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Spy film

April 03, 2023

Not to be confused with spy camera.

The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many James Bond films). Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, le Carré, Ian Fleming (Bond) and Len Deighton. It is a significant aspect of British cinema,[1] with leading British directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed making notable contributions and many films set in the British Secret Service.[2]

Spy films show the espionage activities of government agents and their risk of being discovered by their enemies. From the Nazi espionage thrillers of the 1940s to the James Bond films of the 1960s and to the high-tech blockbusters of today, the spy film has always been popular with audiences worldwide. Offering a combination of exciting escapism, technological thrills, and exotic locales, many spy films combine the action and science fiction genres, presenting clearly delineated heroes for audiences to root for and villains for them to hate. They may also involve elements of political thrillers. However, there are many that are comedic (mostly action comedy films if they fall under that genre).

James Bond is the most famous of film spies, but there were also more serious, probing works like le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold that also emerged from the Cold War. As the Cold War ended, the newest villain became terrorism and more often involved the Middle East.[3]

History

The spy film genre began in the silent era, with the paranoia of invasion literature and the onset of the Great War. These fears produced the British 1914 The German Spy Peril, centered on a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, and 1913's O.H.M.S.,[4] standing for "Our Helpless Millions Saved" as well as On His Majesty's Service (and introducing for the first time a strong female character who helps the hero).

In 1928, Fritz Lang made the film Spies which contained many tropes that became popular in later spy dramas, including secret headquarters, an agent known by a number, and the beautiful foreign agent who comes to love the hero. Lang's Dr. Mabuse films from the period also contain elements of spy thrillers, though the central character is a criminal mastermind only interested in espionage for profit. Additionally, several of Lang's American films, such as Hangmen Also Die, deal with spies during World War II.

Alfred Hitchcock did much to popularise the spy film in the 1930s with his influential thrillers The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1937) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). These often involved innocent civilians being caught up in international conspiracies or webs of saboteurs on the home front, as in Saboteur (1942). Some, however, dealt with professional spies as in Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936), based on W. Somerset Maugham's Ashenden stories, or the Mr. Moto series, based on the books of John P. Marquand.

In the 1940s and early 1950s there were several films made about the exploits of Allied agents in occupied Europe, which could probably be considered as a subgenre. 13 Rue Madeleine and O.S.S. were fictional stories about American agents in German-occupied France, and there were a number of films based on the stories of real-life British S.O.E. agents, including Odette and Carve Her Name With Pride. A more recent fictional example is Charlotte Gray, based on the novel by Sebastian Faulks.

Also during the period, there were many detective films (The Thin Man Goes Home and Charlie Chan in the Secret Service for example) in which the mystery involved who stole the secret blue-prints, or who kidnapped the famous scientist.

The peak of popularity of the spy film is often considered to be the 1960s when Cold War fears meshed with a desire by audiences to see exciting and suspenseful films. The espionage film developed in two directions at this time. On the one hand, the realistic spy novels of Len Deighton and John le Carré were adapted into relatively serious Cold War thrillers which dealt with some of the realities of the espionage world. Some of these films included The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), The Deadly Affair (1966), Torn Curtain (1966), and the Harry Palmer series, based on the novels of Len Deighton.

In another direction, the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming were adapted into an increasingly fantastical series of tongue-in-cheek adventure films by producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, with Sean Connery as the star. They featured secretive and flamboyant super-villains, an archetype which would later become a staple of the explosion of spy movies in the mid-to-late 1960s. The phenomenal success of the Bond series lead to a deluge of imitators, such as the eurospy genre and several from America. Notable examples include the two Derek Flint films starring James Coburn, The Quiller Memorandum (1966) with George Segal, and the Matt Helm series with Dean Martin. Television also got into the act with series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E and I Spy in the U.S., and Danger Man and The Avengers in Britain. Spies have remained popular on TV to the present day with series such as Callan, Alias and Spooks.

Spy films also enjoyed something of a revival in the late 1990s, although these were often action films with espionage elements, or comedies like Austin Powers. Some critics identify a trend away from fantasy in favor of realism, as observed in Syriana, the Bourne film series and the James Bond films starring Daniel Craig since Casino Royale (2006).

