{"id":40660,"date":"2018-08-07T10:33:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T17:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=40660"},"modified":"2022-05-11T15:51:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T22:51:42","slug":"falcon-and-the-snowman-the-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=40660","title":{"rendered":"Falcon and the Snowman, The (1985)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I had no idea the extent of the lie &#8212; the level of deception.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-and-the-Snowman-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-and-the-Snowman-Poster-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-40661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-and-the-Snowman-Poster-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-and-the-Snowman-Poster-86x128.jpg 86w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-and-the-Snowman-Poster.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe son (Timothy Dalton) of an FBI employee (Pat Hingle) becomes disenchanted in his new job as a military contract clerk when he learns about America&#8217;s direct interference in Australian politics, and enlists the help of his childhood friend (Sean Penn) in selling secrets to a Soviet agent (David Suchet) at an embassy in Mexico.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Friendship<\/li>\n<li>John Schlesinger Films<\/li>\n<li>Pat Hingle Films<\/li>\n<li>Spies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nBased on the true story of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christopher_John_Boyce\">Christopher Boyce<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Andrew_Daulton_Lee\">Andrew Daulton Lee<\/a> (former altar boys who became the youngest convicted spies in American history), this espionage thriller plays like a direct precursor to the travails of Edward Snowden* &#8212; albeit with less immediate relevance to current generations of film fanatics, and less sympathetic characters. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s4755snow.html\">noted by DVD Savant<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The disorganized and thoughtless way [Boyce and Lee] went about their &#8216;business&#8217; makes them amateur spies, thoughtless traitors and tragic fools.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The film itself, however, is a well-directed tale (by John Schlesinger) of how these privileged &#8212; and, in the case of Boyce, well-intentioned &#8212; kids got caught up in something much bigger than they anticipated, and how their families struggled to make sense of their choices. Interested viewers will want to check out a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eQAqgUKgrkQ\">Dateline interview with Boyce<\/a>, who was released in 2002 and now primarily spends his time with falconry. He&#8217;s admitted: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;You know, you&#8217;re not so smart when you&#8217;re 21 years old. You&#8217;re not that wise. And yeah, I was mad as hell and full of myself &#8212; and preposterous in a lot of ways. Decided to start my own one-man war against Central Intelligence. What sense does that make?&#8221; <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>* <em>Snow<\/em>den&#8230; <em>Snow<\/em>man&#8230; Hmmmm. Weird coincidence. Actually, &#8220;snowman&#8221; refers to Lee&#8217;s cocaine use. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sean Penn as Daulton Lee (nominated by Peary as one of the Best Actors of the Year in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-Snowman-Penn.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-Snowman-Penn.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"852\" height=\"462\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40662\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-Snowman-Penn.png 852w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-Snowman-Penn-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-Snowman-Penn-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Falcon-Snowman-Penn-768x416.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 852px) 100vw, 852px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a one-time look. Listed as a Sleeper and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0087231\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/falcon_snowman.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s4755snow.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1985\/01\/25\/movies\/screen-falcon-and-snowman-story-of-2-spies.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I had no idea the extent of the lie &#8212; the level of deception.&#8221; Synopsis: The son (Timothy Dalton) of an FBI employee (Pat Hingle) becomes disenchanted in his new job as a military contract clerk when he learns about America&#8217;s direct interference in Australian politics, and enlists the help of his childhood friend (Sean Penn) in selling secrets to a Soviet agent (David Suchet) at an embassy in Mexico. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Friendship John Schlesinger Films Pat&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=40660\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40660"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84008,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40660\/revisions\/84008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}