"THE COMPANY" (2007) ReviewWithin the past decade, there have been a few television and movie productions about the history of espionage during the pre-World War II era and the Cold War. One of those productions turned out to be the 2007, three-part miniseries about the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) called "THE COMPANY".
Based upon Robert Littell's 2002 novel, "THE COMPANY" focused upon the history of not only the C.I.A., but also the Soviet Union's K.G.B. during the Cold War, between the mid-1950s and the fall of the Soviet Union during the beginning of the 1990s. The novel focused upon the lives of three men, who had been close friends at Yale University, who graduated in 1950. Jack McAuliffe was a Rowing athlete and naive true believer, who had been recruited by his crew coach. The same coach also recruited one of Jack's closest friend, Leo Krinsky, the son of an Eastern European immigrant who works at the agency's counterintelligence division. Jack and Leo have another close friend at Yale - the son of a Soviet diplomat named Yevgeny Tsipin. While attending his mother's funeral in Moscow, Yevgeny is recruited as a Soviet spy by KBG spymaster, Starik Zhilov.
While Yevgeny serves as an undercover K.G.B. agent in Washington D.C., Jack becomes a field agent in East Berlin and Leo works for the Agency's counterintelligence unit in Washington. Of the three friends, two of them suffer setbacks in their love lives. During his basic training for the K.G.B., Yevgeny falls for a young woman named Azalia Ivanova. But Starik forces him to choose between the K.G.B. and Azalia; and Yevgeny leaves for his assignment in the United States. While on assignment in East Berlin, Jack falls for his source, a beautiful East German ballerina named Lili, who provides information from a figure known as The Professor, an important scientist in the East German hierarchy. Unfortunately, Lili is betrayed to the Stasi, which eventually leads her to commit suicide before she can be officially arrested. Only Leo is lucky enough to sustain a long relationship and marriage to the woman he loves - Adelle Swett, who comes from a wealthy Washington family and whose father is a personal friend of President Eisenhower.
However, the story's main narrative centered around the efforts of the C.I.A. to find a mole who has caused a great deal of damage to its many agendas. The failure of Jack McAuliffe and his mentor, Harvey Torriti (aka "The Sorcerer) to help a defector escape from East Germany led to Torriti's discovery of a mole with access to the Agency - namely MI-6 operative, Adrian "Kim" Philby, who happens to be a close friend of the Agency's counterintelligence chief, James Jesus Angleton. As revealed in a scene between Philby and Yevgeny, the K.G.B. has another mole within the ranks of the C.I.A. - someone who goes by the code name, "Sascha". It was "Sascha' who had exposed Lili and the Professor to the East Germans. It was "Sascha" who had exposed Jack as an American agent to the Hungarian Secret Police, on the eve of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. And it was "Sascha" who had revealed the Agency's plans for an invasion of Cuba - an act that nearly endangered Jack's life. Between the exposure of "Kim" Philby as a Soviet mole and the series of political and intelligence disasters not only led to Angleton's paranoid determination to find "Sascha", but also his big mole hunt in the mid 1970s.
Actor Chris O'Donnell had stated in a featurette that "THE COMPANY" could be divided into three genres. Episode One could be described as an espionage thriller, Episode Two as an big-scare adventure story (in which two of them are featured - the Hungarian Revolution and the Bay of Pigs), and Episode Three as a psychological thriller that involved a mole hunt. This is probably why I found "THE COMPANY" so thrilling to watch. It was able to explore the many sub-genres of the spy story and stick to the one main narrative, at the same time. All the facets of the miniseries - spy thriller, adventure story and psychological thriller - centered around the impact of "Sascha's" betrayals and the lives of the three protagonists.
