iRewind Talk: The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)

This is topic The Falcon and the Snowman (1985) in forum « 80's Movies at iRewind Talk.

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Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :

Just watched this interesting drama/thriller directed by John Schlesinger.

It´s a true story of a disillusioned military contractor employee and his drug pusher childhood friend
who became walk-in spies for the Soviet Union.

Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn did a good job,
especially Penn was awesome as a slimy SOB no one could trust.

Co-starring Pat Hingle, Lori Singer, Chris Makepeace, Dorian Harewood and David Suchet.

Interesting fact:

In 1986, this movie became associated with one of the most famous hacking incidents in television history.
On the night of April 27, 1986 at about 12:30am, a Florida satellite TV dealer named John MacDougall
was working late at Central Florida Teleport which up-links pay cable services to satellites.
At the time, he was up-linking "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" but before he left,
he pointed the dish directly upwards toward the location of HBO's Galaxy 1 satellite and for four and a half minutes,
East Coast subscribers who has been watching The Falcon and the Snowman saw a message on a colored test pattern which read:
GOODEVENINGHBO FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT $12.95/MONTH? NO WAY! [SHOWTIME/MOVIECHANNEL BEWARE!].
MacDougall had performed the stunt as a protest of satellite subscribers being forced to pay higher fees than regular cable subscribers.
He turned himself in, was charged a $5,000 fine and placed on one year probation.

Here´s the theme tune with clips from the movie:

David Bowie/Pat Metheny - This Is Not America

Anyone seen this film?

Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :

aTomiK.. "The Falcon and the Snowman" is an awesome flick! Watching this movie and "Bad Boys" back in the 80's made me realize that Sean Penn was so much more than Jeff Spicoli from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High".

Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :

Yeah, Penn is great!
I think i´m going to watch also Taps this weekend, featuring Hutton & Penn again.
Never seen it before.

Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :

aTomik.. "Taps" is another example of the diversity of Sean Penn's acting skills. The movie centers around Hutton, but Sean Penn gives a fine performance and Tom Cruise plays scene stealing psycho. You will most likely enjoy..

Posted by Pittsburghgirl (Member # 7514) on :

Great movie. I also read the book. The movie script seemed to follow the book almost to a T.

Posted by logan5 (Member # 1467) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Valley:
aTomik.. "Taps" is another example of the diversity of Sean Penn's acting skills. The movie centers around Hutton, but Sean Penn gives a fine performance and Tom Cruise plays scene stealing psycho. You will most likely enjoy..

'Taps' was meant to showcase Hutton, but Penn and Cruise totally stole the show. Not really a surprise they became stars.

Posted by Johnny Roarke is reckless (Member # 9826) on :

I recently watched The Falcon And The Snowman for the first time in over 25 years.

I kept wondering though what happened to the real Christopher Boyce and Daulton Lee after their imprisonment..

Apparently their story (especially Boyce's) was far from over where the movie ended :

According to Wikipedia, Boyce escaped from prison in january 1980 and committed 17 (!) bank robberies
before he was arrested once again in august 1981. Eventually he married the lawyer who succesfully
managed to obtain parole for Daulton Lee, who was released from prison in 1998. Boyce himself was released
from prison in 2002. Reportedly, at some point Lee was hired by Sean Penn to be Penn's personal assistant !

There's enough stuff to be found here for a whole new movie, i'd say !

Coming soon to theater near you : The Falcon And The Snowman part 2 ; Falcon Goes Nutzoid ! [Big Grin]

Posted by Johnny Roarke is reckless (Member # 9826) on :

Oh, and to get back to the actual movie..

While watching it, i kept thinking to myself '..Where have i seen this guy before..' every time
the character Alex (the Russian embassy worker Daulton makes contact to) was onscreen.

I have to admit, the actor's name, David Suchet, didn't immediately ring a bell either.. but now i know :

It's Hercule Poirot (without the trademark mustache) ! [Big Grin]

Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :

Unbelievable stuff, we definitely need a sequel [Smile]

And yeah, Suchet it is!

Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :

In a decade of cool drawn cover art, Italy might have been the only country to release The Falcon and the Snowman vhs tape with a drawing.

While far from a masterwork it has a special charm [Wink]

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