Posted on 02/24/2007 3:16:30 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
An expert on the CIA reveals how Hollywood bungled its chance to tell an astonishing true spy story...'I told Matt Damon he'd be a perfect spy - if he wasn't so short, fat, pretty and white', he reveals
It began with a meeting in Chelsea with the film producer Oliver Stone.
'I've bought your book on James Jesus Angleton and I'm going to film it,' he said rather pugnaciously.
'No you haven't, I replied. 'Yes I have,' he insisted.
We worked our way through two bottles of Pinot Noir before it turned out he'd bought a different book about James Jesus Angleton, the former head of counter-intelligence for the CIA, whose biography I had written in 1991....."
(Excerpt) Read more at mailonsunday.co.uk ...
What an incredibly evil man! Hansen caused the deaths of so many for simply selfish reasons.
I don't know----was he at all politically motivated?
I just bought "Departed" and saw it last night....I loved it!
Was Willem Dafoe busy?
This is actually quite common in the casting process. I think Damon has just been brushed off so that someone more palatable to Stone can be cast.
That is Robert Hanssen, not James...
Funny bit. Yesterday my wife and I saw Breach, I liked the film, and Chris Cooper's ( Bob Hanssen) comments on Hillary Clinton made me want to give him a pass for the espionage. But a guy sitting next to me asked me if I'd seen the Good Shepherd. I told him no and I had no intentions of seing it. He asked why and I said I hate paying to see left wing propaganda. He turned and sped off.
Yup..thanks
Chris Cooper is one of the great actors. So many things he's done, I never connected, he had so completely acheived what my dramatics teacher called "suspension of disbelief". I caught an NPR interview with Breach director. Part of the quality, the agent who busted Hanson in real life was on retainer throughout filming, was in this interview, said except for some time-compression liberties, this movie is spot-on how it went down.
They went on to tell of an exercise Cooper did one afternoon off-camera. Same exact lines, repeated two minutes apart, 180 degree difference in viewer perception from loving to deadly threat. It is to Cooper's credit that I had seen him in maybe a dozen roles before I started noticing him as a particular actor. On film his role subsumed his personality, not the other way 'round.
What difference would it make what the actor looked like just as long as he was a good actor. Who knows what Jim Angleton looked like? Not very many people, I'd guess. I never even heard of him. Looks only matter if the character is well known IMHO.
The kind of studio interested in promoting the leftist agenda.
Looks like the part should've gone to Al Franken.
Ever catch his performance in "American Beauty"? He pretty much crapped all over retired Marine officers. The implication was that they are an anal, nasty, murderously abusive bunch who are suppressing homosexual tendencies. Of course, the most "normal" people in that flick were the homosexual couple next door.
Oliver Stone is the older white version of Spike Lee.
They don't know how to even CONCEPTUALIZE a movie unless it's the usual juicy "ripped-from-today's-headlines" type of half-digested tripe that always characterizes those type of films and the emptyheaded market and audience that is ready for them. TOGETHER , they are responsible for about one or two hours of good film out of about 300 total hours of very expensive finished product.
Actually, no I didn't. One of the first roles I recall noticing Cooper as Cooper was in "Patriot", where he played a figure who helped salvage the American Revolution. Which role is Cooper the man? I don't have any idea, and unless he pulls an uncharacteristic "Dixie Chicks" moment, neither do you. I admire the man's art, know nothing of his politics.
World Trade Center has been profitable and is a good movie.
Don't blame Cooper overmuch for the vile, perverted values of American Beauty. He did a good job. Much of the anti-American, anti-values propaganda in that movie was so subtle - and dressed up in such humor - that a lot of people missed it. Blame/credit the writer and director more than the actor.
Really? Are you implying he didn't read the script before he took the part? Or considered its implications? Sorry, but even if I was an actor playing a part, I think I would vet my roles and reject those that were at odds with my values and beliefs. Not that actors shouldn't play villians. However, I think his role in American Beauty attempted to create a horrible stereotype of retired military officers. You might check out the movie sometime to see what I mean.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.