This is not a spy film about flying cars, laser rifles, or daring acts of burglary. In fact, this isn't really a spy film at all. If you want that, rent any of the James Bond films. It doesn't matter which one.
This movie is really about a caper. Without spoiling the plot, it can be said that a crooked English spy takes advantage of a tailor's idealism to defraud England and the United States out of a fortune in funds intended for a pro-democracy movement. The action is set in post-Noriega Panama, a Panama sick with corruption, fraud, and graft. The spy comes to town, and convinces the tailor that his mission is to take down the drug-enriched aristocracy left behind by the Noreiga regime. Still idealistic from his days as a liberal activist, the tailor clues the spy into Panama high society. Using that information, the spy concocts a story about a pro-democracy rebel network, and runs off with the secret aid money.
This film illustrates an aspect of international morality that is sobering yet compelling, and that you will not get from many Hollywood movies: the near-futility of idealism. The tailor and his crowd are the only characters who care at all about their country, but they are oppressed, depressed, down-and-out. Meanwhile, the scumbags who supported Noriega and continue to make a living from cocaine are rich and influential, always at ritzy cocktail parties and smoking fine cigars. What's a person of conscience to do? BTW, ignore the ending. It is some crap Hollywood threw in to satisfy focus groups. The book doesn't end that way, and it seems obvious that the film shouldn't, either.
This movie is really about a caper. Without spoiling the plot, it can be said that a crooked English spy takes advantage of a tailor's idealism to defraud England and the United States out of a fortune in funds intended for a pro-democracy movement. The action is set in post-Noriega Panama, a Panama sick with corruption, fraud, and graft. The spy comes to town, and convinces the tailor that his mission is to take down the drug-enriched aristocracy left behind by the Noreiga regime. Still idealistic from his days as a liberal activist, the tailor clues the spy into Panama high society. Using that information, the spy concocts a story about a pro-democracy rebel network, and runs off with the secret aid money.
This film illustrates an aspect of international morality that is sobering yet compelling, and that you will not get from many Hollywood movies: the near-futility of idealism. The tailor and his crowd are the only characters who care at all about their country, but they are oppressed, depressed, down-and-out. Meanwhile, the scumbags who supported Noriega and continue to make a living from cocaine are rich and influential, always at ritzy cocktail parties and smoking fine cigars. What's a person of conscience to do? BTW, ignore the ending. It is some crap Hollywood threw in to satisfy focus groups. The book doesn't end that way, and it seems obvious that the film shouldn't, either.