The Russia House

Read the blurb for this film. It’s laughably polluted with mistakes... First, Barley never attended the Moscow Audiobook fare because his “aunts canceled the match,” (read the book) and pulled his funding for the trip. Second, Bob of the CIA in Langley, Virginia doesn’t “pay him a visit”, the operation is being run out of The Russia House in London, which is how the book and consequently the film got its name. The CIA only received the package (the manuscript) by way of Niki Landau who passes it on to the Foreign Office (again, read the book) who then passes it on to British Intelligence. Only once the manuscript is obtained by The Russia House, is the CIA brought in to observe the operation to locate Barley in Lisbon. Next the manuscript doesn’t “...illustrate the jocularity of Russia’s nuclear threat”, it comprehensively exposes the system of lies the Soviet military industrial complex maintained to try and stay in the arms race with the United States: “The soviet knight is dying in his armor. He can start a war but cannot win one.” Finally, Blair’s objectives never kept up with those of The Russia House when trying to establish the authenticity of the notebooks —not once he realized Katya and her family were in danger. Again, if you’re going to publish blurbs this bad online, hire someone who actually bothers to watch the film (and give a raise to anyone who takes their job seriously enough to read the book).

Need to fix the sound. The lips move after they speak. It slowly gets out of sync as the movie goes on. Contacted iTunes who agreed there was an issue and said they should have it fixed in 3 weeks.

Another great spy story from the Cold War era by John LeCarre. No one does a better story from that period of time. But when oh when will it be issued in HD?? It surely deserves HD issuance. This is the only spy film from a LeCarre novel which has not been releases in HD.

This is such a good movie with a compelling story and great acting to go along with it.

I would happily purchase if the syncing problems were fixed and there was a rental copy.

The copy of this film I bought had the video and sound out of sync during some long conversations close to the middle. It was very noticable and made it hard to focus. Sent a problem ticket in and got a refund but no notice of it having been fixed after a couple of months. The movie itself is very interesting though slower paced than what many expect from spy thrillers. I would rate it 4 stars if the sound problem were fixed.

Who better to bring John LeCarre to the big screen than Tom Stoppard. This is an absolutely brilliant piece of work. Proves what GREAT writing can do for an already GREAT story. Connery and Pfeifer aren't the only people who give marvelously wonderful performances in this film, Roy Scheider, John Mahoney and James Fox (among others) are truly genius! A must have for anyone who appreciates beautiful artwork in film-making.