The ironic thing is that one of the characters - Yevgeny Tsipin - is obviously a K.G.B. agent that served as a deep undercover agent in Washington D.C. for three decades. Yet, his character is portrayed as a protagonist, instead of a supporting or major villain. Although the Agency is portrayed as the good guy out to destroy the "evil" K.G.B., "THE COMPANY" did not hesitate to portray some of its darker aspects - whether it was Angleton and other officials' cool betrayal of the anti-Communist Hungarians, during their revolution against the Soviets; or their misguided determination to continue with their plans for a Cuban invasion. One of the series' more darker segments appeared in Angleton's mole hunt in Episode Three. The Agency official began to suspect Leo Krinsky of being "Sascha", the Soviet mole. What Krinsky endured during his interrogation had me squirming in my seat with sheer discomfort. Ken Nolan did an excellent job, as far as I am concerned, with adapting Litell's novel.
Ridley Scott became one of the miniseries' producers (along with John Calley) and had planned to direct. But he realized that he may not have been up to directing a production that was over four hours long. So, he and Calley hired Danish filmmaker Mikael Salomon to direct at least one episode. Salomon, who had directed two episodes of 2001's "BAND OF BROTHERS", directed all of the episodes of this miniseries. And he did an exceptional job. I was especially impressed by his direction of segments that included Jack McAuliffe's adventures in East Berlin, the Hungarian Revolution, the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the travails that Leo endured, while being suspected for being a mole. He also did exceptional work with the large cast that proved to be very talented.
I noticed that many critics seemed to be very impressed by the older cast members - especially Alfred Molina's splashy portrayal of Jack's mentor, the gregarious Harvey Torriti; and Michael Keaton's mannered performance as the paranoid James Jesus Angleton. And both actors were great. I also have to commend Ulrich Thomsen's subtle portrayal of the secretive and manipulative spymaster Starik Zhilov, and Tom Hollander for giving a charming performance as MI-6 operative-turned-K.G.B. mole, Adrian Philby. And there were other performances that impressed me. Both Ted Atherton as C.I.A. official Frank Wisner and Natascha McElhone as a British woman caught up in the Hungarian uprising gave passionate performances. And I was also impressed by Alexandra Maria Lara and Erika Marozsán as the women in Jack and Yevgeny's lives. But for me, the actors portraying the three Yale buddies, whose lives were swept into the world of espionage, seemed to be the emotional center of this tale.
Alessandro Nivola' portrayal of Leo Kritsky barely seemed to catch my interest - at least in the first two episodes. He seemed to be around, mainly as support for the emotionally besieged Jack. But the actor really came into his own in Episode Three, as the miniseries focused on the trauma Leo suffered as a victim of Angleton's mole hunt. Rory Cochrane gave one of his most subtle and complex performances as K.G.B. operative, Yevgeny Tsipin. He really made the audience care for his well being, despite his activities against the U.S. government, during his years in Washington D.C. But it was Chris O'Donnell who really carried the miniseries in his portrayal of Cold War true believer, Jack McCauliffe. Thanks to his superb performance, he did an excellent job of developing Jack's character from a naive, yet patriotic C.I.A. recruit and newbie, to the middle-aged man, whose experiences had not only worn him out, but led him to finally question the necessity of the Cold War.
All I can say is that "THE COMPANY" was a well-made adaptation of Robert Littell's novel about the C.I.A.'s history during the Cold War. And it was all due to Mikael Salomon's excellent and well-paced direction, Ken Nolan's script and a superb cast led by Chris O'Donnell.
TIME MACHINE: THE OBERLIN-WELLINGTON RESCUE
For once I decided to write about a historical event that is not celebrating any particular anniversary. Actually, it would have celebrated its 150th anniversary back in September 2009. But I did not think of it until recently. The event I speak of is the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue.
Anyone familiar with Antebellum or Civil War history would know about it. The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue was a key event in the history of the American abolitionist movement before the Civil War. It centered around the arrest of an escaped slave named John Price in Oberlin, Ohio by Kentucky slave catchers and a U.S. marshal, two-and-a-half years before the outbreak of the Civil War. This story began over two years before the incident. Back in January 1856, Price and two other slaves escaped from a farm near Maysville, Kentucky. The three slaves made their way across the Ohio River, and with the help of Underground Railroad agents, they made it as far north as Oberlin, Ohio. The latter proved to be a racially integrated, liberal-minded community that served as the location of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college known for accepting both non-white and female students. Despite the presence of some conservative citizens, Oberlin was known for its strong support of the abolitionist movement. While his two companions continued north to Canada, Price decided to remain in the Ohio town, due to his poor health.
