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Declassified: Our Favourite Spies
Declassified: Our Favourite SpiesThere's something very sexy about a spy. The fantasy of putting your life on the line for your country, with a get-out-of-jail free card for recompense; that license to kill, and steal, and lie, and to hell with traffic regulations too! 
Most of us have probably fantasized about it at one time or another, but I don't suppose any mother ever hoped that her little darling would go into espionage. It's not a position that career guidance counselors steer young people towards, and even if they wanted to it would be a tall order… Go to Cambridge, study kung-fu, and join the civil service? They choose you, not the other way round. In the real world the attributes of a good spy would include discretion, intelligence, patience, and sufficient patriotism to trump personal loyalties and ethical norms. More than anything, a spy must be a reliable liar. John Le Carré, who spent a few years in British Intelligence, has done his bit to demythologize the type, but in the end even his self-effacing anti-hero George Smiley only becomes a different kind of mythic figure, the shadowy spook who will never come in from the cold. 
'Artists, in my experience, have very little center,' Le Carré observed, perhaps explaining the enduring fascination. 'They fake. They are not the real thing. They are spies. I am no exception,' he confessed. If the western Intelligence Services have lost a lot of their luster after their failure to prevent September 11, and the subsequent debacle over Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, spy movies are enjoying a resurgence the likes of which we haven't seen since the height of the Cold War. Films like The Good Shepherd, the remake of The Manchurian Candidate, Munich, Syriana, Breach and the Bourne series reflect fresh doubts about the whole apparatus of covert operations. In these films, the threat is not confined to old foes, we're urged to be as concerned about the enemy within. Even that old warhorse 007 seems to have a renewed sense of purpose about him these days. With all this in mind - and The Bourne Supremacy hitting the multiplex running this week - we figured this was a good time run through the files on our favourite spies. Please note, this newsletter will self-destruct in the next five seconds… Tom Charity SPY FILE
George Kaplan (Cary Grant)North by Northwest George Kaplan doesn't exist. But with his knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Roger Thornhill (Grant) unwittingly convinces everyone otherwise. By the time he's evaded death by crop duster and scrambled up Abraham Lincoln's nose, Cary has surely earned his CIA badge? 
Alec Leamas (Richard Burton)The Spy Who Came in From the Cold The first great John Le Carré anti-spy. Leamas says it best himself: 'What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers[…]? They're not. They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives.' 
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise)Mission: Impossible Athletic superspy Ethan Hunt runs rings around everyone in what often feels like 'Mission: Impenetrable'. It may be bewildering, but director Brian DePalma contrives enough virtuoso set pieces to keep Hunt in the chase. 
Austin Powers (Mike Myers)Austin Powers Sixties throwback and international man of mystery Austin 'Danger' Powers is easily the most shaggadelic undercover agent on the list - and probably the grooviest. We love his specs, his English teeth and crushed velvet jackets. Yeah, baby! 
Harry Palmer (Michael Caine)The Ipcress File Insubordinate, insolent, a trickster, perhaps with criminal tendencies - and NHS glasses to boot. Harry Palmer is no James Bond, he's a working class trouble maker, but he's also got an ear for music and loves to cook. The only mystery is why this mid-60s classic didn't spawn a series. 
Chuck Barris (Sam Rockwell)
TV game show host by day, professional CIA hitman by night. That's how Chuck Barris described himself in his wildly bizarre book. At least half of it was true, and George Clooney's film proved that fact can be stranger than fiction. 
Edward Wilson (Matt Damon)The Good Shepherd Hardly the most charismatic of spies, Edward Wilson deserves respect for his dedication to the cause if nothing else. The movie itself sets out to be The Godfather of spy films, a chronicle of the genesis and evolution of the CIA from WWII through the Cold War. 
Wally Ritchie (Bill Murray)The Man Who Knew Too Little An American businessman in London, Wally thinks he's playing an agent in an experimental theatre production. What he doesn't know could hurt him very badly indeed. Underrated Hitchcockian spoof with Bill Murray in his element. 
Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber/Laurence Harvey)The Manchurian Candidate Shaw doesn't know he's a spy. Like Jason Bourne, he's a brainwashed assassin - and a very effective one too. How can you be sure? Just look at the corpses that stack up. His political connections make him even more of a threat, he could be President one day, if he plays his cards right. 
Count Laszlo de Almasy (Ralph Fiennes)The English Patient How easily appearances deceive us. Almasy may be the most tragic spy of the lot. Yet he's motivated by love above nation, which may also make him the most noble? 
Carmen and Gregorio Cortez (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara)Spy Kids It's true they never get to shoot anyone - the movie was rated U - but the Spy Kids can boast enough nifty gadgets and gizmos to make Q look like a part-time. Gregorio plays a mean guitar riff too. 
Joseph Turner (Robert Redford)Three Days of the Condor Turner is a minor operative in the CIA - his job is to read spy novels in case anything too near-the-knuckle turns up, or an idea that might be useful. Then his entire office is massacred and Turner finds himself on the run, trying to think like a real spy - or even better, like one of those fictional heroes he's read about. 
Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty)The Lady Vanishes Sweet little old governess Miss Froy. Was she really on the train at all, or did Margaret Lockwood just imagine it? The original tagline: 'Spies! Playing the game of love - and sudden death!' 70 years later the appeal remains the same. 
Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger)True Lies It's all very well being a secret agent, but some things you can't keep from your wife. Arnie gamely spoofs 007 in this parodic caper, bolstered by some heavy duty action scenes. 
Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe)The Lives of Others Stasi agent Wiesler takes professional pride in doing his duty, but begins to question those principals when he's ordered to dig up some dirt on an equally committed Socialist playwright. It's a sentimental education, but it's not often we see a spy turning like this, and the late Ulrich Muhe makes it more credible than it maybe deserves. 
Andy Osnard (Pierce Brosnan)The Tailor of Panama Le Carré again. Pierce Brosnan may be better known for another spy altogether, but he has much more fun as the thoroughly unscrupulous MI6 agent who sets about destabilizing Panama in order to boost his expenses. Geoffrey Rush is the tailor who helps, in this subversive black comedy from John Boorman. Titles related to this articleRelated/similar articles
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