Damian Magee

Damian Magee is a West Australian writer and reviewer and a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society. He’s a life long fan of crime, sci-fi, anime, literature, history, biography, TV & films who has been writing reviews, non-fiction, & presenting seminars on these genres for the past 30 years. 

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  is another movie adaptation of a famous television series from the Sixties.  I’m old enough to remember watching this series when it was first screened in Australia (1966-1969) on our black & white Pye TV set in the lounge room.  I was a huge fan of the series and collected all the TV Annuals, comics, books and toys.  I have the “UNCLE” model car in my collection now.

Like many fans I was worried when Hollywood announced a big screen version of “UNCLE”.  Will the writers capture the tone? Will the casting work? Will the production accurately reflect the show and the settings?  Modern remakes such as “Maverick “, “Get Smart” and “Starsky & Hutch” were spot on, but others, such as “Wild Wild West” and “The Avengers” (John Steed & Mrs Emma Peel),  were just awful.

The U.N.C.L.E. movie has had a few stops and starts.  I first heard about a production in 1998 that was stopped by the copyright holder when he discovered the director was only using the name, and writing something completely different.  Since then, several directors have been attached to the project, such as Steven Soderbergh, and actors like George Clooney, Tom Cruise, and others.  Warner Bros finally engaged Guy Ritchie who reinvented Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law to huge acclaim.

So has Guy Ritchie made a successful adaptation on U.N.C.L.E.? The answer is definitively, yes!  The movie has the heart and soul of the TV series.  It is set in the right time period (early 1960s), the music is wonderful, the sets and cars are correct to the period, and the clothes are just gorgeous. Apparently a lot of authentic vintage clothing was used.

The movie has Napoleon Solo, (Henry Cavill), and Illya Kuryakin, (Armie Hammer), meeting for the first time.  Napoleon is with the CIA and Illya the KGB, but both agencies “co-operate” to find a missing German Atomic scientist, and the bomb he is arming, by using his daughter, Gaby Teller, (Alicia Vikander) to help them.

Napoleon & illya start on opposite sides and only grudgingly work together while continuing to try and outdo each other.  The action starts in East Germany, moves to West Germany and on to Italy.  A mysterious organization is threatening the world.  The only clues are in Italy with a shipping company run by Alexander Vincinguerra, (Luca Calvani), and his wife Victoria, (Elizabeth Debicki). Solo is undercover as an antiquities dealer, Kuryakin as a Russian architect with Teller as his fiancée. They try to get close to her uncle who works for Vincinguerra.  Both Solo and Kuryakin encounter Alexander Waverly (Hugh Grant) of MI6 who reveals more of the assignment.

Cavill and Hammer work really well as a team; the chemistry in their journey from enemies to grudging allies and possible friends crackles off the screen.  Cavill oozes charm as Solo, just as Robert Vaughn did. His character has a different history to the TV show, but it works very well for the plot of the movie.  Hammer’s Kuryakin is just a cool as David McCallum, but ‘larger than life’ and with childhood memories from Soviet Russia that can trigger violent episodes.

Alicia Vikander is convincing and dynamic as Gaby (and gets to showcase some of the best clothes in the movie). We first meet her in East Berlin where she works as a mechanic.  She then drives the car that she and Solo use to escape from East Berlin.  The driving in the movie matches the brilliance of the original “Italian Job”.  Elizabeth Debicki’s sinister Victoria Vincinguerra is as charming as a deadly Redback Spider as she monitors movements of the agents and leads them into a trap (Elizabeth is an Aussie actor).

With the opening scene set in East Berlin, I felt I was watching a film based on the early works of John Le Carre: the dark and sinister spy world. CIA versus KGB with MI6 somewhere in the background, and everyone playing for keeps.  The composer Daniel Pemberto does an excellent job on the original score, using lots of brass and flutes to sound authentically sixties.  Songs and music from the 1960s were also used for excellent effect, from the brilliant Nina Simone’s version of “Taking Care of Business”, Roberta Flack’s “Compared to What”, “Bunter Drachen” by Suzanne Doucet, “Il Mio Regno” by Luigi Tenco and themes from two Spaghetti Westerns: “Few Dollars More” and “A Man, a Horse, and a Gun.”

“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” is an action packed fun film: a film that takes you back to the glamour and style of the 1960s, the Cold War, the Jet Set, fashion centred Europe & the grim spectre of the Atom bomb, through the music, clothes, and production style.  I, for one, will be adding the music soundtrack and the blu-ray to my collection. (Additional note: the soundtrack has not been released in Australia according to JB HiFi, so will have to source that overseas).

Marcus de Courtenay

Marcus de Courtenay is a keen reader on diverse topics. He loves being critical safe in the knowledge that he has no published material to be criticised on. He is also a vegan and urges you to hug not eat the next animal you see.

In A Force for Good, Daniel Goleman, journalist and internationally bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence, brings his art to bear on the growing body of popular literature surrounding altruism.

In a series of interviews with the Dalai Lama, Goldman has compiled a part-self-help and part-biographical work which seeks to broaden the audience of the spiritual leader of Buddhism and in particular his message about the need for active compassion and tolerance. The narrative of the book flows from a focus on inner development to that of external interventions, counselling the reader to develop a compassionate character and then exercise this character on the many sorrows in this world.

The writing maintains the Dalai Lama’s teachings as its central foundation expounded through direct quotes and paraphrasing, but takes various detours to supporting examples from diverse fields such as science, sociology and the travails of budding social enterprises. There is an emphasis placed on the Dalai Lama’s immense respect for science and, as such, the capacity to marry scientific insight with fostering a more compassionate world.

The book is an ambitious project, promising that it will reveal the Dalai Lama’s vision for the world. However, of course this is not a book written by the Dalai Lama and in many ways you question how much of the voice of the Dalai Lama you are reading and how much is a liberal paraphrase. Despite this, the writing is elevated by the many simple but fundamental truths contained in the synthesis of the spiritual leader’s thoughts. Further, Goleman’s clear reverence for his subject gives a sense of tremendous weight to every quote.

You can’t help but be delighted by some of the examples in the book detailing the powerful efforts of altruists around the world, even if at times the book reads as an inventory of the ails facing the world like could be found in any newspaper. Ultimately, A Force for Good has the best of intentions and teaches the best of the practices, so one can hardly be too critical. This is certainly a positive introduction to modern charitable work and the overriding need for an infusion of compassion into all human interactions.

Thanks to Greg who was waiting outside a Flaming Lips concert, Parrish caught herself an autograph!