steven@ism70.UUCP (01/31/85)
THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN Starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn. Also starring David Suchet, Lori Singer, Pat Hingle, Dorian Harewood, Richard Dysart and Mady Kaplan. Directed by John Schlesinger. Written by Steven Zaillian. Based on the book by Robert Lindsey. Produced by Gabriel Katzka and John Schlesinger. Photographed by Allen Daviau. Production Designed by James D. Bissell. Edited by Richard Mardern. Music by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays. From Orion Pictures. (1985) _T_h_e_ _F_a_l_c_o_n_ _a_n_d_ _t_h_e_ _S_n_o_w_m_a_n tells the true story of Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee, two guys from Palos Verdes, California who ended up as the most notorious spies of the last ten years. It's a compelling and harrowing spiral into a situation where an impulsive mistake led step by step to 40 years to life. Boyce (Tim Hutton) worked at TRW (called RTX in the film) as a cipher clerk receiving transmissions from superspy satellites. He would also routinely receive misrouted cables destined for CIA headquarters in Langley dealing with covert operations overseas. Troubled by the CIA's "predatory" actions, Boyce sought to blow the CIA's cover by selling the information to the Russians. He enlisted the help of his high school friend Daulton Lee (Sean Penn), now a small-time drug dealer. Lee contacted the Russians at their embassy in Mexico while Boyce smuggled out photocopies of classified information from work. I guess the moral of the story is, "Hey kids, don't try this at home." I doubt that it is very clear to those close to the case why Boyce and Lee decided to do what they did. Lee, in fact turns down Boyce's initial offer. "What are you smiling at?" Lee asks. "A patriot," replies Boyce. Maybe for kicks, maybe for the thrill of being "right". The film spends enough time with the boys' troubled family relationships, and with Boyce's hardnosed father (Pat Hingle) in particular, that it's easy to see Boyce's motivation as an act of revenge against his father. Lee seems just to have gotten in over his head. But Steve Zaillian's screenplay concentrates less on forcing a condemnation than on creating the backdrop of paranoia and surrealist comedy that accompanied the two through the nightmare. He manages to blend the incongruous party atmosphere of the "Black Vault," where Boyce worked, with some really suspenseful intrigue in Mexico. Lee's meetings with the Russians are always fascinating; you wonder how far these guys can go before the shit hits the fan. Unobtrusively directed by John Schlesinger, _T_h_e_ _F_a_l_c_o_n_ _a_n_d_ _t_h_e _S_n_o_w_m_a_n moves nontheless with swift sure paces. There isn't a lot of dwelling on Boyce and Lee before they started or after they were caught. All the action is there onscreen. Penn plays the doped-out Lee very differently from the equally stoned Jeff Spicoli of _F_a_s_t_ _T_i_m_e_s_ _a_t_ _R_i_d_g_e_m_o_n_t_ _H_i_g_h. He's pitched his voice higher than I've ever heard coming from his mouth -- he's sort of a whining dervish. Hutton doesn't merge into the persona the way Penn does, but his performance is equally fine. He's convincingly sure of his actions at first, then he conveys as well as Penn the sense of desperateness and entrapment. Definitely worth it if you're interested in the film. Actually, it's worth it even if you're not. Three stars out of four.