THE COMPANY - pt. 4
TNT - SCOTT FREE - SONY - 6 hr. mini-seriesDirected by: Michael Salomon
Produced by: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, John Calley
Starring: Chris O’Donnell, Alfred Molina, Michael Keaton, Natascha McElhon, Alessandro Nivola
ART DIRECTORS GUILD NOMINATION - 2008 - Excellence in Production Design Award - Television Movie or Mini-Series
"The Company" takes us from the early days of the CIA's 1954 battle of wits with the KGB in Berlin all the way, via the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961, to the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and the joyous dismemberment of the Berlin Wall and anti-communist revolt in Moscow in 1991. "The Company" does cast light on the ambiguity of espionage and the uncertainty of war when waged in the shadows. It is also, ultimately, a rather reassuring message for our present times, inasmuch as the "good guys," for all their failings, somehow manage to emerge victorious.
Robert Littell's best-selling novel gets a three-part miniseries treatment chronicling the saga of the CIA largely from the perspective of three idealistic young college friends who are recruited into the spy business. Field agent Jack McAuliffe trains in Berlin with his cynical mentor, Harvey "The Sorcerer" Torriti, becoming a CIA "true believer" in the process. Meanwhile, Jack's best friend, Leo Kritzky, skillfully navigates his way through the power maze of the Washington hallways of "the Company," eventually becoming head of the CIA's Soviet division. Ultimately, Jack and Leo find themselves on opposite sides of the Cold War with another old Yale classmate and friend, Russian-born Yevgeny Tsipin, who has accepted a position with the KGB. Jack occasionally clashes with James Jesus Angleton, the CIA's brilliant but obsessive counterintelligence specialist, but becomes close friends with English widow Elizabeth Nemeth while helping the Freedom Fighters in Budapest, Hungary.