The fugitive slave spent the next two-and-a-half years struggling to make a living in Oberlin. But due to his limited skills as a farmhand, he found it difficult to make ends meet. On September 13, 1858, Price was hired by affluent farmer Lewis Boynton to work on the latter's farm, just north of Oberlin. Boynton's adolescent son, Shakespeare, picked up Price drove him out of town, with the intent to deliver the latter to his father's farm by noon. Unbeknownst to Price, young Shakespeare had made a deal to deliver the fugitive to a pair of Kentucky slave catchers and a deputy U.S. marshal - Samuel Davis, Richard Mitchell and Jacob Lowe. The buggy conveying the three white men and the black fugitive swung south and headed for nearby Wellington, Ohio; where they would be able to catch a train further south to Columbus. Unfortunately for the two Kentuckians and Deputy Marshal Lowe, two Oberlin College students named Ansel Lyman and Seth Bartholomew passed them on the road. Once the two students reached Oberlin, they alerted the town's citizens to Price's kidnapping. Meanwhile, the slave catchers, Lowe and Price checked into a room at the Wadsworth Hotel to await for the southbound train.
Many Oberlin citizens formed a group and rushed toward Wellington to rescue Price. Among those part of the rescuers were Charles Henry Langston, Simeon E. Bushnell, and Oberlin student William E. Lincoln. Once they reached the other town around two o'clock in the afternoon, they were joined by some of Wellington's citizens, who also harbored anti-slavery sentiments. The group formed into a mob and tried to coerce the slave catchers and the deputy marshal to release Price through intimidation and threats of violence. Davis, Mitchell and Lowe took Price to the hotel's attic for safety. Langston and three others tried to free Price, via legal actions - the arrest of the slave catchers for kidnapping and a habeus corpus. Those efforts failed as well. Eventually, Lincoln, along with John Copeland, Jr. and Jerry Fox rushed the attic using force and firearms, grabbed Price and spirited him back to Oberlin, where they hid him inside the home of James Harris Fairchild, a future president of Oberlin College. Soon, Price's rescuers escorted him to Canada.
A Federal grand jury indicted 37 members of the rescue party, including Langston, Lincoln, Bushnell and Copeland for breaking the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Bushnell and Langston were the only ones tried in court. Both were found guilty and convicted by a jury that consisted solely of pro-slavery Democrats. Bushnell was sentenced to sixty (60) days in prison and Langston, twenty (20) days. Their fellow prisoners continued to languish in the Cuyahoga County Jail. The two Kentucky slave catchers - Richard Mitchell and Samuel Davis - were arrested for Price's kidnapping. In return for the charges against them being dropped, the Federal government chose to drop the charges against the rest of the rescuers. The entire event had attracted more notice than the James Buchanan Administration wanted. Even worse, the Federal attorneys realized that a trial for all of the Rescuers would cost the government at least $5 million dollars. After serving eighty-five (85) days in jail, the Rescuers (with the exception of Bushnell, who continued to serve out his 60-day sentence) were released on July 7, 1859. Bushnell was finally released on July 11, 1859.
The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue is considered by historians as an important contribution to the outbreak of the Civil War . . . along with John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry and the Presidential Election of 1860. Two participants in the Oberlin–Wellington Rescue, Lewis Sheridan Leary and John A. Copeland participated in the Harper Ferry's Raid. Leary was killed and Copeland was captured and later, executed. The Rescue attracted a great deal of attention in the National press. And after a decade that featured the passing of the Fugitive Slaw Law of 1850, the passing of Senator Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the Supreme Court's decision on the Dred Scott vs. Sandford case; the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue proved to be the first breath of fresh air for the abolitionist cause.
