FRANCIS GARY POWERS: THE TRUE STORY OF THE U2 SPY INCIDENT

US, 1976, 100 minutes, Colour.
Lee Majors, Noah Beery Jr, Nehemiah Persoff, Brooke Bundy, James Gregory.
Directed by Delbert Mann.

Francis Gary Powers is an interesting documentary drama about the U2 flight over the Soviet Union in 1960 with the crash of the plane and the subsequent imprisonment after trial, of the pilot, Francis Gary Powers. It was significant at the time, especially at the end of the Eisenhower administration, and the possibility of a summit in Paris with Soviet Premier Khrushchev.

Lee Majors is effective enough as Powers, though he has a certain wooden American style. However there is a good supporting cast including Nehemiah Persoff as the Russian interrogator and Lew Ayres as Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.

The film re-creates the flight, the CIA at work, the cover-up stories, the Eisenhower administration, the administration of the Soviet Union, trials, the tension in the Kennedy period, the exchange of spies.

Direction is by Delbert Mann (Marty, Bachelor Party and many other significant telemovies).

1. The impact of this docu-drama, narrative, information, the facts, the U.S and the U.S.S.R. in the late '50s and early '60s and the interpretation?

2. The atmosphere of the United States, the Soviet Union: The White House, CIA operations? Soviet prisons, courts?

3. The world in 1960: the end of the Eisenhower administration, Premier Khrushchev and his stances? Cold war, danger of nuclear war? The 1960 summit? Tensions between east and west? The consequences of 1960, the Kennedy administration, Bay of Pigs, Cuba?

4. The focus on the CIA, American towards spying, towards trials era?

5. Espionage, photographic flights, attitudes admission of espionage, exchanges of prisoners?

6. Lee Majors as Powers: personality, presence, his background, abilities in flight, his parents and their simplicity, the father a miner, his wife and the tensions in the family, decision to go on the mission, knowing he would be disowned. The flight, landing in the Soviet Union, the arrest, the interrogations, the interviews, his judgments about how much to tell, presenting him with the evidence, pleading guilty, his seeing the American papers, his defence lawyer and their discussions, attitudes in the trial, his parents and wife present, his behaviour in the trial, the light in his eyes, answering simply, his own personal plea instead of the prepared one, the hour with Barbara, ten years sentence, the collage of his time in prison, his wanting to leave, the experience of the exchange in East Berlin, going to freedom? Returning as a friend and tourist?


7. The portrait of the Russians - harsh and sympathetic, the interrogations, his not being tortured, the defence counsel and the possibility of the trial, even though it was a formality? In the court, the judges, the more lenient sentence? Prison?

8. Khrushchev and his posturing on the television, the challenge to the west, the concerns of the President and the CIA, his behaviour at the summit and his storming out? Using the Powers incident?

9. The CIA and their codes, strategies, Dulles and the discussions, the possibilities of rover stories? Eisenhower being informed, his wanting to take responsibility? Decisions? His going to the summit, the walk-out of Khrushchev?

10. Donovan and the exchange plan, Mr Powers and his organising it? Bobby Kennedy and the administration going along with it? Their demands?

11. The tension in East Germany, Donovan and the exchange, the Soviet agent returning, the interrogation of Powers? His freedom?

12. A retrospective on the '60s and world tensions, the glimpse of the CIA and their strategies, cover-ups, influence on politics?