Films

Some of the most popular films include:

Movie series (franchises)

One-shots, sequels and remakes

Television series

Some of the most popular television series include:

Classic era

Modern era


See also

References

  1. ^ "The Spying Game: British Cinema and the Secret State", 2009 Cambridge Film Festival, pp. 54–57 of the festival brochure.
  2. ^ "Spy movies - The guys who came in from the cold". The Independent. October 2, 2009. Archived from the original on 2022-05-24.
  3. ^ . Archived from the original on 2012-01-17. Retrieved 2012-01-21.
  4. ^ O.H.M.S. at IMDb
  5. ^ The first four focused on illegal street racing and thus they were not spy films

April 03, 2023
film, confused, with, camera, film, also, known, thriller, genre, film, that, deals, with, subject, fictional, espionage, either, realistic, such, adaptations, john, carré, basis, fantasy, such, many, james, bond, films, many, novels, fiction, genre, have, bee. Not to be confused with spy camera The spy film also known as the spy thriller is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage either in a realistic way such as the adaptations of John le Carre or as a basis for fantasy such as many James Bond films Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films including works by John Buchan le Carre Ian Fleming Bond and Len Deighton It is a significant aspect of British cinema 1 with leading British directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed making notable contributions and many films set in the British Secret Service 2 Spy films show the espionage activities of government agents and their risk of being discovered by their enemies From the Nazi espionage thrillers of the 1940s to the James Bond films of the 1960s and to the high tech blockbusters of today the spy film has always been popular with audiences worldwide Offering a combination of exciting escapism technological thrills and exotic locales many spy films combine the action and science fiction genres presenting clearly delineated heroes for audiences to root for and villains for them to hate They may also involve elements of political thrillers However there are many that are comedic mostly action comedy films if they fall under that genre James Bond is the most famous of film spies but there were also more serious probing works like le Carre s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold that also emerged from the Cold War As the Cold War ended the newest villain became terrorism and more often involved the Middle East 3 Contents 1 History 2 Films 3 Television series 4 See also 5 ReferencesHistory EditThe spy film genre began in the silent era with the paranoia of invasion literature and the onset of the Great War These fears produced the British 1914 The German Spy Peril centered on a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and 1913 s O H M S 4 standing for Our Helpless Millions Saved as well as On His Majesty s Service and introducing for the first time a strong female character who helps the hero In 1928 Fritz Lang made the film Spies which contained many tropes that became popular in later spy dramas including secret headquarters an agent known by a number and the beautiful foreign agent who comes to love the hero Lang s Dr Mabuse films from the period also contain elements of spy thrillers though the central character is a criminal mastermind only interested in espionage for profit Additionally several of Lang s American films such as Hangmen Also Die deal with spies during World War II Alfred Hitchcock did much to popularise the spy film in the 1930s with his influential thrillers The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934 The 39 Steps 1935 Sabotage 1937 and The Lady Vanishes 1938 These often involved innocent civilians being caught up in international conspiracies or webs of saboteurs on the home front as in Saboteur 1942 Some however dealt with professional spies as in Hitchcock s Secret Agent 1936 based on W Somerset Maugham s Ashenden stories or the Mr Moto series based on the books of John P Marquand In the 1940s and early 1950s there were several films made about the exploits of Allied agents in occupied Europe which could probably be considered as a subgenre 13 Rue Madeleine and O S S were