The Amateur (1982)

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I read the original novel this movie is based on before watching the movie, and I really enjoyed it. My hopes were up for this movie because the writer of the novel was also one of the screenwriters. Unfortunately, I felt kind of let down at the end.The movie has some good attributes. For a Canadian movie, most of the production values are pretty good. There are also some tense and effective moments, the highlight being the swimming pool sequence. Also, Christopher Plummer gives an effective performance in his supporting role.But as I said in my summary line, the movie doesn't work overall. The main problem with this movie is its pacing. You have to wait until the 50 minute mark before the hero gets into Czechoslovakia and starts his plan of revenge. After that point, you have to wait a long time before he scratches the first person off his target list. I was not demanding an unbelievably fast pace, but things definitely could have been tightened a bit.Other faults in the movie include the photography (the colors look muddy for the most part), and that the idea of the movie - someone taking on a task that's clearly over his head - didn't come across.This is far from the worst movie ever made, but it's still disappointing. As of this date, they are working on a remake of this movie. While I usually think remakes are unnecessary, in this case I think there's definitely room for improvement. However, since European politics have changed radically since this movie was made, they'll have to make some big changes for a 21 century audience.

This spy/action/thriller concerns about a CIA computer analyst named Heller(John Savage) , when his girlfriend encounters traveling across Europe, she's suddenly kidnapped in an Embassy by a terrorist group , a Baader Mainhoff-alike, and is shot by the leader named Brewer (Nicholas Campbell). Then Heller seeks vengeance, and contacts to girlfriend's father(Jan Rubes). Later obligates his CIA superiors(Arthur Hill,George Coe), under threat blackmail(to publish it a journalist played by John Marley) , for becoming CIA camp agent trained by a veteran(Ed Lauter) and to send him to the Communist Bloc countries . In Czechoslovakia he unites forces to Cia agent(Marthe Keller) and is pursued by a contra-espionage chief(Christopher Plummer) in Praga. Meanwhile Heller investigates and aware a cobweb of lies underneath the company.This exciting film gets tension, suspense, action ,mystery and a bit of violence, however sometimes in a little confused and embarrassing . Mediocre screenplay with some gaps by Robert Littell and based on his novel. The movie belongs to ¨Cold war genre¨ , whose maxim height were the John Le Carre novels and his various cinematic adaptations such as ¨The spy who came in freeze, The Kremlin letter and Russia House¨.Suspenseful musical score and colorful cinematography filmed in streets of Vienna(lookalike Praga) and interior scenarios shot in Canadian studios. The movie was a flop though is today better considered, in fact Leonard Matlin rated it as 'Bomb'. The motion picture is professionally directed by Charles Jarrot. He has an eclectic career as TV as cinema with a plethora of success(Anne of the thousands days, Mary of Scots) and failures at the box office(Condorman, Last flight of Noah's Ark, Amateur). Rating : Passable and acceptable.

I have never been to the Czech Republic yet, but I hope that some day I will make it. This movie will certainly not influence my decision – but Czechs might like to watch it. Will they recognize their own country? I doubt it.Basically this is a vigilante movie. Some terrorists (not oriental Muslims for once but German home grown nut cases) storm the American consulate in Munich, take all people hostage and ask for the release of some of their comrades. Otherwise they will kill a hostage every, say, half hour. For good measure they kill a young woman right after formulating their demands. As fate would have it, it's the fiancée of a CIA ciphers specialist who decides that he wants to go after the killers (who got away) and kill them in turn, cost it what it may.The terrorist's area for occasional relaxation and training sessions is the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia. So our hero has to go there and forces his employer to help him. Once there he discovers that they don't like him at the CIA and are after his hide. But among bad to brutish Czechs he finds good Czechs who will gladly risk their lives so that he can fulfill his (perfectly understandable) dreams of revenge.Very often this movie is outright ridiculous. But there are a few very good and excellently filmed scenes. The highlight for me is the young yet very bald terrorist who takes a swim in a luxurious old Czech hotel, all on his own, only to get blown up by our hero with the help of plastics taped to the glass pane which separates the pool from the bar. The acting is so so but Christopher Plummer is simply brilliant as the sophisticated bad Czech. There seem to be no limits for this wonderful actor, he really is extremely versatile. The Czech outdoor scenes were partly filmed in Vienna, there are also a few great shots of 19th century Munich.

Fun, but often not believable. The opening act (of terrorism) is captivating. Christopher Plummer's portrayal as the Czech detective is a pleasure. But in the end, the film gets a little too ahead of itself. It would have been better toned down and with a few twists snipped out.For a realistic look at what was involved in sending one lightly-trained man behind the Iron Curtain to accomplish one simple task (not the ridiculous mission undertaken in this film), check out "The Looking Glass War." And compare to much better films like "MacIntosh Man", "Smiley's People", or especially "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold." And as hard as John Savage tried, he could not hope to equal Richard Burton, Paul Newman, Anthony Hopkins or Alec Guinness.