THE DEFECTOR
France, 1966, 106 minutes, Colour.
Montgomery Clift, Hardy Kruger, David Opatoshu, Roddy Mc Dowall, Macha Meril, Christine Delarouche, Hannes Messemer, Curd Jurgens.
Directed by Raoul Levy.
The Defector is famous for being the last performance by Montgomery Clift. Clift had emerged in the late 1940s in Red River and The Heiress to become one of Hollywood’s most significant actors in the first part of the 1960s. He gave memorable performances in such films as A Place in the Sun. however, he suffered a serious car accident in the mid-50s and was very self-conscious about the disfigurement as a consequence of the accident. However, he did appear in Raintree County, The Young Lions, Judgment at Nuremberg and The Defector. The film also has German Hardy Kruger in support.
The film was made by Belgian-born director Raoul Levy who directed only three films and wrote a number more, including two films for Brigitte Bardot: And God Created Woman, Babette Goes To War. This film was released in 1966 and at the end of the year he committed suicide by shooting himself.
This is a film made in the beginnings of the separation between East Germany and West Germany. The wall had gone up in 1961. During the 1960s there were a number of espionage films about the interaction between the East and the West in Germany. This is the story of an American physicist in West Germany who is recruited by a CIA agent. The film is straightforward, interesting, revealing about perceptions of espionage in these times. Comparisons might be made with other films of the period including some of Len Deighton’s films including The Ipcress File as well as The Quiller Memorandum (written by Harold Pinter) and The Kremlin Letter.
1. Was this a good spy film? Interesting entertaining? A realistic picture of espionage in the mid-sixties?
2. What conventions of the sixties type of spy melodrama did it use? The presentation of the cold war, the C.I.A., plots and counterplots. the East Germans and their attitude towards the Americans? Science, secret documents. space exploration? Was the material treated conventionally?
3. The importance of the German locations for a sense of authentic atmosphere?
4. Did the film build up a sense of excitement, peril? Bower and his predicament, being forced into the situation? The special effects used for mental torture, the use of imagination for suffering? The build-up of excitement in Bower's attempt to escape?
5. How interesting was the plot? Was it too similar to that of other films? The credibility of the scientist being used as bait? The importance of the East German Intelligence knowing what was going on? Audience response to their double games, especially those of Orlovsky, his using of Bower, his using of Peter Heinzman? The build-up towards the need for Bower's escape, his escape and his freedom? Orlovsky’s continuing to use Heinzman until the end?
6. How credible a character was Bower? As a man of science, as a man of art? The hero for this kind of film? His being pressurized by Adams and his having to accept the mission? His reaction when the mission was discovered? The effect of the torture on him? His relationship with Ingrid and his support of her and her helping him? The growing sense of desperation in meeting Heinzman, Heinzman following him and making things seem more ominous? His decision to run? The genuine friendship with Heinzman at the end and Bower's final puzzle? How satisfactory a hero for this kind of film?
7. The contrast with Heinzman? An East German scientist, a humane man trapped by the bureaucracy, pressurized by Orlovsky? His response to being asked to trap Bower and entice him to defect? Heinzman’s presence during the crisis, his using his authority to get Bower back? His reaction to being asked to defect?
8. The various crises for the two main characters? The title of the film and the theme of defection, the predicaments offered to Bower, the more ambiguous defection for Heinzman? Asking Bower to defect, his pretence of defection at the and?
9. Comment on the excitement of the escape, the various details, Bower mingling with the crowd, going down the river, the mines etc.
10. Comment on the theme of patriotism, loyalty, defecting? The good and evil in politics, bureaucracy? The hold of bureaucracy over individuals? As symbolized by Adams and his ruthlessness in his C.I.A. ends and means?
11. How much insight into the world's political situation did the film offer?
