Cold War II In Film -The Return Of The Man From
U.N.C.L.E.
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
The Man From U.N.C.L.E., starring Henry
Cavill, Armie Hammer, 2015
No question the world
political situation, more particularly the strained relations between the
United States and Russia today, remind those of us who came of age in the early
days of the Cold War of the times when those difficult relationships put both
sides very close to the brink of war. And naturally culture, popular culture as
pressed through the childhood television, where it could reflected acted to
address those tensions and themes. So the popular T.V. spy thriller series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. now reduced to a
couple of hour movie (although the ending left plenty of possibilities for
sequels, endless sequels) has gotten a new lease on life although the original
tensions that made that series successful and reflected our capacity to wonder,
wonder beyond the bomb, the nuclear bomb, and its aftermath, about how to stop
its proliferation and use have been effectively much reduced if not eliminated.
Now as the opening
sequence to this film amply demonstrates at the field level anyway the business
of spy craft and the type A personalities who would engage in such activities
creates a small cadre of equals, a small fraternity. And that is how Napoleon
Solo (played by Henry Cavill), a rogue operative recruited by the Americans,
and Illya some Russian last name which I never could pronounce (played by Armie
Hammer) team up in the hard early 1960s Cold War night and get joined together
at the hip to solve the pressing problem before them. What? Working
together-CIA types, KGB types (with British MI6 thrown in for good measure) in
the high Cold War red scare night. Well, yes, (at least 2015 yes)because there
is another danger that both parties are aware of-some neo-Nazis are out to
bring back the next version of the Third Reich if they can only get their hands
on a few nuclear bombs to take their proper place in the world political order
(possession of such instruments of destruction as we have too frequently
witnessed of late with “rogue states” the only way to stop the big boys of the
world order from coming and blowing your civilization back to the Stone Age or
finding yourself a place at the world power table).
Of course all that is
happening is that the United States, Russia (and Great Britain) are just
reviving the old World War II alliance that helped defeat the Nazis and their
hangers-on the first time. So once you get through the attempts to rescue a
nuclear scientist with a fetching daughter (used as a lure to get to him) from
the ugly crypto-Nazis ready to take on the world, once the boys are able to
trust each other enough to gain a certain respect for each other, once through
daring do the boys are able to stop the madness of the emergence of another
nuclear armed power to muddle the 1960s world order you get the same result as
the old time war alliance ( being commemorated in its70th anniversary
observance this year). The only question now is what the new boys on the block
will do in the next episode. Although my main wonder is when cuckoo Illya is
actually going to kiss that fetching young woman who helped him out of a couple
of jams.
