Product Description: A cynical british spy plays cold war games with an east german spy. From the john le carre novel. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 04/11/2006 Starring: Richard Burton Oscar Werner Run time: 112 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Martin Ritt
Amazon.com: John le Carre's classic spy yarn gets a suitably brisk, unromanticized telling in this quintessential Cold War movie. A British agent (Richard Burton) sets up an elaborate cover story for being lured into defecting to the Communists, but he hardly needs to manufacture his disgust and cynicism over spying. The grim business of point-counterpoint espionage has rarely been depicted with less glamour; Burton's great climactic speech on the subject is the definitive take on sinking to the level of the enemy. Claire Bloom is an offbeat love interest, and a bearded Oskar Werner is an East German investigator on Burton's case (the pecking order in the Communist spy hierarchy is a source of black humor). Director Martin Ritt extends his unvarnished approach to the movie's stripped-down look, which means that Richard Burton is constantly in a harsh, unflattering light. He looks terrible, but it's in the service of a fine performance. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - The Cold War is Chilly
This is the classic John LeCarre thriller. I read it in college and was so moved by it, I never forgot the feel even as I forgot the story. The movie is no less important. Richard Burton plays a spy ... Read More
Rating: - Classic cold-war thriller
Classic cold-war thriller that portrays the sacrifice of the individual for the good of the state. The Richard Burton character is involved in a mission to frame an opposite spy and in the end finds himself ... Read More
Rating: - Superb adaptation
Having read the novel by LeCarre, I can't imagine anyone but Richard Burton as the burnt-out false defector Alec Leamas. The black-and-white of this film underscores the shades of gray in the moral no-man's-land ... Read More
Rating: - grim story accurately portrayed
This is an adaptation of the first popular novel by John le Carre (David Cornwell) who served in MI6 just after WWII. If you are easily depressed avoid this one. Otherwise it is close to the things that actually ... Read More
Rating: - 5 stars for The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
This movie makes you feel like you are back in the cold war era. The main character's life and job are nothinglike James Bond or other fictional glamorous spies. This is a real person, flaws and all, struggling to ... Read More
- The Cold War is Chilly
- Classic cold-war thriller