Weekend Buff

The Recruit (2003)

The Recruit (2003)

This spy thriller was recommended to us by a subscriber a few months ago. I had caught bits and pieces of it but never sat down and watched the whole thing. It was a good recommendation and a good movie. Thank you!

The Recruit is a fictional account of a CIA recruiter and his plan for some of his new charges. If you read Tim Weiner’s book Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, which we reviewed, you will know that things don’t always go as planned in The Agency, and that agents are often corrupted.

The Recruit details a story of CIA recruiter Walter Burke, played by Al Pacino, who targets MIT tech whiz Jame Clayton, played by Colin Farrell. Clayton has created a virus that can take over cameras in any computer system and his program is coveted by the CIA.

Clayton is interested in Burke’s pitch for a variety of reasons, including the fact that he suspects that his father was a CIA Agent killed in the line of duty. He soon finds himself at “The Farm”, the CIA training facility in Virginia. Clayton gets lessons in manipulation and deceit but finds that he may be on the wrong end of the lesson. He finds himself pitted against other recruits including Layla Moore, played by Bridget Moynahan.

Clayton is involved in a cat and mouse game where the tables keep turning on him. One day he is the hunter and the next he is the prey.

The movie depicts the skills, talents, and cold-bloodedness needed to be a CIA Agent through the eyes of Pacino’s character. Naturally, Pacino excels in this role as charismatic lecturer. He seems the ideal Agency man. I feel that Pacino does a good job of relating the ethos and skills of agents while keeping the audience entertained. Farrell and Moynihan are also good in their complex roles. Director Roger Donaldson (13 Days, Dante’s Peak) keeps you guessing throughout this spy thriller. Plot twists and turns define the movie, and Donaldson is able to pull them off.

In the end, this seems like many of the stories detailed in the history of the CIA. A well-intentioned agency with hard working and dedicated personnel, but things go awry. As Pacino’s character says, “The Public only know our failures and never hear about our successes.”

The Recruit is a complicated story, but it is well told. This is not simply a thriller; you have to pay attention to this movie. Some say it is too complicated, but look at a CIA op. They aren’t exactly right up the middle (and that only the parts they tell us about). We couldn’t find The Recruit for free anywhere, but it is $3.50 on Amazon Prime Video. This weekend, take a fictional, but scary, look at the inner workings of our intelligence agency. It will leave you wondering about how things really work in our most secret federal agency.

Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!