A review of the 2020 film “The Courier”
This espionage drama made little impact on its release because, at that time, we were just emerging from a global pandemic and cinemas were struggling to attract customers. Russia had not yet invaded Georgia and threatened to use nuclear weapons. But it is a film that is worth seeing because it is based on a true story in a period when humankind was facing an even more existential threat than Covid-19 and it is a reminder than you can never trust the Kremlin.
At the height of the Cold War in 1960, a high ranking Soviet official called Oleg Penkovsky (ably portrayed by Georgian actor Merab Ninidze) is so concerned at Khrushchev’s threats to “bury” the West that he reaches out to the CIA with information that he hopes might de-escalate the situation. The CIA works with MI6 to find a safe way to bring our the information and they settle on an ordinary British businessman called Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch who never fails to give a convincing performance). Matters come to a head when Penkovsky provides material of assistance to the Americans in the Cuban missile crisis and when the Soviets realise that they have a traitor in their midst.
Unlike so many films these days, “The Courier” follows a straight and simple narrative with no flash-backs and no twists. As such, it is a workmanlike production which relies on the true story itself to highlight the need for, and the dangers of, spycraft.
February 20th, 2024 at 12:18 pm
The Courier is a brilliant movie and one of those under-rated fact based espionage classics that deserve so much more adulation. Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant, indeed brilliant beyond belief once you compare pictures of him in the film with Greville Wynne in real life. Also meriting praise is Merab Ninidze who plays the Russian spy Oleg Penkovsky who fed Wynne data on the Russian missile build-up in Cuba. In real life these heroes helped JFK prevent the Cuban Missile Crisis getting out of hand.
If you liked Bill Fairclough’s epic spy novel Beyond Enkription in The Burlington Files series you are going to love The Courier and vice versa. Why mention that you may ask? It too is an under-rated fact based espionage thriller and coincidentally Bill Fairclough’s father, ex British military intelligence, was a close adviser to SuperMac, the British Prime Minister credited with advising JFK during the Cuban missile crisis.
Just like Ben Macintyre’s The Spy and the Traitor about KGB Colonel Oleg Gordievsky, both the Courier and Beyond Enkription are “must reads or must views” for all those who claim to be espionage cognoscenti. For more about the secrets of spies like the Faircloughs, Philby, John le Carré and Pemberton’s People in MI6 see the news article dated 31 October 2022 in TheBurlingtonFiles website.