and editing without losing the looks and the good old charm of the 1960's and 1970's productions (and I can't wait for Alfredson/Oldman re-team in "Smiley's People", though they're jumping my favorite from Karla Trilogy "The Honorable Schoolboy" because it's just too long and too complex to be filmed, and not even BBC produced it as a miniseries during the Alec Guinness era as Smiley). So, "The Looking Glass War" broke my heart because it's unlike anything made Le Carré; first time director Frank Pierson didn't make a good adaptation over with an oversimplification of what could be a good story if elements were preserved and I couldn't care for the characters, too simple and badly written.And they couldn't get a more clichéd story: the British intelligence discovers that the Soviet Union is relocating some missiles, and in order to ruin their plans the command decide to send a spy from one German to another to mess with everything. The chosen one is the mysterious Leiser (Christopher Jones, dubbed here by another actor, who sounds exactly like James Dean), not a traditional secret agent, he's simply a dangerous German type they got out of prison. In trade for his cooperation, he's gonna be able help his pregnant girlfriend, now protect the MI6, Circus or whatever. Lieser's protégé, trainer and mentor in this mission is John Avery (Anthony Hopkins, the best thing in this movie), a man who is fully committed with his job and tasks, eventually sacrificing his quiet family life. After some strangeness between both men, they finally agree with each other and now Avery might be the only person capable of protecting Lieser if anything goes wrong. And off the young man goes to Germany in risky situations.What bothered me wasn't the lack of surprises due to its awfully clichéd proposition and engineering of situations; the problem lies in the characters, completely one dimensional, unlikeable and lacking in real reasoning for their motivations or they're reduced to one basic premise - to defeat the Soviet villains; Lieser, the anti-hero is just a hard-faced killing machine who doesn't generate any kind of sympathy from the audience. It's really difficult to understand why he's going to this suicide mission - the reason I wrote above isn't one of them as evidenced when he slaps his girlfriend during a simple conversation. Worst of all, he has zero charisma, his thick accent complicates things even more, only saves that the man is a real hunky. Though I haven't read the novel, I know that veteran spy George Smiley (Le Carré's most famous creation) is in it, very briefly. I don't know how important he is in the story but we could use his brilliancy and wisdom in this movie, he's always interesting despite the melancholia and his whispered speech manner. But then again, nothing could have saved this movie: the pace is wrong; the foggy and mysterious sceneries from classics like "The Man Who Came In From the Cold" are changed to colorful prairies and beaches, exuberant but very misplaced; and here's a story about almost nothing. In the end, it's all about betrayal and getting rid off an unpleasant person to a dead mission. So what? There's no resonance in that, there's no profoundity in that. It's useless. It feels like Mr. Pierson wanted to give us an ordinary and poor view to the meticulous and intriguing world of Le Carré. Result: weak movie with enjoyable parts. 5/10

Most of the reviews I have given are of films that I saw at the cinema upon its release and have then recently watched again. However, THE LOOKING GLASS WAR is a movie that I never got around to watching at the pictures, therefore, I decided to shell out 3 pounds and buy the DVD. I must say that I am glad I did as I quite enjoyed it. A young Christopher Jones plays a Polish seaman who is recruited by British Intelligence to go into East Germany to check out some missiles in return for being given leave to stay in the UK. The acting was better than I thought it would be and the storyline was OK. I liked the jazzy soundtrack as well. Not a bad film at all and worth the 3 quid I paid.

A film very nearly forgotten today, though likely to get a small amount of new attention thanks to a recent DVD release, this movie examines the inner workings and frequent futilities of the spy game. Made at a time when the Cold War was active, it concerns the possibility of Soviet missiles being prepared in East Germany. British spies Richardson and Hopkins enlist (through virtual blackmail) the aid of a reckless and half-cocked young Pole (Jones) to sneak into East Germany and find out if reports of the missile are accurate. Jones becomes a reluctant agent, spurred on by the promise of sanctuary with the Brits if he can complete the mission. He is briefly prepped for the trip at Pickles' house where he engages in a bizarre fight with Hopkins that has a very unexpected capper involving another agent. Once on his way, things get off to a rough start when he injures himself right off the bat and then is forced to kill an East German guard mere moments after entering the country! A series of further misadventures continues, marked by his acquaintances with a shady truck driver (Robbins), a vicious dog and a lovely local girl (Degermark) who is travelling with a young boy. Meanwhile, Hopkins struggles with the ethics of his profession as his frustrated wife Massey starts to unravel emotionally. Richardson gives an assured, authoritative performance, demonstrating the stiff upper lip required for his role. Hopkins, in a very early role (though he got a late start in films to begin with) is interesting to watch. It's a somewhat uneven performance, but is reasonably arresting. He has himself stated that it wasn't until the mid-80's that he tapped in to what he considers his greatest acting tools, but he's certainly not bad here. George appears to decent effect as Jones' pregnant girlfriend and the reason he wants to avoid deportation. Degermark, most famous for her role in the international hit "Elvira Madigan", is a compelling figure. She's startlingly pretty and appealing. Sadly, her life would unspool dramatically soon after this and would never rebound completely. Similarly, Jones (who began an affair with Degermark during this film) would soon find himself out of the business and living a life of occasional drug-fueled obscurity for quite some time, making one more appearance a decade and a half after his last major film. A flash in the pan if ever there was one, he made a big splash with "Wild in the Streets" and "Three in the Attic", but then had his voice dubbed in this film and the subsequent "Ryan's Daughter", thus dooming him to a reputation of inferior performances. With his film career in stasis and facing some personal demons, he was done in the industry, perhaps of his own choosing. Here, he is wildly inconsistent. One minute he's fiercely animated in his signature James Dean way. The next he's practically comatose, barely registering behind tinted glasses. It's not necessarily a good performance, but he was intriguing enough a persona that, in any case, he's interesting to witness. The dubbing of his voice is well-handled and those not familiar with the actor would be hard-pressed to realize it. The director, clearly in tune with Jones' sex appeal, doesn't let him put a shirt on until 20 minutes into the film and often removes it some more after that! The film itself is rather austere and detached, but not without its moments of vivid incident. It's also stylishly shot with inventive camera work and use of reflective surfaces. There are also a couple of very quirky moments such as a scene involving chalk in the rain. Sure to be slow-going for a modern audience, it nonetheless remains of interest to fans of Hopkins, Jones and Degermark, the latter two having fallen off the radar soon after this, though they did make a little-known Italian together.