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As you know, we love an espionage story here at Last Movie Outpost. From the pulpy formula of Bond, to the more hardcore stories like The Night Manager, they are as much a staple as monster movies to an Outposter.
We all know that most, if not all, espionage movies or TV shows are a world away from the reality of intelligence work. The Cold War was not won by Roger Moore in exploding trousers from Q Branch.
But which spy stories from the screen are closest to real-life?
Now, a former CIA officer has spilled the beans. John Kiriakou was a CIA officer who went on to become a whistleblower. He was an intelligence analyst and operations officer for the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and proved that in the world of intelligence there is no such thing as whistleblowing protection.
When he became the first U.S. government official to confirm that waterboarding was used to torture al-Qaeda prisoners, he was convicted for exposing the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program.
Even his time as a senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee didn’t stop him being imprisoned for 30 months.
Since then he has gone on to become a journalist and author.
He was recently asked in an interview which spy movies or TV shows were the most accurate, and his answers may surprise some people.
He said that CIA operatives enjoy spy stories, and they watch as many of them as they can, not minding the inaccuracy in a lot of them.
He said that the best portrayal of actual operations is Argo (2012) as it highlighted the complex and rapidly changing nature of trying to do anything internationally in a high pressure crisis.
Alongside Three Days Of The Condor and The Third Man, he also highlighted Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy as being highly realistic.
On TV, he said Homeland really got it right, except for how they treat officers with clear mental health issues. In reality, he said, you would simply get the professional medical help and support you really needed.
Overall, his top answer will surprise many.
He cites the first half of The Recruit (2003) with Colin Farrell and Al Pacino as highly accurate.
He said the way in which potential recruits are identified and approached is accurate, as is the entire training section of the movie, with the exception of the violence.
As he put it – the instructors at the CIA tend not to assault recruits.
Other than that, he said the range of tests and the scenarios the recruits are put through was very realistic.
So there you have it. If you fancy a career in the world of espionage, now you know which movies to watch to get a taste of what it could really be like.
No government issued Aston Martin’s will be involved.
One more thing. When asked what they mostly get wrong, he said any movie in which they refer to the CIA as “The Company” should always be completely dismissed.
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