Review: The Falcon and the Snowman
Blu-ray: The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
After watching The Falcon and the Snowman I’m surprised that I hadn’t heard about it before, especially considering the talent involved. This excellent film is even more fascinating as it is based on actual events in the lives of Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee. Not heard of them before? Well neither had I, which makes me even more grateful now that I have watched this movie.
The Falcon and the Snowman is set in the time when President Nixon was being impeached for the Watergate scandal, the country was wracked with paranoia from communism and dealing with the devastating situation in Vietnam.
Boyce (Timothy Hutton) and Daulton (Sean Penn) are lifelong friends but they couldn’t be more different. Boyce has recently left the seminary training to be a priest and is drifting along without much purpose. Daulton is a drug dealer and hustler with a criminal record as long as your arm.
Boyces’ father (Pat Hingle) has connections to the FBI and arranges for him to get a job with a private defence contractor. Due to his family connections Boyce quickly moves from office mail boy to being recruited to a top secret project involving information being passed amongst government agencies including the CIA.
Considering his new role is supposedly top secret and requires him to sign a confidentiality agreement, it seems like the perfect job as he doesn’t do much work, drinks vodka and margaritas all day, grows weed and generally messes about with his work colleagues.
Boyce seems to be having a lot of fun and games but during one slow day at work he receives a transmission which was intended for someone else. This leads him down the rabbit hole of government conspiracies and manipulation of countries by their so called allies.
Boyce recruits Daulton to sell the transmission to the Russians and there is a suggestion that he’s taking a moral point of view as he wants to expose the corrupt system, but realistically he also wants to earn a quick buck in the process.
Things go well for a while but you can imagine that it isn’t long before Boyce and Daulton are in way over their heads, tangled in a web of lies and deceit that has devastating consequences for them and their families.
I mentioned earlier that this movie has an enormous amount of talent involved including numerous Oscar winners. The screenplay is written by Steve Zaillian, and it is directed by John Schlesinger. Between them they have created some of the most amazing work that has come from Hollywood: Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, Midnight Cowboy and Marathon Man are some of the classics that they have respectively written and directed.
The cast are also excellent with Penn displaying his talent in an early role. Although Daulton is a bit of an arsehole you do feel sorry for him as his drug use and paranoia spiral dangerously out of control. Timothy Hutton, Pat Hingle and David Suchet are also excellent.
The movie also features a great soundtrack with music from David Bowie, Carly Simon, Procol Harum and Free.
I’m really surprised that this movie isn’t discussed more, especially considering the pedigree of the cast and crew. I really enjoyed The Falcon and the Snowman and all credit goes to 101 Films for bringing this superb thriller to the mass market.
Review by Chris (co-host of 60 Minutes With and The Same Coin) from a disc kindly supplied by 101 Films.