Product Description

Academy AwardÂ(r) winners* Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People) and Sean Penn (Dead Man Walking) deliver "superb performances" (Variety) in a true-story spy thriller that is "scathing, arresting" (The New York Times) and laced with white-knuckle excitement. From OscarÂ(r) winners** John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) and Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List), the film blows the lid off the modern-day American dream with its riveting story of twoyoung men of privilege, money and ambition who end up selling out their country, ruining their families and destroying their lives. Chris Boyce (Hutton) works a low-level job at a defense plant where he uncovers documents that prove that the CIA is secretly coercing foreign governments. Heconfides in his conniving, fast-talking friend, Andrew Daulton Lee (Penn), a reckless drug dealer and user, who convinces him to sell this information to the Soviets for big bucks. Lee boldly cuts a deal with the KGB, but soon the stakes spin out of control as the Soviets up the ante, Lee descends further into drug abuse and the CIA prepares to take the informants down! *Hutton: 1980, Supporting Actor, Ordinary People; Penn: 2003, Actor, Mystic River **Schlesinger: Director, Midnight Cowboy (1969); Zaillian: Writing, Schindler's List (1993)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13613 in DVD
• Brand: Falcon
• Released on: 1999-12-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 132 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn play two young men from wealthy families who sell government secrets to the Russians. Based on the true story of Christopher Boyce (Hutton) and Daulton Lee (Penn), this is sometimes edgy, occasionally humorous, and ultimately heartbreaking. Boyce, whose job it is to guard top-secret government papers, becomes disillusioned with the United States and decides to make a deal with the Soviets. His partner in espionage is propelled by less-ideal reasons for his acts, as Penn plays a grungy drug addict in it for the money. An intelligent script is matched on two counts: by John Schlesinger's tight direction and by provocative performances by both actors. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Customer Reviews

The spy next door
Based on a true story, the film details how two young men sold U.S. secrets to the Soviets in the mid-seventies during the height of American apathy and disillusion.

Taken from the excellent non-fiction book by Robert Lindsey, director John Schlesinger's film does a fine job of creating the feeling and temperament of the time but stumbles in a couple of important areas, though the leads, Timothy Hutton as Christopher Boyce and Sean Penn as Daulton Lee, are in terrific form.

Boyce was the "falcon" as he dabbled in falconry, Daulton the "snowman" due to his dealing cocaine, or snow.

Boyce was the oldest of a large Catholic family whose father was retired FBI. Boyce was given a job too quickly with TRW, at the time working with the CIA on secret projects. Working from the "Black Vault," Boyce eventually decided to sell the information he saw to the Soviets. His drug dealing childhood friend Lee became the courier who transported the data to the Russian Embassy in Mexico.

While the story flows well on screen, the film cannot deliver what the novel makes apparent, namely WHY Boyce became a traitor. Other minor nitpicks include a scene (that never occured in real life) of Boyce seeing his ex-girlfriend Alana before impending arrest added for schmaltz effect only, and a badly edited moment of him ripping apart a gift from his co-workers that leaves the viewer puzzled.

However, everything else is fine. The cast is superb, particularly Pat Hingle as Boyce's father. The look of the film is true to the era it occured in. Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays produced a compelling score, collaborating with David Bowie on the theme song.

This is not an action film, and the better for it. Instead The Falcon And The Snowman gives the viewer psychological insight into espionage. It does not go far enough but is a solidly enjoyable film and deserves your attention.

Christopher Boyce
I enjoyed this movie immensely. It was fairly true to life and very well done. Hutton and Penn are terrific and Schlesinger does an excellent job in directing.
For those of you that are curious, Christopher Boyce will be released from a halfway house in San Francisco on March 15, 2003. He will be paroled after 25 years in prison, including spending time in SuperMax in Colorado, alongside Oklahoma City bombers Timothy J. McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols, and the Unabomber, Theodore J. Kaczynski. (Information taken from the LA Times story "The Falcon and the Fallout" by Richard A. Serrano, published March 2, 2003.)

still looks great
This has become one of my very favorite films. One reason is that this is when I began to see how really brilliant Sean Penn is, but I think it's more about how this film captures its time, and the dangers of naive idealism. The affluent surburban young men here both find ways to reject the perceived shallowness of their parents, the corruption of their government and the numbing reality of their circumscribed lives, but end up discovering even darker and more painful realities.

Schlesinger makes the most of his excellent cast and gets some of the most memorable performances ever from veterans like Pat Hingle and Richard Dysart. David Suchet is fantastic in his portrayal of a cold, professional KGB operative trying to deal with Sean Penn as a rapidly unravelling drug dealer.

Skip the useless scenes between Tim Hutton and a confused-looking Lori Singer and what remains is a memorable film really worth owning.