For more information on the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, read the following book:
*"The Town That Started the Civil War" (1990) by Nat Brandt
*"1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and the War They Failed to See" [one chapter]by Bruce Chadwick
"THE SHADOW RIDERS" (1982) ReviewWhen I first set out to discover how many of author Louis L'Amour novels had been adapted for the movies and television, I had assumed at least a handful had gone through this process. I was surprised to discover that many of his works had been adapted. And one of them turned out to be the 1982 television movie, "THE SHADOW RIDERS". I have only seen two L'Amour adaptations in my life - "THE SHADOW RIDERS" and the 1979 two-part miniseries, "THE SACKETTS". Both productions seemed to have a great deal in common. The two productions are adaptations of L'Amour (which is obvious). Both featured three brothers as the protagonists. Both starred Sam Elliot, Tom Selleck and Jeff Osterhage as the leads. The two productions also feature Ben Johnson as a supporting protagonist and Gene Evans as a villain. But in the end, "THE SHADOW RIDERS" and "THE SACKETTS" have their differences. The latter aired as a two-part television movie or miniseries that mainly featured action and drama. "THE SHADOW RIDERS", on the other hand, is a ninety-six minute television movie, with comic overtones.L'Amour's tale is basically about two brothers - Dal and Mac Travern - who returned home from the Civil War after fighting on different sides and discover that a company of Confederate cavalry had raided their family's Texas ranch and the neighborhood for cattle, horses and especially people to sell in Mexico. Among those kidnapped by the raiders were other neighbors, the Traverns' younger brother Jesse (also a Civil War veteran), their younger sisters Sissy and Heather, and Dal's former sweetheart Kate Connery. The Confederate troopers, led by one Major Cooper Ashbury, hope to raise enough money or "merchandise" to trade for guns and ammunition from a notorious local gunrunner named "Colonel" Holiday Hammondin order to continue the fight against the Federal government. Upon learning what happened, Dal and Mac discover that the local lawman, Miles Gillette, seem incapable of going after the raiders. And once the Traverns recruit their jailbird uncle "Black Jack" from prison to help them, Gillette becomes more obsessed with capturing the latter. With no law to help them, Dal and Mac set out to rescue their family with the help of their Uncle Jack; Jesse, who managed to escape from the raiders; and Kate, whom they managed to rescue halfway through the story.It seemed rather odd that a story about family kidnapping would have a comic tone. I have read other reviews of the movie and some L'Amour fans seemed put off by this tone. Personally, I have no problems with it. Yes, I have read the novel and it was pretty good . . . and somewhat grim. But I thought director Andrew V. McLaglen and screenwriter Jim Byrnes did a pretty damn good job in mixing the grim nature of the story with a strong comic element. The screenplay did not shy away from the horror of Major Ashbury's actions or how they affected the Travern family - especially Sissy and Heather. More importantly, most of the comedy came from the family interactions between members of the Travern family - especially Dal and Mac's reunion at a local tavern right after the war, the three brothers' reaction to Jack Travern's criminal past and the emotional reunion between Dal and Kate, who had become engaged to another man after hearing about Dal's erroneous death."THE SHADOW RIDERS" also featured some outstanding action sequences. My favorites include Jesse's escape from Ashbury's raiders, the three brothers' rescue of Kate, and the family's main rescue of the Travern sisters and their neighbors from Holliday Hammond's camp in Mexico. Being a veteran of many movies and television productions set in the 19th century, it seemed obvious that McLeglen was in his element with "THE SHADOW RIDERS". The action featured in the film struck me as very exciting, without any of the excess that seemed to mar a good number of action films and television shows, these days.I only have few complaints about "THE SHADOW RIDERS". Despite its comic element, the main narrative focused a good deal of situations that involved family reunions between the Travern family. I certainly had no problems with most of them. But I had a problem one - namely the Travern brothers' reunion with their Uncle Jack, who was serving time at a local jail. I found it . . . rather lackluster. A bit too laconic and understated