James Coburn thriller made in the shadow of Watergate.
Coburn is involved in industrial espionage rather than political, working for the military industrial complex itself rather than the government.
he is ordered to liquidate his own spy network in preparation for elevation to high office within the US political structure
The mechanics of carrying out this task involve persuading the unwitting agents to kill each other, a plan which requires careful synchronisation, which Coburn monitors by unanswered phone calls of varying duration.
In this way it is another Coburn movie which attempts to imitate Steve McQueen's "The Thomas Crown Affair" (as did "Dead Heat On A Merry-go-round" except with murders instead of a heist).
The problem is that there are no characters to really sympathise or identify with.
Coburn is a misguided Machiavellian character who apparently once had some morals (at least Lee Grant seems to think so) but who has sold his soul to the military industrial complex.
And his victims are people who have sold out or betrayed confidences for money.
Also, although it's all quite cleverly done, with a twist at the end, it is lacking in any real "action" or "movement" (a shortcoming Steve McQueen attempted to overcome with the beach buggy scenes in TTCA).
Review of The Internecine Project
