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100% positive over last year (Review
DVD Description
Handsomely mounted, epic in scope, and featuring an outstanding cast, TNT's The
Company might restore some much-needed luster to the image of the Central
Intelligence Agency (then again, perhaps not). Based on Robert Littell's popular
historical novel of the same name, the show commingles real and invented
characters as it traces the CIA's role in several major events, from the
earliest days of the Cold War through the collapse of the Soviet Union, with
particular attention given to the division of Berlin into East and West in the
1950s, the anti-Communist uprising in mid-'50s Hungary, and the disastrous Bay
of Pigs operation in the early '60s.
The first of the miniseries' three parts introduces us to Yale graduates Jack
McAuliffe (Chris O'Donnell), Leo Kritzky (Alessandro Nivola), and Yevgeny Tsipin
(Rory Cochrane); the first two are recruited by the CIA, but the Russian-born
Tsipin sides with the KGB. The initial focus is on the CIA's efforts to find a
Soviet mole who's been interfering with the agency's work and putting many
American lives at risk. Working with mentor Harvey "The Sorcerer" Torriti
(Alfred Molina), who calls him "Sport" and delights in pointing out that such
matters are nothing less than a life-and-death struggle between good and evil
and right and wrong, McAuliffe skulks around Berlin, where his principal
informant and soon-to-be love interest is a lovely young ballerina (Alexandra
Maria Lara) with a few secrets of her own. Meanwhile, back in Washington, the
colorfully-named CIA counter-intelligence expert James Jesus Angleton (a real
guy portrayed with low-key intensity by Michael Keaton) slowly realizes that the
mole in question is one of his old pals. And it doesn't stop there. Turns out
there's another double agent (codename "Sasha") working for the Reds; this one's
deeply embedded in the CIA, and Angleton, a chain-smoking obsessive whose
behavior becomes increasingly cold and peculiar, devotes years (and most of the
series' third installment) to outing him. The process by which he does just
that, culminating in some fairly excruciating interrogation scenes, provides The
Company's best moments--especially because we don't know until the very end
whether Angleton has fingered the actual Sasha or not.
Viewers unfamiliar with the CIA's history and methods aren’t likely to be very
encouraged by what's depicted here--especially in the second part, in which the
agency's misadventures in Hungary and Cuba reveal it (as well as the U.S.
government overall) to be not merely ineffective but disastrously inept, as well
as shockingly callous and hypocritical when it comes to lending material support
to the causes it claims to espouse. Still, the series does a good job with many
of the elements common to such fare (Robert De Niro's 2006 film The Good
Shepherd covers some of the same ground). Codes are written and deciphered.
Secrets are kept… and revealed. Shots are fired, and some of them connect.
People die, good and bad alike. And even if some of the scenes are a bit
overheated and melodramatic, all in all, The Company (which was written by Ken
Nolan, directed by Mikael Salomon, and produced by John Calley and Ridley and
Tony Scott) is smart and entertaining. And some of it's even! true. --Sam Graham
From the Back Cover
The Company tells the story of Jack McCauliffe (O’Donnell), an idealistic Yale
graduate recruited into the CIA by his coach. He’s sent to the legendary Berlin
Base in Germany to work with a man who becomes his mentor: the eccentric and
colorful Harvey Torriti (Molina), codename "The Sorcerer". Jack and The Sorcerer
are imprisoned in double lives, fighting an elusive but formidable enemy in an
unrelenting and deadly battle within the CIA itself. Together with the
counterintelligence chief, James Angleton (Keaton), the three men are hell-bent
on finding the moles within their own ranks before every operation they
undertake is completely undermined. However, Jack is forever changed as he must
witness the cost in human lives.
Special Features
Interactive menu
Product Details
Region 2
Sound: Dolby Digital
Main Language: English
Category: Drama
Certificate: 15 Suitable for Persons Aged 15 or Over
Directed by: Mikael Salomon
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