Cold War heats the multiplex
A spate of spy thrillers imagines Soviets, Americans squaring off again
Most historians will agree the Cold War began in 1947 and ended in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
But comrades, don’t tell anyone in Hollywood. Because the terse military and political tension between Russia and the USA makes for high-strung entertainment.
In Child 44 (in theaters Friday), adapted from the first installment of Tom Rob Smith’s book trilogy, Tom Hardy is investigating the suspicious death of a child in Stalinist Russia, where crime doesn’t officially exist because “murder is strictly a capitalist disease.”
In The Man From U.N.C.L.E. set in the 1960s (and opening Aug. 14), Armie Hammer is a KGB operative who partners with a CIA agent to quash a military organization.
Two months later (Oct. 16), Tom Hanks plays an American lawyer negotiating with the U.S.S.R. in 1962 for the release of a captured American pilot in Steven Spielberg ’s Bridge of Spies.
This summer, Gerard Butler starts production on the spy thriller Hunter Killer, about a crisis between Russia and the USA that almost leads to war.
And, of course, there’s the acclaimed FX series The Ameri
cans, just renewed for a fourth season. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as a pair of undercover KGB agents working and living in ’80s Washington, making spies relevant — and sexy.
“This is a great period for films. Cool clothing, real villains. We can be romantic about this past since it’s outside the zone for so many in the moviegoing audience,” says Mitchell Block, a producer and University of Southern California film professor.
For Joel Kinnaman, who plays Hardy’s secret police nemesis in
44, immersing himself in that time period proved irresistible.
“The level of fear and paranoia was almost unparalleled in modern human history,” he says. “If you were suspected of being pro-West, you’re already guilty. It’s a fascinating piece of history to revive.”
And oddly timely, given that relations with Russia have increasingly worsened. Global headlines aside, for
Americans co-creator Joe Weisberg, “what makes it most compelling is the opportunity to explore ‘What is an enemy?’ The enemy was very similar to us, and that holds true today.”
But at the height of the Cold War, there were distinct lines between good and bad guys.
“People were much more idealistic,” Kinnaman says. “There was so much covert activity going on with double agents. It was a much clearer divide: open society or closed society. You don’t have that anymore.”