fictional stories about American agents in German occupied France and there were a number of films based on the stories of real life British S O E agents including Odette and Carve Her Name With Pride A more recent fictional example is Charlotte Gray based on the novel by Sebastian Faulks Also during the period there were many detective films The Thin Man Goes Home and Charlie Chan in the Secret Service for example in which the mystery involved who stole the secret blue prints or who kidnapped the famous scientist The peak of popularity of the spy film is often considered to be the 1960s when Cold War fears meshed with a desire by audiences to see exciting and suspenseful films The espionage film developed in two directions at this time On the one hand the realistic spy novels of Len Deighton and John le Carre were adapted into relatively serious Cold War thrillers which dealt with some of the realities of the espionage world Some of these films included The Spy Who Came in from the Cold 1965 The Deadly Affair 1966 Torn Curtain 1966 and the Harry Palmer series based on the novels of Len Deighton In another direction the James Bond novels by Ian Fleming were adapted into an increasingly fantastical series of tongue in cheek adventure films by producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R Broccoli with Sean Connery as the star They featured secretive and flamboyant super villains an archetype which would later become a staple of the explosion of spy movies in the mid to late 1960s The phenomenal success of the Bond series lead to a deluge of imitators such as the eurospy genre and several from America Notable examples include the two Derek Flint films starring James Coburn The Quiller Memorandum 1966 with George Segal and the Matt Helm series with Dean Martin Television also got into the act with series like The Man from U N C L E and I Spy in the U S and Danger Man and The Avengers in Britain Spies have remained popular on TV to the present day with series such as Callan Alias and Spooks Spy films also enjoyed something of a revival in the late 1990s although these were often action films with espionage elements or comedies like Austin Powers Some critics identify a trend away from fantasy in favor of realism as observed in Syriana the Bourne film series and the James Bond films starring Daniel Craig since Casino Royale 2006 Films EditSome of the most popular films include Movie series franchises Bulldog Drummond series 1922 1969 24 films Mr Moto series 1937 39 1965 9 films The Saint series 1938 1943 8 films OSS 117 series 1956 2021 10 films James Bond 1962 present 25 films Harry Palmer 1965 1996 5 films Matt Helm series 1966 1969 4 films Lupin III 1974 present 13 films and 28 TV specials Carl Hamilton 1989 present 10 films Jack Ryan 1990 2014 5 films Mission Impossible series 1996 2024 8 films Austin Powers 1997 2002 3 films Charlie s Angels 2000 2019 3 films Spy Kids series 2001 2011 4 films The Bourne series 2002 2016 5 films XXX 2002 present 3 films Infernal Affairs 2002 2003 3 films Johnny English 2003 2018 3 films Fast amp Furious 2011 present 5 spy films 5 Kingsman 2014 present 3 films John Wick 2017 present 4 films One shots sequels and remakes Spione 1928 The Mysterious Lady 1928 Dishonored 1931 Mata Hari 1931 On Secret Service 1933 The Lady of Lebanon 1934 Madame Spy 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956 The 39 Steps 1935 Sabotage 1936 The Lady Vanishes 1938 The Spy in Black 1939 Night Train to Munich 1940 Virginia City 1940 Saboteur 1942 The Mask of Dimitrios 1944 Ministry of Fear 1944 I See a Dark Stranger 1946 Notorious 1946 13 Rue Madeleine 1947 The Third Man 1949 Decision Before Dawn 1951 My Favourite Spy 1951 5 Fingers 1952 Pickup on South Street 1953 Night People 1954 The Man Who Never Was 1956 Carve Her Name with Pride 1958 The Silent Enemy 1958 The Two Headed Spy 1958 The Quiet American 1958 The Quiet American 2002 North by Northwest 1959 Our Man in Havana 1959 The Pigeon That Took Rome 1962 The Manchurian Candidate 1962 The Manchurian Candidate 2004 Charade 1963 36 Hours 1965 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold 1965 Arabesque 1966 The Deadly Affair 1966 The Defector 1966 Derek Flint series Our Man Flint 1966 In Like Flint 1967 Modesty Blaise 