Rating of
4/4
Most underated movie on my Top Movie List.
mdtinney - wrote on 08/11/09
Sneakers" is probably the best suspense film that honestly deals with the issues of Information Technology. The film takes you into the world of espionage via computer hackers, the new threat to world order. Rather than Chicago Italians sporting machine guns, zoot suits, and violin cases, these guys work with equipment that can do far more than hold up a bank or run a casino. And they do it from a worktable with little complex machines with screens. These "sneakers" may have stumbled onto the ability to change the entire infrastructure of the modern world. And it all works because of the outstanding script and the ensemble cast of some of the best actors in the business: Robert Redford, Ben Kingsly, Dan Ackroyd, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, Sidney Poitier, the late River Phoenix, and even Stephen Tobolowsky (who played the infamous Ned Ryerson in "Groundhog Day") as a nerdy tech guy. I have often felt that ensemble cast movies such as these have the most meat to them.
Robert Redford plays Martin Bishop (aka Marty or Bish), the leader of a group of hackers-for-hire that test the security systems of banks and other financial institutions to pinpoint their weaknesses. But Martin Bishop is not who he says he is. In fact, he is really Martin Brice, a 1960's college radical who, with his colleague Cosmo, used to hack into computer databases with the intention of moving money toward left-wing political causes--25 years before the launch of the World Wide Web. Brice and Cosmo became the target of US authorities. Brice escaped to Canada and assumed another name. Cosmo was not so lucky and apparently died in prison. The other members of the "Sneakers" each have their little eccentricities: "Whistler" (my favorite character), the blind tech genius played with amazing realism by the extraordinary David Strathairn, "Mother" (Dan Ackroyd), a conspiracy theorist who believes that the people who assassinated JFK also framed Pete Rose, Carl (the late River Phoenix), the boy hacker who was caught trying to change his grades through his school's computer system, Donald Crease (Sidney Poitier), an x-CIA agent, and Liz (Mary McDonnell), a former mathematics and computer intellectual who was a former lover of Redford. Now, apparently, the Feds have caught up with Brice, aka Bishop, and they want him to steal a certain black box from a Dr. Gunter Janek, an eastern European genius who is the Einstein of computer hackers. According to the Feds, the Russians are financing Janek through anonymous grants to create a key or shortcut to unlock the most complex computer systems in the western world. The key has been hardwired into a computer chip located inside a block box. The box is said to have the ability to break through unbreakable codes used by the largest financial and governmental institutions, from the Federal Reserve to JFK Airport. At first the plot centers around the Sneakers or hackers using their skill along with their bugging and stake-out equipment to acquire the black box from the young professor. But an unanticipated twist pushes the movie into an unforeseen direction. All of a sudden, some of the people involved are not who they say they are. The recurring theme of "Too Many Secrets" and "No More Secrets" pushes the plot into new territory but one that completely makes sense for the rhetoric of the film as Bishop/Brice meets an old friend (Ben Kingsly) whom he did not expect to see. A great movie, suspenseful from beginning to end. The performances of the cast are exquisite, particularly David Strathairn as Whistler, the blind tech wizard. In one amazing camera angle, we see him with dark glasses as code numbers are reflected upon his lenses. At another point, he has to drive a van, which almost worth the price of admission alone! Not to be missed if you are a computer hacker, a computer tech, or just want good suspenseful story.
