Movie Doubles - 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' & 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'

The Spy Movie Shoot Out

It's been a long time since the height of the Cold War that we've found ourselves surrounded by an oversupply of Spy genre material. The ever-so-serious incarnation of James Bond movies with Daniel Craig is going to hit us with 'Spectre' sometime soon. The whole re-booted, retooled, re-designed and re-modelled vibe of the Daniel Craig Bond Movies has in a sense opened the door to a reinvestigation of just what the hell Ian Fleming was on about.

'Kingsman' comes from the humble pages of a comic book, while 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' is a reboot of an old 1960s TV series. Neither have terribly highbrow origins. If anything they have lowbrow original, much lower than the pot-boiler airport-novella original of James Bond himself. Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuriyakin were indeed parodic figures to the ur-text of Bond. The 'Kingsman' then is like a syncretic re-imaging of the whole genre.

Cool Britannia Struts Its Stuff

Of the two films, 'Kingsman' is far more aligned with the Britishness of the spy genre, and in particular the Bond oeuvre. Through the energetic, youth-market driven frenzy of its stylings, 'Kinsmen' harks back to a Bond who is an Etonian, and ex-Military. And so, Colin Firth gives us his first and possibly last action hero in Agent Galahad. Gone are the rigid reticence of the Mr. Darcys he has played in his career, and in its stead is a high octane super spy, who is trying to pay off a debt.

'The Man From Uncle' also features Hugh Grant, doing a turn as a dapper-but-dour MI6 man - somewhere between the earnestness of 'Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy' and the nerdy-charming bookshop owner in 'Notting Hill' helping Julia Roberts through her submarine script. The casual irony and sarcasm in the face of danger is the hallmark of the British spy genre, and he does not disappoint. And while Henry Cavill plats Napoleon Solo, an art-thief-turned CIA Agent, there is something of the Englishman peeping through his performance. America is simply not all that big in this film.

In both films, it is a given that the British schtick kicks butt. That has to be a tacit nod to Ian Fleming via James Bond.

Dodgy Class Politics

Of course, the problem with Britain is the pernicious class system that keeps on dividing the haves from the have nots. It's hard to escape and immensely oppressive at every turn. If anything would push one towards a desire for the Marxist Revolution, it just might be the class system as deployed in the UK. 'Kinsmen' overtly tries to cross the divide in many ways but the problem lies in the fact that the only way the divide can be crossed is for the lower class to adopt the trappings - and therefore the bullshit - of the upper class.

The working class as portrayed in this film, is so obviously lacking in the kind of virtue required to become a secret spy. Small-minded, ignorant and very unworldly, the working class bumble around to present a backdrop of misery for Eggsy. Even though he identifies with his family and its place in the continuum of working class life, the film couches things in such as ay as to discredit his allegiance to his class. As Eggsy rightly observes, it is 'My Fair Lady' - and it it comes all of the class warfare George Bernard Shaw envisaged.

It's troubling to see that the rebellious youth is in the end, inculcated into the ways of the upper class as a prerequisite to being a super agent. Some of the rather less palatable toffs are shown the door along the way, but ultimately Eggsy has to join them rather than beat them. The trope is repeated several times in the film, and his ultimate confirmation as a secret spy lies in the emulation of Colin Firth's Harry.

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' is a lot more egalitarian in its view of class. Apart from Hugh Grant's character Waverly who condescends mightily to Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuriyakin equally because being American and Russian is simultaneously much worse even than being a working class Brit. After all if you are British working class, thefts that could be said of you is that you're British.  What possible hope is there for an American and a Russian?

Still, Kuriyakin is of the working class in Russia, while Solo's origin is a common thief with loftier targets. They don't have to lose their class origins to be better men; they have to rely on them greatly to get them through. It's not much of an affirmation, but it is much more egalitarian than the need to join the upper class before being any good in 'Kingsman'.

What Kind Of Villain Is That?