1966 The Quiller Memorandum 1966 Torn Curtain 1966 The President s Analyst 1967 Ice Station Zebra 1968 Topaz 1969 Darling Lili 1970 The Kremlin Letter 1970 The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe 1972 The Odessa File 1974 Three Days of the Condor 1975 The Eagle Has Landed 1976 Marathon Man 1976 Telefon 1977 Avalanche Express 1979 Hopscotch 1980 Eye of the Needle 1981 Teheran 43 1981 Firefox 1982 Top Secret 1984 The Falcon and the Snowman 1985 Spies Like Us 1985 Target 1985 The Fourth Protocol 1987 The Russia House 1990 Sneakers 1992 Shining Through 1992 True Lies 1994 From Beijing with Love 1994 The Long Kiss Goodnight 1996 The Avengers 1998 Ronin 1998 Enemy of the State 1998 Spy Game 2001 The Tailor of Panama 2001 Undercover Brother 2002 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 2002 The Recruit 2003 Agent Cody Banks 2003 Spartan 2004 Walk on Water 2004 Munich 2005 Syriana 2005 Black Book 2006 The Good Shepherd 2006 The Lives of Others 2006 Breach 2007 Charlie Wilson s War 2007 Get Smart 2008 Burn After Reading 2008 Farewell 2009 Knight and Day 2010 Salt 2010 Fair Game 2010 The Debt 2010 Red 2010 Cars 2 2011 Page Eight 2011 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 2011 Haywire 2012 Safe House 2012 Ek Tha Tiger 2012 Argo 2012 Vishwaroopam 2013 A Most Wanted Man 2014 Captain America The Winter Soldier 2014 Penguins of Madagascar 2014 O21 2014 Spy 2015 The Man from U N C L E 2015 Bridge of Spies 2015 Iru Mugan 2016 Atomic Blonde 2017 Unlocked 2017 Tiger Zinda Hai 2017 Red Sparrow 2018 Goodachari 2018 Operation Finale 2018 The Catcher Was a Spy 2018 Red Joan 2018 Goodachari 2018 Raazi 2018 Vishwaroopam 2 2018 War 2019 Official Secrets 2019 One Day Justice Delivered 2019 Kaappaan 2019 Saaho 2019 Romeo Akbar Walter 2019 Satellite Shankar 2019 The Courier 2020 Tenet 2020 London Confidential 2020 Black Widow 2021 Bell Bottom 2021 Yaksha Ruthless Operations 2022 The Gray Man 2022 Sardar 2022 Zarrar 2022 Borrder 2022 Pathaan 2023 Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre 2023 Television series EditSome of the most popular television series include Classic era Danger Man 1960 1968 The Avengers 1961 1969 The Man from U N C L E 1964 1968 I Spy 1965 1968 The Wild Wild West 1965 1969 Get Smart 1965 1970 Mission Impossible 1966 1973 The Prisoner 1967 1968 Callan 1967 1972 Seventeen Moments of Spring 1973 The Six Million Dollar Man 1973 1978 The Bionic Woman 1976 1978 The Sandbaggers 1978 1980 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 1979 Danger Mouse 1981 Smiley s People 1982 Reilly Ace of Spies 1983 The Equalizer 1985 1989 MacGyver 1985 1992 Modern era AEon Flux 1991 1995 La Femme Nikita 1997 2001 Nikita 2010 2013 Alias 2001 2006 24 2001 2014 Kim Possible 2002 2007 Foyle s War 2002 2015 Spooks 2002 2011 aka MI 5 Burn Notice 2007 2013 Chuck 2007 2012 The Company 2007 Archer 2009 present Human Target 2010 2011 Rubicon 2010 Strike Back 2010 2020 Homeland 2011 2020 Person of Interest 2011 2016 The Americans 2013 2018 The Blacklist 2013 present The Honourable Woman 2014 Turn Washington s Spies 2014 2017 Madam Secretary 2014 2019 The Bureau 2015 present Deutschland 83 2015 London Spy 2015 Fauda 2015 present Counterpart 2017 2019 Condor 2018 present Killing Eve 2018 present The Looming Tower 2018 Jack Ryan 2018 present The Family Man 2019 present The Spy 2019 Alex Rider 2020 present Caliphate 2020 Tehran 2020 La unidad 2020 Andor 2022 See also EditEurospy film List of films based on spy books List of films featuring surveillance List of James Bond parodies and spin offs List of spy filmsReferences Edit The Spying Game British Cinema and the Secret State 2009 Cambridge Film Festival pp 54 57 of the festival brochure Spy movies The guys who came in from the cold The Independent October 2 2009 Archived from the original on 2022 05 24 Spy Film Movies and Films Find Spy Film Movie Recommendations Casts Reviews and Summaries AllRovi Archived from the original on 2012 01 17 Retrieved 2012 01 21 O H M S at IMDb The first four focused on illegal street racing and thus they were not spy films Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Spy film amp oldid 1147164092, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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