Spy Movie Recommendations for the Holidays!

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19 December 2024 (Thursday)

Spy Movie Recommendations for the Holidays

Whiskey Mike's Favorites

By Wendell Minnick (Whiskey Mike) 顏文德

TAIPEI - With the holidays with nothing else to do, you can watch these great spy movies.

First, I would like to recommend three clips about how a good intelligence operative handles talent in the grim realities of war. They are from the Tv series Andor (2022). The spy handler is a character called Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård):

CLIP ONE

CLIP TWO

CLIP THREE

Regarding my below recommendations, please do not look them up on Wikipedia and ruin the experience. These are mysteries/thrillers for a reason. You are supposed to enjoy them.

I have seen all these films/Tv series more times than I can count.

They are in alphabetical order.

Bureau (Le Bureau des Légendes). A French Tv series that is considered one of the great spy dramas ever created for television. Five seasons (2015-2020), the series is available in English.

The Chairman (1969). Starring Gregory Peck as a scientist sent to China to retrieve a secret laboratory formula that would save millions of poor people.

China refused, obviously, to allow filming in the mainland, so filming started in Hong Kong until local Communist groups set off a bomb. Filming then moved to Taiwan and finished at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom.

The film was not a big money maker, but it was unique in using real locations in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and for capturing the isolation China had imposed on itself during the Cold War.

Enemy of the State (1998). A spy movie and a warning about the Surveillance State. There is even a hand-built Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) made out of chicken fence wire. It has one of the most violent endings I have ever watched (minus the 1969 Wild Bunch). Great spy tradecraft. Starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman.

Fauda (Israeli Tv Series/2015-present). A very odd Tv series popular even in the surrounding Arab countries who tune-in to see the next installment. It is an action/spy thriller that injects ethical and moral dilemmas. It is a violent and addictive Tv series that keeps you guessing.

Frantic (1988) is an American-French mystery thriller starring Harrison Ford. It did not receive a lot of attention, but I felt it was a brilliant and believable spy movie.

The Ghost Writer (2010). So, you fancy yourself a writer someday? After this movie, you will drop the idea. A British ghostwriter is hired by a London publishing firm to complete the autobiography of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (no doubt a Tony Blair impersonation) due to the Ghost's predecessor having recently died in a supposed drowning accident. Even if you disrespect director Roman Polanski via his 1977 sex scandal with a 13-year old girl, you will walk away impressed by the film’s intrigue.

Guns of Navarone (1961). What can I say, this is the best WW 2 spy/commando film ever made. The intensity of debate over ethical and moral issues vs the brutal realities of war. Action packed. Even today, I continue to rewatch it.

Jeopardy Room (17 April 1964); Twilight Zone Tv Series. My nostalgic remembrance of the Cold War battle over morals and ethics via the ideological battle between Communism vs. the Free World. Oddly, reminiscent of the war between Woke extremism and the Democratic values of free speech and thought.

La Femme Nikita (1990). A masterpiece of espionage, cloak and dagger, and violence. A badass film.

Little Drummer Girl (1984). A spy movie and book about Israeli intelligence by British writer John le Carré. Do not confuse this with the recent Tv series.

Marathon Man (1976). You will never go back to the dentist after watching this spy thriller starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, and Roy Scheider. This movie was one of many brilliant Hoffman films before he lost his balls in 1984 Tootsie.

Munich (2005). After the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games, Israel sent teams of agents around the world to hunt down those responsible. I watched the 1972 Tv reports as a kid and vividly remember the rage in the Jewish community. It is only my personal opinion, but since the 7 October massacre by Hamas of over 1,000 Israeli men, women and children, I expect the international response by Israel on third party actors/facilitators that supported Hamas will have to watch their backs in the very near future.

Odessa File (1974). One the great spy/thriller movies of my childhood. Jon Voight portrays a journalist in 1962 West Germany who is recruited by the Israeli’s to hunt down Nazi criminals.

Page Eight (2011). A solid British spy movie about how politics and bureaucracy and espionage can become so twisted that untangling it poses moral and ethical dilemmas. Great dialogue.

Quiet American is a 1955 novel by the legendary spy novelist Graham Greene. First made into a film in 1958, neither the book nor the movie served as enough of a warning to America about meddling in Vietnam. The far better film (2002) starring Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, and Do The Hai Yen, was far more faithful to the novel and reflected the metaphorical battle over Vietnam’s heart and mind between a British journalist and a CIA operative.

Ronin (1998). When this film came out I watched it several times in the theater, so it must be a good spy thriller. Starring Robert De Niro, Sean Bean, and Stellan Skarsgård.

Sicario (2015). Directed by the legendary Denis Villeneuve and starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, and Josh Brolin. A mix of CIA, private Blackwater-style contractors, and FBI, brought together as a task force to identify and assassinate members of a Mexican cartel. In my opinion, one of the most violent and realistic films made on the subject.

Spy Game (2001). A good CIA movie based on the Cold War spanning Vietnam to the Middle East and finally China. Old tradecraft tricks are laid out for the viewer. Some still in use, others have become cliche, but no matter, a fairly accurate film. Starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt.

The Spy (Tv Series/2019). Starring Sacha Baron Cohen (yeah, Ali G and Borat). This is a true story about Mossad spy Eli Cohen who operated in Syria until his arrest and hanging in 1965. He had infiltrated Syria’s elite military and political circles, going so far as being nominated Information Minister with discussion as a potential candidate for the Deputy Minister of Defense. I wrote about him extensively in my first book: Spies and Provocateurs: A Worldwide Encylopedia of Persons Conducting Espionage and Covert Action (1992).

Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). Still considered a Cold War classic spy movie and book by the British author John le Carré. Perhaps one of the darkest Cold War spy movies ever made.

Tehran (Tv Series/2020). Israeli spy thriller starring Niv Sultan and Glenn Close. A worthy teacher of tradecraft, manipulation techniques, and rules of engagement.

Third Man (1949). An oldie but a goodie spy movie from the early Cold War. It still resonates after 50 years. Based on another great spy novel written by Graham Greene (Quiet American). In 1991, the British Film Institute selected it as the greatest British film ever made. They were not joking. Starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles.

Three Days Of The Condor (1975). My personal favorite about the CIA starring Robert Redford. You will never complain about your mailman again.

Where Eagles Dare (1968) is a World War 2 action spy thriller starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. It will keep you guessing till the end. It is fun and yet very intense at the same time.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012). A great story of US efforts to find and assassinate Osama bin Laden. My only personal annoyance of the film is the total credit given to the CIA, and not the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Defense Clandestine Service (DCS) that did most of the ground surveillance and heavy lifting the CIA is incapable of performing. Yet the CIA got all the credit.