Two of Mark Kermode's favourite films of the last decade were Skyfall and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
It is Ian Fleming versus John Le Carre. James Bond is the all out action hero. George Smiley is quieter, more cerebral and working in the shadows.
It is the essence of how spy films have developed by taking one of these two roads. For every Goldfinger there is The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Ethan Hunt goes for Mission Impossible, often getting betrayed by his own superiors, Harry Palmer is just looking for The Ipcress File and getting betrayed by his superiors.
This is another enjoyable treatment from Mark Kermode. The spy film became a genre of its own in 20th century cinema and Kermode acknowledges the debt owed to Alfred Hitchcock. The early James Bond films took its look from North by Northwest.
Of course it not all Bond or Bourne. There were the spoofs of the 1960s such as In Like Flint. The conspiracy thrillers of the post Kennedy assassination 1970s. Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View.
The 21st Century saw James Bond rebooted to head off the competition from the Bourne and Mission Impossible movies. It also saw the rise of the female spy thrillers, inspired by movies such as La Femme Nikita in 1990.
It is Ian Fleming versus John Le Carre. James Bond is the all out action hero. George Smiley is quieter, more cerebral and working in the shadows.
It is the essence of how spy films have developed by taking one of these two roads. For every Goldfinger there is The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Ethan Hunt goes for Mission Impossible, often getting betrayed by his own superiors, Harry Palmer is just looking for The Ipcress File and getting betrayed by his superiors.
This is another enjoyable treatment from Mark Kermode. The spy film became a genre of its own in 20th century cinema and Kermode acknowledges the debt owed to Alfred Hitchcock. The early James Bond films took its look from North by Northwest.
Of course it not all Bond or Bourne. There were the spoofs of the 1960s such as In Like Flint. The conspiracy thrillers of the post Kennedy assassination 1970s. Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View.
The 21st Century saw James Bond rebooted to head off the competition from the Bourne and Mission Impossible movies. It also saw the rise of the female spy thrillers, inspired by movies such as La Femme Nikita in 1990.
