MovieChat Forums > The Company (2007) Discussion > Recomendations of other CIA history Movi...

Recomendations of other CIA history Movies/Shows/Books

posted 17 years ago by blackhands
11 replies | jump to latest

I have recently watched The Good Shepherd and The Company, and felt that neither of them portrayed the history of the CIA well (although Shepherd was *much* better than The Company). The history of the OSS/CIA, The KGB and the Cold War have always interested me (earlier this year I watched all 24 parts of the 'Cold War' series (thoroughly recommended: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0170896/)

It is always interesting to see how different films portray the same characters and the same events (for eg. the Michael Keaton version of JJA vs the Matt Damon character in TGS) and how each film fictionalizes certain elements and stories

Anybody here have any other film, book, documentary or TV series recommendations with the same subject matter?

[–] churchr-1 17 years ago

For another take on Angleton I'd watch 'The Cambridge Spies' with the same actor who played Philby portraying Guy Burgess. For good spy stuff but without much on Angleton and only a little on the CIA try 'The Perfect Spy.' It's a really good adaptation of the Le'Carre novel. I really like 'Tinker Tailer Solder Spy' and 'Smiley's People.' The thing about the last two is that Alec Guinness doesn't look anything like I'd pictured George Smiley, but being Guinness he pulled it off anyway.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] blackhands 17 years ago

I just finished watching 'Cambridge Spies' - and it is *fantastic*, thank you for the recommendation. If you like The Company and shows or movies about intelligence, ww2 and spying history, then you will love Cambridge Spies. The acting, locations and shooting are fantastic, I only wish that the production quality of The Company was as good.

CS follows the famous 'Cabridge Four', a group of students at Cambridge who were recruited as spies for Moscow in the 30's and who each went on to gain high and respectable positions in the intelligence community in the UK, all the while passing secrets back to Russia. Kim Philby, who was also portrayed in The Company is one of the main characters in CS.

I only wish that Cambridge Spies showed more of the CIA and that they had Keaton play James Angleton. Info on CS is here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346223/

and wikipedia entry about the group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Five

[–] Yeto75 17 years ago

This is so freaky; I am over thirty and live in Hungary. I now remember from my childhood that my parents had a book about the Cambridge four (that is not what they were called, but it was about Philby and Co.), depicting them as heroes of communism...

[–] blackhands 16 years ago

They were heroes of Communism, though they believed in a very minimalist, true form of Communism rather than what we saw in Eastern Europe after the war - which more more authoritarian (Marx communism is about minimal to no government). The Cambridge guys were pissed off with Aristocracy, which many of them were a part of, either directly or indirectly through their parents.

I think their alliance with Moscow was misguided, I doubt they knew much about what the USSR was really about (an even worse form of authoritarianism). Most westerners who were spies for Moscow were motivated either by money, or the same form of misguided belief.

[–] robbo7 16 years ago

Its tough for a organization as complex and secretive as the CIA to be accuratly portrayed in movies and tv warts and all, especially in such a gung-ho patriotic country as america, where even the mildest criticism is jumped on by the usual zealots as unpatriotic, so we have the usual heroic cliche tv, no matter how well acted and the cast of the company do that in spades, but by and large its the usual good v evil nonsense and facts twisted out of all recognition.

[–] dscorca 17 years ago

I'm so excited about this mini series... The Company has been my favorite book for many years now. If anyone wants to read another amazing book by Robert Littell I suggest The Defection of A. J. Lewinter: A Novel of Duplicity.

[–] martijnrutgers 16 years ago

If you want the true story you should read 'Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA', by Pullitzer prize winner Tim Weiner. Un-be-lievable....

[–] MaceGriffin 16 years ago

and dont forget spies like us, based on a true story. lol

but on a series note you might wanna try "the spy who came in from the cold" (excellent performance from richard burton)or " the quiller memorandum" and "3 days of the condor"

thier not all about the cia but all during the cold war and all have excellent and engrossing story lines.

tarantino's a prat!

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] fanaticita 9 years ago

Novels by John Le Carre for starters. Also there are a lot of books about Kim Philby which include all of the other spies of that era.