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Plot Summary
This is a spy story deeply rooted in the cold war. Tom Farrell is a handsome Navy Commander, played by a very young Kevin Costner, who finds himself romantically entangled with the lovely mistress of the married Secretary of Defense. he slowly reveals the hold the lover has over her, and by that time Tom is too smitten to care. This works out until two apparently unrelated events complicate his life apparently beyond resolution. A college friend is aide to Secretary of Defense Brice, played by Gene Hackman, whom we know to be the girl’s sugar daddy. The aide, Scott Pritchard, knows of her existence, but not of her dalliance with Farrell, and recruits Farrell as assistant to the Secretary. The suspense builds slowly until the young lovers retreat for a romantic weekend and the Secretary shows up too early for a tryst. He realizes she has been away with another man, and after Farrell slips out the back door, Brice accidentally kills her.
Now begins the true mystery, of the sort that people who remember the USSR and the Berlin Wall and the KGB will appreciate. The aide needs to protect his boss, and in doing so shows how much power he has amassed while the boss was otherwise engaged. And what that power has done to him. The Defense Department and the CIA have suspected that there is a Soviet mole loose within American spy-dom, and they have named him Yuri. The plot is now to locate Yuri and blame him for the girl’s murder, solving several issues at once. A few hints, clues, and suggestions planted in the right ears and the hunt heats up, stoked clandestinely by Pritchard and actively by Farrell. So for a time the two men feeding information and demands to an army of law enforcement agents are working at cross purposes. A bit confusing, but exciting nonetheless.
Because the audience has been a step ahead of most of the characters we are now wondering if Yuri exists or is only a convenient scapegoat. And if he is real, who might he be, as we know he did not kill the girl. As we watch Brice, Pritchard and Farrell seem to lose some grasp on reality, more questions arise until all is resolved at the very end, in a twist calling a few other facts into question. Because global politics and informational technology have changed so dramatically since the time depicted in this film the story is dated, but the plot remains pleasantly gripping and the performances good enough for us to care about the characters.
Commentary by Cicely d’Autremont
Quotes
Scott Pritchard, about Secretary Brice: "He’s the most extraordinary person I’ve ever met in my life. If it came to it, I’d lay down my life for him."
Tom Farrell: "Is that a job requirement?"
(Tom and Susan are making out in the limo when Tom notices the driver is watching.)
Tom Farrell: "What’s your name?"
Driver: "Bill."
Tom Farrell: "Hi Bill. Could you close the slide, please."
Bill: "Uh, sure."
Susan Atwell: "Sorry, Bill."
Susan Atwell: "Are you one of them?"
Tom Farrell: "One of what?"
Susana Atwell: "Those hypocrites. All posh and shiny getting ready for four more years of ramming it to the rest of us."
Tom Farrell: "You’re pretty cynical."
Susan Atwell: "Adequate to the occasion."
Tom Farrell: "Well, then, Brice is in an impossible situation. We should just call the FBI"
Scott Pritchard: "Don’t be an idiot. Do you realize the magnitude of the scandal? The Secretary of Defense and a Soviet agent sharing the favors of a murdered whore?"
Trivia
After the scene in which Kevin Costner rolls over the hood of a moving car and insurance agent excoriated director Roger Donaldson with “don’t you ever…ever…EVER do that again!”
Many scenes purported to be set inside the pentagon were actually shot there, including one in the office of the Secretary of Defense.
Many people believe this movie was the beginning of Kevin Costner’s career as a leading man. Costner performed most of his own stunts, including driving without his glasses, which caused more distress for the insurance company.
Sources
IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes
review by Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times, August 14, 1987