The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
Genre: Thriller / Drama
Duration: 131 minuten
Alternative title: The Falcon & the Snowman
Country:
United Kingdom / United States / Mexico
Directed by: John Schlesinger
Stars: Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn and Pat Hingle
IMDb score:
6,8 (14.033)
Releasedate: 25 January 1985
The Falcon and the Snowman plot
"They came from the best of families. And they committed the worst of crimes."
A CIA employee discovers that important documents are being misused to suppress small governments. With the help of a friend of his who is on drugs, he sells documents to the Russians. The friend only brags a bit and he even wants the Russians to smuggle drugs.
Actors and actresses
Christopher Boyce
Daulton Lee
Mr. Charlie Boyce
Mrs. Boyce
Boyce Child
Dr. Lee
Mrs. Lee
David Lee
Gene
Larry Rogers
Reviews & comments
Movsin
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- 8286 messages
- 8441 votes
Film manages to captivate every now and then and keeps it fairly simple and is also not meaningless.
Sean Penn is very young but plays well as the young daredevil luck seeker.
However, the whole thing lacks soul.
Misleading title. Looks like an action-adventure fantasy.
Translated from Dutch · View original
FlorisV
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- 1859 messages
- 798 votes
Once again it was well worth it. Timothy Hutton in particular plays very well although he doesn't really look like the real Christopher Boyce. Penn's portrayal comes across as childish, as if he were playing a whimpering toddler dealing in the school yard.
The production value is okay, even if you don't feel like you're in the late 70s in all respects. The soundtrack is apart from the great song This Is Not America (in the film it's a Mexican police officer who says that) memorable. The script is pretty to the point, without too much talk and uses here and there real quotes from Boyce from 1 of his rare interviews.
As astonishing as the CIA scandal that motivated Boyce's treason is the amateurism within the CIA itself, the ease with which everything can be smuggled in and out of the building, and how a very young person can just go and work with ultra-sensitive information, alone. but because they like his daddy. Either way, the CIA will get away with it and as a US citizen you won't feel a lot safer after watching this movie!
The story remains fascinating and if you read and watch more about it, you can still somewhat empathize with the highly intelligent Boyce, who managed to escape after a few years after he was allowed to watch Escape From Alcatraz in prison and therefore the idea was made a papier-mache doll to buy time for his escape. An interesting sequel could easily be made. Boyce managed to stay out of the hands of authorities for another 2 years and lived in nature but also robbed banks until he was caught again and received a life sentence. He was finally released early in 2003 after a legal battle that lasted a decade. He is now married to the woman who bailed him out of prison.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6070 messages
- 2476 votes
I went to the cinema especially for this release as I was a decent fan of the director, but afterwards I was somewhat disappointed, and I am again with this review almost 40 years later. The film is well put together, the game is fine and the awkwardness of both title characters when they enter a world where they have had no taste at all and where they do not belong at all is nicely portrayed, but the film remains at a distance because I actually can't identify with either of them: why Timothy Hutton, out of disgust at the foreign military and espionage operations of the United States, suddenly has to turn to treason is nowhere clear to me, and Sean Penn (not my favorite actor anyway ) plays such an annoying little man here that I'm almost tempted to think he deserves everything that happens to him – it's a miracle that his silly character makes it out alive. A strong but distant film.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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