The Catcher Was a Spy
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Catcher Was a Spy |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2018 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ben Lewin |
| script | Robert Rodat |
| production | Michael Bederman, Kevin Scott Frakes, Tatiana Kelly, Buddy Patrick, Jim Young |
| music | Howard Shore |
| camera | Andrij Parekh |
| cut | Mark Yoshikawa |
| occupation | |
| |
The Catcher Was a Spy is a biography by Ben Lewin that was first shown on January 19, 2018 at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in US cinemas on June 22, 2018.
action
Moe Berg actually plays in Major League Baseball , but after the US enters World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor , he begins to lead a double life. He is supposed to do various assignments for the Office of Strategic Services , the intelligence service of the United States Department of War. Samuel Goudsmit got the inside information that his former colleague Werner Heisenberg , who received the Nobel Prize for groundbreaking quantum physics in 1932, is now responsible for the Nazis' attempts to build an atomic bomb, like the US did as part of their Manhattan project . The agents are first smuggled into Italy and then into Switzerland, where they try to find out whether Heisenberg is anywhere near that destination.
production
Literary and biographical background
The film is based on the biography The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg by Nicholas Dawidoff from 1994, in which he wrote the life story of the American baseball player. After the United States entered World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Berg initially worked on Operation Doolittle Raid with the help of the Tokyo Bay films he shot in Japan in 1933 , before spending a few months in August 1942 went to South America, where he worked as a health and sports advisor to the American troops stationed there.
In August 1943, the former catcher had started working for the Office of Strategic Services , an intelligence agency of the United States Department of War and a precursor to the CIA . Berg was parachuted behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia , where he was supposed to find out the strength of the resistance movement there . Afterwards Berg traveled through Europe to get information about the status of the German nuclear program and in December 1944 attended a lecture by Werner Heisenberg in Zurich . His job was to shoot the German researcher if he got the impression that the Germans were on the verge of completing an atomic bomb. Since that was not the case, Berg kept his revolver in his pocket. On April 25, 1945, Berg finally left Europe and returned to his homeland.
Staff and cast
Directed by Ben Lewin , the adaptation of the novel was written by Robert Rodat .
Paul Rudd took on the role of Moe Berg in the film , and Mark Strong played the German scientist Werner Heisenberg . The role of the American physicist Samuel Goudsmit , who wrote various papers on atomic and nuclear physics, was filled with Paul Giamatti . Jeff Daniels plays in the film William J. Donovan , who worked as a lawyer for the US secret service and was secret service coordinator on the staff of President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941 and then head of the Office of Strategic Services from 1942 to 1945. Giancarlo Giannini took on the role of the Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi . Guy Pearce plays Robert Furman , who was the chief engineer of foreign intelligence for the Manhattan Engineer District directing espionage against the German nuclear energy project. Sienna Miller plays Estella Huni and Hiroyuki Sanada played Kawabata.
Filming and publishing
The film was shot in Boston , where Berg last played with the Boston Red Sox , and in Prague . Andrij Parekh acted as cameraman .
The film was shown for the first time on January 19, 2018 as part of the Sundance Film Festival and was released in US cinemas on June 22, 2018.
reception
Reviews
Variety's Dennis Harvey explains that Andrij Parekh's camerawork turns The Catcher Was a Spy into an old-school spy film , and Howard Shore is contributing a score that goes very well with the trench coat melodrama. However, Harvey is not convinced of the actors who ultimately hold the fate of the world in their hands. He also describes Paul Rudd as a slight miscast because he doesn't look like the real, athletically built Moe Berg and the actor doesn't manage to portray this “walking riddle”.
Awards
Irish Academy Awards 2020
- Nomination for the best costumes (Joan Bergin)
Web links
- The Catcher Was a Spy in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Catcher Was a Spy in the program of the Sundance Film Festival (English)
- The Catcher Was a Spy - Official Trailer from IFC Films on Youtube (Vide, English)
- The Catcher Was a Spy's Paul Rudd: 'Only so Much I Could Ever Know About This Man' by The Hollywood Reporter on Youtube (Video, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Henning Hoff: Espionage: Prevent the bomb. In: Zeit Online. January 25, 2006. Retrieved July 28, 2017 .
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/14/books/how-uncertain-was-he.html?pagewanted=all&mcubz=0
- ↑ 2018 Sundance Film Festival: Feature Films Announced In: sundance.org, November 29, 2017.
- ↑ Program of the Sundance Film Festival 2018 In: sundance.org. Retrieved January 13, 2018 (PDF; 258 KB)
- ↑ https://www.movieinsider.com/m14337/the-catcher-was-a-spy
- ↑ Dennis Harvey: The Catcher Was a Spy. In: Variety, January 19, 2018.
- ↑ Niall Murphy: IFTA Film & Drama Awards Nominations Announced for 19/20. In: scannain.com, July 14, 2020.