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I read this comment before the post, and now I feel bad.

I watched a spy movie from the 1960s recently with someone. We got 20 minutes in before she was confused about why the movie is just about a depressed drunk who lost his job in a spy agency, before my movie-watching accomplice looked up the plot of the movie on Wikipedia. Spoiler alert, there's a twist, and the movie didn't tell the viewer that.

It's interesting that modern movies have to make you think you understand something, before they pull the curtain back and reveal there's a twist. Otherwise people will get disengaged and stop watching before the twist occurs.

5 comments

I also strongly suspect you watched "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold". If you enjoyed this movie and the way it is narrated, please do yourself a favor and watch all the BBC mini series from the 70ies/80ies based on John Le Carré books, namely "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "Smiley's People", and "A Perfect Spy" (or read the books, John Le Carré is an excellent writer, and "A Perfect Spy" can be compared to works by Dickens). You usually have no clue what is going on, and only learn about it later.

I think these movies are attempting to put you in the position of a spy, where you need to pay attention and infer motives from actions, and actions from motives.

The IPCRESS File is probably my favorite in the genre of cold war spy thrillers. It's slightly more on the fantastical side of the spectrum, but still so good it makes grocery shopping interesting.

The camera work is just brilliant, with many shots taken from angles that emulate covert surveillance, yet still managing to beautifully frame the scenes. Since this is implied, but never spoken, some reviewers seem to have missed this aspect, and just though they were shooting scenes through building windows for the sake of it.

Even just the opening scene says so much about the main character on without him or anyone else speaking a single word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBCqP7R42K0

Second this. IMHO Richard Burton and Alec Guinness give stellar performances in these shows/movies. I would also recommend the Len Deighton series Game, Set, Match with Ian Holm. You need to watch to the end to figure out what's going on.

> It's interesting that modern movies have to make you think you understand something, before they pull the curtain back and reveal there's a twist. Otherwise people will get disengaged and stop watching before the twist occurs.

So why should you keep on watching a movie where nothing happens just because, in the end, it _might_ be that there is a twist? I do see the more general point about ever shorter attention spans, but in general, it's probably a good thing that we have enough options to entertain ourselves in order to not having to take these gambles.

“Nothing happening” can be as impactful and meaningful as a scene full of action.

I personally like to know as little as possible about a movie before I watch it, aside from genre. I want to experience the story as the creators intended, and at times this includes being completely in the dark. The transition from “wtf is going on?” to understanding is where the payoff resides.

Every movie you watch is a gamble, even if you read the Wikipedia page first. And it is possible to get a general understanding of the reception of a movie without having to know anything about the plot itself.

> it's probably a good thing that we have enough options to entertain ourselves in order to not having to take these gambles

Different people watch for different reasons. I personally think it’d be incredibly boring to stop making gambles on potentially interesting movies.

"It's interesting that modern movies have to make you think you understand something, before they pull the curtain back and reveal there's a twist. Otherwise people will get disengaged and stop watching before the twist occurs."

I agree with this. For a particularly insidious example see the latest Star Wars series, the Acolyte, by Disney.

Well, I have watched 5 episodes so far, still waiting for the twist. So far I think the Acolyte is pretty dull. My girlfriend checked out after episode 3. Your comment fills me with hope!

So this is just storytelling 101...you don't have to give up the whole story but it does have to be engaging in the meantime...before the _big reveal_. Five dull episodes is not good storytelling and you're probably going to end up disappointed.

Well the issue is that people panic, since honestly I think we are very insecure about our media literacy

So how’s the movie called?

Probably "The spy who came in from the cold"

The book and the movie are quite rough, raw and extradry - i don’t mean this in a bad way. The mood reminds me more of eastern productions like tarkowsky (stalker) and the like.

"Bond for grownups"

Also called "stale beer" spy fiction to emphasize its lack of glamour and that settings like dive bars are more common in it than fancy casinos and cocktail parties.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpyFiction

ah right, it starts that way, been a long time already