One of the best observation made by any film critic is the one that points out James Bond never actually goes any where dangerous. it's not as if he's out there in say, Baghdad during the occupation or Kabul as the bombs go off. He is instead going to places with gorgeous beaches, child cocktail drinks, beautifully furnished casinos with gorges women in dress gowns. And so it is with 'Kingsman' where the ultimate villain Richmond Valentine played by Samuel Jackson turns out to be a movie mogul turned apocalypse engineer. Funnier still, Richmond is fully aware of how villains behave in Bond movies, and is determined not to follow suit.

The villains always bring out the camp inBond movies and this is no exception with 'Kingsman' which came into being marinated in the Ian Fleming oeuvre. Samuel L Jackson's Richmond Valentine is ridiculously sensitive to bloodshed while sporting an outrageous lisp. It evokes Mike Tyson (and his incongruous apathy for birds) while also taking big stabs at tech giant Steve Jobs. When the villain gets as camp as Richmond, you get the feeling that the writers aren't really too worried about the world falling into their hands.

'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' takes a different tack by placing the whole reboot in the 1960s. The bad guys are renegade Nazis, trying to get their hands on the bomb. Of course, being fascists, the bd guys operate out of Rome, and this gives the film ample opportunity to bask in the recreated glory of 60s Italian cinema as well. Then again, it does remind us of 'Hudson Hawk', another comedic action film where fascists stage their plans out of Rome. It's interesting how inevitably Rome interiors are predominantly hotel rooms. This may reflect the tourist experience of writers from abroad. Everybody sports the best Italian fashion, especially the villains.

In any case, neither film is the chief villain all that lethal or threatening. The dastardly plots of the villains in of themselves are meant to be seriously dangerous, but both films are so camp you rarely fear for the protagonists. The action becomes more of a pantomime rather than anything that is loaded with new meaning. We've seen all of this before- so much so 'U.N.C.L.E.' dispense with a crucial fight scene with a bunch slide-frame montages.

The problem for both films is that the violence crosses the border over into gratuitousness wit such abandon, it gets very hard to care about what's going on. Funny is a good thing, but too funny robs both films of gravitas. The tone wavers in both films, although 'Kingsman' is truer to its comic book original than 'U.N.C.L.E' is to its TV roots.

The Reimagined 1960s 

There is something magical about the 1960s being depicted on the screen today. I'll write another entry about it, but basically this instalment of 'The Man from U.N.C.L.E.' shares with 'Mad Men' and incredible fetishistic love of the objects from the 1960s. The production design alone is worth the price of admission. Whiny consider what 'Goldfinger' and 'Dr. No' looked like, this instalment of 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E' gets you right into the ambience, the light, the texture of 1960s colour grades, the grain - but with very modern enhancements. The night sequences are delineated beautifully, and the day action sequences are right in line with the style of 1960s action movies.

It's an odd viewing experience because you sit there wondering if the 1960s really looked like it does on screen The truth is, it very well didn't, but we go along with it anyway because the production design is a tour de force of fetishism. In some ways it is the spy film we've wanted to see for a long time, where secret agents operate with the Cold War in the background, and with very much analogue technology. The limitations make for better story telling.

The past is an ever distant country, but these screen products offer a fantastic tour backing the recent past. it's modern enough to be modern history but just distant enough to bring out the different sensibilities that society has lost. The sexism and racism is good to have lost, but we also managed to lose elegance, style and poise. It's a good trade-off, but I'm sure nobody quite sees it as a trade-off. In a strange way the film posits the 1960s with the Cold War and fear of imminent nuclear armageddon was in fact the fun, innocent times. Maybe it's sardonic commentary of our contemporary world. Maybe it's just well observed, but the film certainly works very hard to charm us through the 1960s.

Armie Hammer as Illya Kuriyakin is also a stroke of genius bit of casting. Nobody does the earnest doofus better than Armie Hammer whose credits include the Winkelivi in 'Social Network' but also the Lone Ranger. It's hard to say he is a flat out leading man type but he is certainly versatile and funny. The earnest doofus of the Russian agent fits right in with the faux innocence of the Cold War.