The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 178 Days to go: 123
Movie #260: Sneakers
This is where I get myself in trouble. I had a friend in junior high and high school who I went to a lot of movies with. She and I seemed pretty different — I don’t think anyone would’ve expected us to be friends — but we actually had very similar sensibilities. We both hated people, had a wry outlook on the world, shared a particular sense of humor and lots of inside jokes no one else in the world would get, and we both loved Quantum Leap and Star Wars (not Star Trek), among other things (especially if they featured Harrison Ford). Not only that, but we both wrote, both appreciated great stories, and both liked to go to the movies. So we went together pretty often.
Back in 1992, this dear friend of mine wanted to go see Sneakers, a star-studded spy film of sorts. I snubbed this idea in a big way, because frankly the movie looked like a snooze fest, and we never went to see it. I put the film completely out of my mind.
Jump ahead several months, when Sneakers came out on video. My parents rented it from our local Blockbuster, and I ended up watching it with them, probably because I had nothing better to do. Lo and behold, Sneakers is fantastic! It’s clever and funny and twisty and intriguing and not boring at all. I went into school the next day and, at lunch, started raving about this great new movie I’d just seen. My dear friend, bless her, got so (rightfully) irritated with me. She told me off and reminded me how she’d wanted to see it in the first place and remains bitter about it to this day, any time the subject comes up. It’s pretty funny, and I can’t help but laugh, but I am also sincerely sorry and ashamed for my dumbassery. (She won’t admit it, not that she ever did because that’s not the kind of friends (or even the kind of people) we are, but she still loves me.)
Anyway.
Sneakers stars Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix and David Strathairn as a rogue group of questionable characters living on the fringes of society, doing freelance “security” work, by which they mean breaking into places for a fee in order to expose that place’s weaknesses. They each have their individual quirks, but Redford’s character Martin Bishop has actually been a fugitive from justice for over twenty years. When a couple of guys from the NSA show up and reveal they know Bishop’s secret, the team gets caught up in a case of espionage and digital encryption that puts their lives at risk, and evil mastermind Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) has a special connection to Martin’s past. (“I cannot kill my friend. Kill my friend.”) Essentially, there are Too Many Secrets, and they’re all about to come to light.
Mary McDonnell is sadly the only female presence of any substance, as Marty’s ex Liz, but she’s so delightfully over all the bullshit these guys come up with, it’s kind of great. It doesn’t stop her from helping them, of course, but it makes for an entertaining time. And her interaction with Stephen Tobolowsky’s Werner Brandes is the highlight of the film. (“Shall I phone you or nudge you?”)
A special appearance by James Earl Jones as the put-upon NSA agent Mr. Abbott rounds out a spectacular cast full of lots of fun performances, which is exactly the sort of thing that makes the film so great to watch.
Oh, and they kind of predicted the whole thing about the NSA spying on Americans a full twenty-something years before Edward Snowden dropped that same bombshell. I guess they got that box working after all.
Viable Option 