Jack Strong (2014)

Very disappointing...

Simply A Masterpiece

People are voting emotionally.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

If you like nifty nail biters, this is your movie. It's as exciting as 007. But this is a true story. Apart from the suspense, which kept me on the edge of my chair for two hours, this film also superbly captures the grim atmosphere of the Soviet bloc in the seventies and the unpleasant bureaucracy (and unpleasant people) of the communist military. It's also a nice touch to set it in wintertime Warsaw. There is a totally surprising ending (even if it is a true story) the message of which seems to be that the American security establishment is every bit as ominous as its communist counterparts. I rated this a nine rather than ten only because I thought it was a little too long and because of the car chase at the end which was a needless Hollywood touch to a movie that does extremely well without Hollywood.The level of violence is not offensive although one suicide scene is perhaps a little more graphic than most of us would like. But if you enjoy spy pictures, you'll LOVE this one.

Excellent movie, based on a true story, a cold war spy thriller. Very well done and worth seeing. It's about a Polish army officer who spies for the CIA. It's a Polish movie, with subtitles. The Americans are played by American actors, so those parts are in English. His CIA handler is played by Patrick Wilson (Lou in the current season of Fargo). The actor who plays Jaruzelski you'd think was Jaruzelski. Some of the Polish dialogue goes by so fast it's difficult to read it all, so it's nice seeing it on TV so you can go back. I saw it on Netflix. The opening scene is horrible, I didn't watch. There's a bit of bad language, but not a lot.

Possible that Kukliński was a double agent, of the Soviet GRU, used in an operational game with the CIA. A Polish Minister of Internal Affairs during communist times, Czesław Kiszczak revealed such a theory in a later interview, while a former Soviet military attaché, Yuriy Rylyov, claimed so directly in an interview. Historians, like Paweł Wieczorkiewicz and Franciszek Puchała (a general in the Polish Army during communist times) suggest, that the knowledge Kukliński had was exaggerated, and while he had a lot of information about the Polish Army and the organization of the Warsaw Pact in general, he could not have had detailed information on Soviet plans, since no one in Poland had it. Puchała supported his opinion in official hearings of Kukliński by Polish prosecutors during his revised trial. Revealing plans about the enforcement of martial law in Poland, which would make a Soviet invasion unnecessary, could have been profitable for the Soviet side, ensuring that the USA would not be surprised by martial law and would not undertake unpredictable actions against the Soviets. It is noteworthy, that despite Kukliński's revelations, the USA did not warn Solidarity about martial law. The Soviets took the escape of such an important spy nonchalantly and did not demand any consequences from the Polish politician responsible for intelligence, namely Czesław Kiszczak. Also, the matter of Kukliński's sons' deaths is unclear and they may have been part of a protection program; besides, according to Wieczorkiewicz, such revenge on a defector's family would be quite unusual for Soviet intelligence.

I have always been an avid reader of spy novels and I was one to never turn down a good cold war era movie. Jack Strong being a polish movie raised some doubts and I was convinced it was some mediocre attempt at a spy thriller with average acting at best. Boy was I in for a surprise. This movie had me at the edge of my seat and kept me guessing to the very end. I am not going to attempt to deconstruct the movie and try to analyze it in depth but if you are fascinated by spy thrillers as I am, this movie is definitely not one you will want to miss. And to the reviewer who gave it one star I think you hold something against the poles especially as you are from Latvia. A cold war era grudge maybe?