ASSIGNMENT, THE
SYNOPSIS:
Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez is the best known terrorist
in the world, and for 20 years, the most elusive. Annibal Ramirez
(Aidan Quinn), on the other hand, is a fine American naval
officer with a family. And he is the spitting image of The Jackal
(not to be confused with the film of that name, but dealing with
a fictional assassin). The CIA’s Jack Shaw (Donald
Sutherland) and his Israeli counterpart, Amos (Ben Kingsley)
realise they can use Ramirez to impersonate Carlos and draw the
real terrorist out of hiding into a trap. They recruit him
despite his reluctance, and for Ramirez, it is a daunting descent
into the depths of the human soul, as he becomes Carlos in every
movement, every word, every cruel gesture, and even beds the
women who can lead the Western world into Carlos’ lair. The
process changes him, much to his own and his wife’s despair,
but the mission is the most important of his life – and of
great value to the freedom and safety of the world.
"You don’t need to have read the book about the
terrorist Carlos (To the Ends of the Earth, by David Yallop) to
be fascinated by this film, but it certainly adds to the richness
of the experience. Written - at an opportune time, with Carlos
now in jail - by two men who have first hand experience and
knowledge about espionage and the Middle East, the best part of
the script is the device - a doppelganger - that gives us an
outsider’s point of view of this always fascinating and
frightening world. So, on the one hand, we are witness to a huge,
globally important fact-based story whose denoument is still a
subject of current affairs; and on the other, we are given a
first class thriller that sets itself apart by its intelligence
and depth (I don’t agree with Brendan Kelly, below, who
calls it flat). There is plenty of action and plenty of
substance, both political and psychological, as well as very high
stakes; what’s more, it’s all for real. Then, as a
character study of a sturdy naval officer and family man turning
himself into the double of a terrorist without morals, it is a
tribute to all involved, but especially Aidan Quinn and his
Canadian director, Christian Duguay. The accomplished script is
matched by accomplished visuals, hardly surprising since Duguay
is himself a cinematographer. (This is his second film, after
Screamers.) For lovers of cinema, the long but seamless opening
shot alone is worth the price of admission, beginning with a
Paris street puddle being filled by two little boys peeing, and
ending up inside a bedroom above the street, for a dramatic
scene. Not only does the shot itself take your breath away, it
embraces the very contrariness of life: the playfulness adjacent
to the drama of it. This is excellent cinema."
Andrew L. Urban
"Directed with flair, The Assignment is a classy and
intriguing thriller with an economical, intelligent script that
tantalises as it engages. Richly interwoven in various different
cultures, there is a feeling of pace and action with fluid
cinematography propelled by an exciting score. Aiden Quinn is
terrific in the double role of Ramirez and Carlos. His piercing
blue eyes delve not only beneath the wigs and accents, but allows
Ramirez to discover his own dark side as he digs into his
adversary’s persona. In his best recent role, Donald
Sutherland makes a fascinating CIA agent - intense, bordering on
slightly deranged yet with a human touch. Ben Kingsley is
magnetic as Amos, equally driven: Sutherland and Kingsley
together offer great complexity. While the ‘lessons’
intended to equate Ramirez’ love-making prowess with
Carlos’ are, needless to say, hugely improbable, it is an
entertaining part of the ride, nonetheless. Besides, he can
always ‘close his eyes and think of England!’ I rather
like the line when Shaw tries to convince Ramirez to
assist them, and Ramirez replies: ‘I think the man you want
is in England. His name is Bond, James Bond.’ The humour is
ironic, the emotions diverse, and Christian Duguay may well be
the next Luc Besson, his Assignment leaving indelible
images."
Louise Keller
"The Assignment is a very contradictory thriller. On the one hand, it has many mainstream qualities, an abundance of explosions and sequences of routine action, as well as a hero, or an anti-hero, that doesn't quite work. Yet, this is a curiously compelling film, one that delves into the psychology of terrorism in a unique fashion. What is particularly fascinating about this film is the relationship between obsessive CIA agent Shaw, meticulously brought to life by Donald Sutherland, and Israeli Mossad agent Amos, nicely played by Ben Kingsley. Here we have two deeply etched characters on the outer, whose varied motivations and their own developments are the major core of an otherwise simplistic thriller. Aidan Quinn gives more of a problematic performance, one that seems artificial and at times bland, and for this reason, the overall impact of The Assignment has been lessened by a central character who remains emotionally shallow. This is a slick, competently made thriller, with some solid set pieces (such as the powerful opening), but with a far better and more interesting central performance, the film could have been so much more. Thank goodness for Sutherland and Kingsley who give the film much needed depth."
Paul Fischer
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CRITICAL COUNT
Favourable: 3
Unfavourable: 0
Mixed: 1
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DONALD SUTHERLAND
attended the premiere of his
latest film, The Assignment, at the 1997 Toronto Film Festival,
where PAUL FISCHER reports:
The hair and beard may have greyed, but the
hypnotic and intense actor who rose to stardom as the original
Hawkeye Pearce in Altman's M*A*S*H, almost thirty years ago,
still retains an old-fashioned film star persona.
Sutherland has nothing but praise for Canadian
director Christian Duguay. The actor mentions that his own
character in The Assignment, that of Jack Shaw, the obsessed CIA
agent, was the one that deviated most from the script. And if
that means Sutherland helped create the character himself, it
would partly explain how he hijacks the movie from his co-stars,
psychologically dominating the narrative. "I wanted to do
something very different with Shaw. In the final film, he's a
much more isolated and cold fish than in the original
script." He says the film could easily have been another
conventional action genre piece "but that would not have
interested me. This is a very psychological, character-based
drama, more European in style than American."
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ASSIGNMENT, THE (MA)
(Canada)
CAST: Aidan Quinn, Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley, Claudia
Ferri, Celine Bonnier, Vlasta Vrana, Liliana Komorowska
DIRECTOR: Christian Duguay
PRODUCER: Tom Berry, Franco Battista
SCRIPT: Dan Gordon, Sabi H. Shabtai
CINEMATOGRAPHER: David Fraco
EDITOR: Yves Langlois
MUSIC: Normand Corbeil
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Michael Joy
RUNNING TIME: 119 minutes
AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Columbia TriStar
AUSTRALIAN RELEASE: May 14, 1998
VIDEO RELEASE: August 9, 1999
VIDEO DISTRIBUTOR: Col TriStar
RRP: $19.95
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