John Schlesinger’s The Falcon and the Snowman is a solid, thoroughly engaging espionage drama. Even though the thriller elements are subsumed by the true-life drama, Schlesinger still manages to use the visual language of spy thrillers (deep shadows, unexpected reveals, long zoom shoots) to place the film firmly in the lineage of past genre classic. The spy-craft depicted here is grounded, simple and rudimentary, and the storytelling is similarly simple and matter-of-fact. This combination of techniques helps what on the surface seems like fabricated fantasy to feel plausible. Both Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn give great performances, and the ways in which their youthful ideals, cynicism with those in power, and a little touch of that good-ol’ American greed combine to lead them into treason makes for a compelling and tragic film.
