Cambridge Spies (2003)

Cambridge Spies (2003)

Director: Tim Fywell
Scenario: Peter Moffat
Genre: Drama, History
Country: UK
Year: 2003
Duration: 235 min (4 parts)
Rating: 7.7/10

Actors: Tom Hollander, Toby Stephens, Rupert Penry-Jones, Samuel West, Stuart Laing, Darrell D'Silva, Anna-Louise Plowman, Ronald Pickup, Marcel Iures, Angus Wright, Patrick Kennedy, Colin Higgins, John Light, Imelda Staunton

Description:

Nakon tjeskobe izazvane posljednjim događajima u Beogradu, pomalo razočarano sam zaključio da me pogađaju stvari koje me prate čitav život. Vrijeme će svakako učiniti svoje i danas neke nemoguće stvari će zacjelo postati normalne.
Pogledao sam nekoliko filmova koje sam odlučio pohraniti tamo gdje im je mjesto, u recycle bin! Zatim sam odgledao kako neki debili odlaze u neku kuću velikog brata, kvazipoznate ličnosti koje su se počele baviti poljoprivredom na nekoj reality show Farmi i pogledao likove koji sebe smatraju talentima. Dovoljno da zaboravim na sve predhodne jadne i patetične Beogradske događaje.

Britanska serija Cambridge Spies je predstavila pravo osvježenje nakon odgledanih  nabrojanih gluposti. Spočetka serije bilo mi je lijepo vidjeti ta četiri vedra mladića prepunih ideala i želja da u životu učine nešto što će promijeniti svijet. Njihovi ideali nastali na strogom kembridždskom univerzitetu u vrijeme pojave nacizma u evropi, poklopili su se sa jačanjem komunističkih ideala u istočnoj evropi.
Priča napisana po istinitom događaju koji je potresao Veliko Kraljevsko ostrvo.

Glani junaci ove priče unajmljeni su kao špijuni za Sovjetski savez. Sa ljubavlju prema komunizmu i puni ideala, talentom za špijunažu i mržnjom prema Hitleru i fašizmu, četvorka započinje 20-godišnju karijeru velikih prijevara i laži.

Guy Burgess: nadaren i nepokolebljiv, ovisan o seksu i scotchu. Zaposlen u The Timesu, BBC-u i MI5, što mu je pomoglo u pristupu tajnim podacima o nacionalnoj sigurnosti.
Anthony Blunt: zabavan, duhovit i izuzetno lukav, u vezi je s najvećim tajnama kraljevske obitelji. Kim Philby: savršen špijun. Postaje vrhovni vođa jedinice u MI6, "sprečavajući ljude slične njemu da postanu slični njemu."
Donald Maclean: dvostruki agent s podvojenom ličnosti; simpatičan i duhovit, a zatim divlji i opasan.

Fascinantni likovi, bistrog uma neće ni jednog gledaoca ostaviti ravnodušnim. Guy Burges, neskriveni homoseksualac, na jedan neobičan način na otkriva laž i hipokriziju visokog plemićkog društva koje mu otvoreno saopštava da ga smatraju sebi ravnim, članom kluba, koje  je sposobno da toleriše njegove ispade i greške, pa čak i one koje će ga pratiti doživotno, misleći pri tom na njegovu seksualnu orjentaciju. Ništa neobično za današnje vrijeme, ali radi se o 1934. godini kada je homoseksualnost u Engleskoj bila kažnjavana čak i smrtnim presudama.

Ostavio me je zatečenim dok je jednom prijatelju pričao  o smrti njegovog oca: Nešto sam dobio smrću moga oca, dobio sam slobodu, bila je to velika tuga, ali i snažan osjećaj slobode. Zvuču smješno, ali smrt roditelja može biti početak,posebno ako si ga volio.
Sličan osjećaj sam i ja imao kada mi je umro otac, jer sam za njegova života bio ono što je očekivao od mene, a smrt je izbrisala svaku šansu da ga eventualno razočaram. A majka , ona uvijek nekako sve osjeća i zna, al nikada ne pita niti prebacuje, naprosto uvjek je na mojoj strani, ma šta ja uradio!

Ova serija je urađena u četiri epizode, možda je malo podugačka, ali već sada sam siguran da ću je sa uživanjem odgledati ostala tri nastavka.

From IMDB:

Spy Story for Sunday Night, 6 July 2003

Author: Philby-3 from Sydney, Australia

This is a lightly fictionalised account of how four tewwibly well brought up English boys betrayed their country to the Soviet Union. Philby's father had been a distinguished diplomat and Arabist and McLean's a cabinet minister. All had public school educations and had been undergraduates at the same Cambridge college. They set off into promising careers in the foreign office and security services and were Soviet agents from the start. Their great coup was to give the Soviets enough details about the atomic bomb to speed up their program to build one by a couple of years, but it was at the expense of blowing McLean and Burgess's cover (they escaped to Moscow in 1951), and Philby being fired from MI6. He joined them in Moscow in 1963. Blunt, by now the Keeper of the Queen's Pictures was then interrogated; he confessed, and was let go.

It's one of the really great spy stories of the 20th century. This version concentrates on the personal dynamics. The amount of contact the spies had with each other after Cambridge seems to be much exaggerated (pretty bad security), but gives us the picture of the gang of four against the Establishment. The women are interesting too. Philby was a ladies' man to whom Donald McLean's American wife Melinda (Anne-Louise Plowman) was attracted. They later lived together in Moscow. Blunt and Burgess were both gay, but friends rather than lovers.
The Establishment, in the person of Lord Halifax (James Fox), Ambassador to Washington, found it difficult to believe that 'people like us' could do such things and started looking for the atomic spy in the embassy kitchens. One or two western counter-intelligence operatives including the CIA's formidable James Jesus Angleton nearly nabbed them, but with Philby tipping them off (and duchessing Angleton), Burgess and McLean made it safely to Moscow.
With four hours to play with all the characters are richly drawn. Tom Hollander's Guy Burgess is a drunken dirty little sod who somehow manages to be witty and charming as well. It was great cover for a spy. As Donald McLean, Rupert Penry-Jones is the Golden Boy who feels himself unworthy, and sees communism as the way to redemption. Toby Stephens as Kim Philby gives us the cleverness, the deviousness and the angst as well, especially in the Spanish episode.(I'm afraid us Philbys are a devious lot, but we bleed, we bleed). Samuel West's Blunt has the occasional hint of emotion, but basically is a cold fish. Art, it seems is his life. He does get on tewwibly well with the Queen.

Seventy years on, it's not so much why they did it, but why they kept it up that mystifies. Given their location close to the heart of British Intelligence and hence knowing as much as anybody outside about what really went on the Soviet Union, it's extraordinary that Philby and McLean in particular continued on right up to 1951 (Blunt was more or less inactive after 1945). It is suggested here that Ms McLean did try to get her husband to give up spying but there's no real explanation as to why he persisted. Perhaps he still believed. Anyway, truth or fiction is hardly the point here - Sunday night is not for history lessons. This is a familiar tale well told, visually splendid and not too taxing. The real story, I suspect, is far too complex for even the most adroit (or left) TV producer. An earlier TV account,"Philby Burgess and McLean" (1977) is also worth watching, if you can find it.

 

Cambridge Spies ep1 - i love this country-desktop
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