for my tastes. I understand that this scene featured mid 19th century American men, who may have been conditioned to keep their emotions in check. Yet, other reunion scenes - whether it was between Dal and Mac, or the pair's reunion with Jesse or their parents - seemed to feature some element of emotion. Is it because the brothers were dealing with the slightly larcenous "Black Jack" Travern? Who knows. I also had a problem with Mac's war background. The movie made it clear that he was a Union cavalry officer, who was in Georgia at the time the war ended in April-May 1865. I just do not understand why he was in Georgia at that time. He must have entered the state with William Sherman's forces in 1864. So . . . why did he remain in Georgia and not accompany Sherman into South Carolina?If anyone would ask me, I believe the shining virtue of "THE SHADOW RIDERS" was the cast. They were outstanding. All of them - from the four leads to the numerous characters that appeared in this movie - were first-rate. They all seemed very comfortable in their roles, while at the same time, managed to provide a good deal of edge to their performances. In "THE SHADOW RIDERS"; Sam Elliot, Tom Selleck and Jeff Osterhage renew the screen chemistry they had created in "THE SACKETTS" with great ease. However, I was a little disappointed that Osterhage's role in this film seemed slightly diminished in compare to his role in the 1979 production. Katherine Ross made an excellent addition as the classy, yet strong-willed Kate Connery, who had been Dal's former sweetheart. This also gave Ross an excellent opportunity to share some rather funny and romantic scenes with her off-screen husband, Elliot. Hell, she even managed to work well with Selleck, Osterhage, Geoffrey Lewis and Gene Evans.Ben Johnson was a hoot as the Traverns' laid-back, yet larcenous uncle, "Black Jack" Travern. I could also say the same about Gene Evans, who portrayed the very charming and very cold-blooded gunrunner, Holliday Hammond. On the other hand, Geoffrey Lewis made a very intense Cooper Ashbury, the Confederate cavalry officer who is determined to continue the War Between the States with only a company of men. "THE SHADOW RIDERS" also featured first-rate performances from veterans such as Jane Greer, Harry Carey Jr., and R.G. Armstrong; along with Dominique Dunne and Natalie May.I may have had a problem with one or two scenes with "THE SHADOW RIDERS". And yes, I found the Civil War background for one of the major characters a bit confusing. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed it when I first saw it as a kid, many years ago on television. And my recent viewing only confirmed that my feelings about the production has not really changed one whit. Director Andrew V. McLeglen, screenwriter Jim Byrnes and a cast led by Sam Elliot and Tom Selleck continued to make this movie a joy to watch.
Below is a list of my five favorite episodes from Season One of "THE MUSKETEERS", the BBC's historical action-drama based on Alexandre Dumas, père's 1844 novel. Created by Adrian Hodges, the series stars Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles and Luke Pasqualino:
FIVE FAVORITE EPISODES OF "THE MUSKETEERS" SEASON ONE (2014)
1. (1.09) "Knight Takes Queen" - Musketeers Aramis and Athos are forced to protect Queen Anne from assassins hired by Cardinal Richelieu at a convent, after King Louis XIII expressed disillusion with the Queen's inability to have children. Meanwhile, Porthos and d'Artangnan race back to Paris to gather more Musketeers to come to their aid.
2. (1.06) "The Exiles" - Aramis and d'Artagnan try to protect a young woman and her baby, who are sought by armed men. Both mother and child are sought by both Cardinal Richelieu and the King's treacherous the exiled Marie de' Medici. Tara Fitzgerald and Amy Nuttall guest starred.
3. (1.10) "Musketeers Don't Die Easily" - In the season finale, a rift develops between d'Artangnan and Athos, when the latter in a state of drunkenness takes his estranged wife Milady de Winter hostage and learns about her brief affair with the younger Musketeer.
4. (1.05) "The Homecoming" - A drunken Porthos is framed for murder in his old neighborhood, Paris' Court of Miracles slum. When his three colleagues seek to exonerate him, they stumble across a real estate conspiracy regarding the neighborhood.
5. (1.02) "Sleight of Hand" - The Musketeers engineer d'Artagnan's imprisonment in a cell with a notorious criminal named Vadim. The latter has a plan to use the visiting Queen Anne to escape and start a revolution. But his plans proved to be more criminal than political. Jason Flemyng guest starred.
