Technically, Mad Max 2 was released in the U.S. (and most of the world) as The Road Warrior. The movie most people remember, with Max driving the gas tanker across the desert, the feral little kid with the razor boomerang, and the villains in bondage gear, hockey masks, and red mohawks, is actually the second film in the series. That’s Road Warrior. The original Mad Max provides an “origin” story of how Max came to be who he is, and how the world fell apart. I think it is much more obscure, and even I haven’t seen that one!
Great call on mentioning Sneakers, though. What a fun little movie that too many potential fans haven’t seen!
Most of my faves (Day of the Jackal, Parallax View, The Conversation, Three Days of the Condor, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold) have already been mentioned, but here are a few others that may be of interest:
Marathon Man: Dustin Hoffman vs. evil Nazi Dentist, as played by Lawrence Olivier
Killer Elite, The: James Caan an Robert Duvall as members of a CIA ‘Dirty Tricks’ squad; directed by Sam Peckinpah, one of his lesser efforts, IMO, but worth a look
Ipcress File, The, Funeral in Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain: Michael Caine as British spy Harry Palmer from a series of Len Deighton novels; although a number of the principals of the Bond movies worked on this series (notably John Barry on Ipcress and Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton on Funeral, these are in the more realistic vein of John le Carre. I haven’t seen Brain, but apparently it veers into eccentric territory, having been directed by Ken Russell.
And of course, maybe no one has mentioned these because they were too obvious, but the great Alfred Hitchcock helmed a number of espionage-related films thoughout his lengthy career, including The Man Who Knew Too Much (1936 and 1956), Sabotage (1936) and Saboteur (1942), Notorious (1946), North by Northwest (1959) and Torn Curtain (1966).
When I think of “cold war” and “spies”, I immediately think of “Ice Station Zebra”. Surprized no one’s mentioned that one. Though not cold war, but WWII instead, I think “Where Eagles Dare” would also qualify.
As to assassins, most of the ones I can think of have been mentioned. Except for the off-beat, and one of my favorite movies, “Grosse Point Blank”.
More assassin movies: “Road to Perdition” and an excellent movie with William H. Macy called “Panic”
Not dirctly cold war, but a good modern spy film is The Tailor of Panama which has Pierce Brosnan as a very non James Bond sort of spy. Also yet another vote for The Fourth Protocol (which also incidentally has Pierce Brosnan in a major role).
The Reaganoia fantasy movie Red Yawn… * mean Red Dawn, By Dawn’s Early Light, about a B-532 crew at the beginning of WWIII, Ladybug, Ladybug, children during a nuclear alert, Our Man Flint and In Like Flint, spy movies satire.
The Conversation: Gene Hackman’s tour-de-force as an alienated wiretapper.
Hopscotch: comedy about a burned-out CIA man who wants out, and writes a tell-all memoir on the run. Walther Mathau, Glenda Jackson.
More Hitchcock thrillers of intrigue (many WWII-based, and some even earlier): Secret Agent, The 39 Steps, Young and Innocent, Foreign Correspondent, The Lady Vanishes, Aventure Malgache, Lifeboat, North By Northwest, and Topaz.
A few more : Crimson Tide, human conflict on a boomer, The Beast, the Sovs in Afghanistan, The Falcon and the Snowman, KGB spy ring in the US, Thirteen Days, the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I can’t resist recommending “Declare” a novel by Tim Powers. It reads exactly like a Cold War spy novel, and in fact is supposed to be historically accurate in its treatment of real-life Cold War spy Kim Philby, who is a major character, but has the added twist of being about a secret race between Soviet and American agents to either control or neutralize a group of djinn living atop Mount Ararat in Turkey.
Evil Captor’s post leads me to hijack my own thread. What was the name of that book, in the early-1980s, about espionage in England. It was banned in England because it “named names”. I’m sure I have it around here somewhere, but I haven’t even unpacked all of my hardcovers yet.
Spycatcher if I remember correctly…bxxxxxx.google.bing… yes I did remember correctly. (strangely I rememberd the farce book SpyThatcher that reminded me of the real books name).
A second for “The Beast” as a fantastic film, but it really has nothing to do with spying or assasination or even the cold war. It is a gripping film about the hot war between USSR and Afganistan.
