THE MAN FROM UNCLE

US, 2015, 116 minutes, Colour.
Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, Hugh Grant, Jared Harris.
Directed by Guy Ritchie.

Way back when, or way way back when, depending on how old you are or how old you admit to being, there were many Bondish spy stories on the big screen and on television, including Napoleon Solo and his Russian ally, Ilya Kuriakin, in the forms of Robert Vaughn and David Mc Callum. It is half a century later and, of course, in this age of superheroes, we have their new incarnations, Henry Cavill who was the new Superman and Armie Hammer who was the Lone Ranger.

The film was directed by Guy Ritchie who has a flair for action, with his initial Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, his gangster films like Revolver and Rock‘n rolla, and with his breakthrough films about Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. He brings something of this flair for action, verve and colour to this re-booting of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
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The initial television series setting is retained. We are in the early 1960s.There is quite an elaborate collage during the initial credits giving something of a history lesson visually, clips and glimpses of the war, post-war Europe, the Iron Curtain, the Cold War, nuclear fears, President John F.Kennedy. And, in the middle of the film, there is another collage taking us back to Nazi Germany, the development of weapons, the development of torture.

Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuriakin are presented as agent icons. And it will depend on your opinion of them as screen presences, good-looking heroes – and, as a reviewer smartly noticed, different in ideologies but united in square jaws! Henry Cavill portrays Napoleon Solo as something of a Christopher Reeve- Clark Kent, his performance in the 2012 Man of Steel. His humour is very dry, and his emotional display is kept very much under control (or is not there in the first place). He seems tall by himself at six feet one, but is rather dwarfed by Armie Hammer at six feet four! And Hammer has the showier role, single-minded in his loyalties, prone to anger at having to pretend to be calm as he poses as the fiance of Gabby, (Alicia Vikander, A Royal Wedding, Ex Machina, Son of a Gun, Testament of Youth) who Is the daughter of a nuclear scientist, used by the Nazis, at work in the US, abducted by a powerful wealthy Italian couple who are getting him to develop a nuclear bomb for their clients.

There are all kinds of action sequences, the two getting into all kinds of trouble, even Napoleon experiencing torture, but each emerging relatively unscathed.

Elizabeth Denicki (Australian actor from The Great Gatsby) is a tall, slinky, arrogant villain. But there is counterbalance in the perennial stiff-upper-lip British controller, played by Hugh Grant in his ineffable way, still in the For Weddings and a Funeral mode two decades later!

This is a reasonably enjoyable show, good to look at, not particularly memorable, but an insertion into the Cold War past – and with the prospect of a sequel!

1. The popularity of the original series? The 1960s? 50 years later, the 21st century? The Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union, the hypothesis of collaboration, nuclear fears? The film version keeping the past situations?

2. Post-war America, the Soviet Union, Berlin and the wall? The collage of events for the credits, from the 1940s to the 1960s, the war, Cold War, JF Kennedy, Kruschev? The detail? The later collage of Hitler, weapons?

3. Agents, on both sides of the divide, the plot, action, stunts, special effects?

4. The introduction to Napoleon Solo, his story, the war, art, theft, prison? The authorities seeing him as an expert agent? The introduction to Kuryakin? In East Berlin? Tailing Napoleon, thwarting the action? The extraction of Gaby, Napoleon going to the garage, the discussions about her father, the proposal, her taking a stand, the chase throughout East Berlin, coming to the wall, the guards, the link, Kuryakin and his pursuit? Being thwarted? The wire, getting Gaby out, into the vehicle?

5. Kuryakin a Russian agent, his reputation, the pursuit, devices, driving skills, his defeat? His ideology? Anger? Relationship with his controller?

6. Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer as strong, square-jawed types? Iconic – and stereotypes? The contrast with the presentation of the women as fuller characters?

7. The nuclear situation, the US, Teller, his work for Nazi Germany, the Soviet interest? The Italians, their clients, wanting the bomb? The wealth, facilities, means of transport?

8. The Italian settings, Rome, the city, lavish, the mansion? Action on land, action in the water?

9. Gaby as the centre, to meet her father again, her work in the garage, being transformed and glamorous, Kuryakin meant to be with her, the couple, his brusque manner, courting her, the comic touches with fashion, his anger, those in pursuit, his outbursts, having to give way, the boat chase? His being with the thugs – and private revenge? His private behaviour?

10. Napoleon, his controller, the US and the UK, the Soviet Union, the connections, Victoria and her presence, her husband, the relationship, freewheeling?

11. Victoria, tall, wealthy, ruthless, her husband, sexual predator, violence? Her husband, her dominance, the racing cars, the driving, his angers?

12. The two men in the hotel, the contacts, suspicions? Gaby’s Uncle Rudi? Science, his capacity for torture, relishing it? Torturing Napoleon? The reverse – and his being tortured, ready to admit everything, his death?

13. Teller, the Nazis, in the US, Soviet interest, his capacities for making a nuclear device, his trying to deceive Victoria with the lens, reunited with Gaby, Victoria controlling him, fixing the bomb? His death?

14. Hugh Grant as the British controller, his interventions, his speech, delivery, suave? With each of the agents? With Gaby? The irony of the truth about Gaby and her being a British agent? Leading Napoleon and Kuryakin on?

15. The bomb, the boat, the ability to locate the bomb, sending missiles? Victoria, the arrogance, her death? Her husband’s death? Napoleon and his touch of arrogance, escape?

16. Each of the agents given the mission to kill each other, the situations, the possibilities for killing each other, confrontation, survival – and British control
giving the title U.N.C.L.E.?