The Assignment

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Movie
German title The Assignment
Original title The assignment
Country of production Canada
original language English
Publishing year 1997
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Christian Duguay
script Dan Gordon
Sabi H. Shabtai
production Franco Battista
Tom Berry
Joseph Newton Cohen
David Saunders
music Normand Corbeil
George Wyle
camera Christian Duguay
David Franco
cut Yves Langlois
occupation

The Assignment (Original title: The Assignment ) is a Canadian spy thriller directed by Christian Duguay from 1997 . Aidan Quinn and Donald Sutherland played the main roles .

action

In September 1974 a terrorist attack with a hand grenade was carried out in a Parisian bar. Many passers-by die or are mutilated. Henry Fields, the deputy chief of the CIA who happened to be present , got away physically. But he reproaches himself for not having recognized the masked assassin as Carlos and tries from then on to catch him. In December 1975, a terrorist squad attacked an OPEC ministers' conference in Vienna ( OPEC hostage-taking ) in order to extort a high ransom from the hostages. Fields identifies Carlos at the airport but does not prevent him from leaving for Libya . In August 1986 an alleged terrorist was captured by the Israeli secret service in Jerusalem . Their leader Amos thinks he is Carlos, which Carlos vehemently denies. It turns out that it is the American naval officer Annibal Ramirez who looks astonishingly like Carlos. Annibal threatens to sue the Israelis.

A month later he comes home to Norfolk , Virginia, with his wife Maura and two children. Fields now appears under the name Jack Shaw as a CIA government official and tries to persuade Annibal to cooperate. He finally agrees and tells his family that he will be used on a submarine for a long time. In reality, he will be trained in Montreal, Canada from November 1986. His memory, quick reactions and ability to combine are trained. Psychological means are used to make him as much like Carlos as possible. Annibal also takes sex lessons from Carla, a former lover of Carlos, in order to later mislead Agnieska. She was a friend of Carlos two years ago and is being monitored by the KGB . If they can be fooled by the double , the Russians will also be convinced of its authenticity. The plan is for them to get Carlos out of the way. One wants to make the Russian secret service believe that Carlos wants to defer to the CIA for 50 million US dollars, which is deposited in a Swiss bank account. Annibal's meeting with Agnieska is initially going according to plan. But she works for the French secret service DST , and Annibal is forced to kill four of the agents on the run who believe him to be the real Carlos and want to eliminate him. While Annibal has a remorse, Shaw is pleased because now the KGB believes in its authenticity. Meanwhile, the real Carlos, who has heard of the night shooting and Agnieska's collaboration with the French, orders their removal. Two days later, she was ambushed by a bullet in Paris. An unfortunate turn occurs when Annibal runs into Koj, one of Carlos' assistants, at the airport. Koj recognizes the doppelganger because he does not know the correct code word. Amos can barely save Annibal, but is shot himself.

After a long time, Annibal spends time with his family again. His wife recognizes changes in his character because he is suddenly much more aggressive than before. He tells Maura about his secret work. He admits to having slept with other women and even killed people who were actually on the same side.

When the real Carlos leaves Libya and travels to the GDR , Shaw starts his plan. In October 1987 he met Annibal in East Berlin as Carlos' double, and they were being watched by KGB agents. They believe in his defection and try to arrest him, although there is an agreement between them. The real Carlos fools the Russian agents. He shoots at her to escape, which he almost succeeds, but Annibal puts him in a duel. Shaw almost shoots the wrong guy, but recognizes Annibal by a code word. The real Carlos escapes while Annibal is injured. Carlos's days are numbered now. The Russians consider him a traitor and he is no longer safe anywhere. Three months later, Annibal is about to drive away with his family when it explodes. Her funeral takes place with military honors. In reality, they are all alive, have changed their identities and are living under French names on St. Martin in August 1988 . Annibal reads about her death in a newspaper. There are no more terrorist attacks by Carlos. Formerly allied states deny him entry. Eventually he was captured in Sudan and flown to France in August 1994. He is waiting for his indictment in the maximum security prison in Paris. Rumors emerge that a retired CIA agent and a former naval officer planned and carried out the capture.

Reviews

  • The lexicon of international films described the film as captivating entertainment and an exciting political thriller, which combines features of modern action films with motifs from classic spy films.
  • Cinema praised the pace of the action , although the psychological depth is in the foreground , Aidan Quinn delivers a (double) top performance.
  • Roger Ebert described the film on September 26, 1997 in the Chicago Sun-Times as intelligent and compelling . He praised the overall performance of the actors and the complexity of the villain.
  • Prisma said that the film is an exceptionally exciting work thanks to the top-class cast .

Background information

The film was shot in Israel, Hungary and Canada. The film was first presented to the public on September 12, 1997 at the Toronto International Film Festival .

The film was inspired by the biography of the terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez , who became known as Carlos the Jackal . Even so, the plot is largely fictitious.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Assignment. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ^ Cinema
  3. ↑ Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times
  4. ↑ Prism