Sneakers - more propaganda

When I got this through the post from LoveFilm I was struggling to remember why I ordered it. Eventually I recalled that one of our resident electronic engineers / tech obsessives at work told me I should see it. After watching it I can see why. 'Sneakers' is a film that anyone with an interest in electronics and gadgets would have loved; especially in the early 90s, years before the modern age of futuristic gadgets. Plus it has an outstanding cast (Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley, Dan Akroyd, Mary MacDonnel + others), I can see why it came to me recommended.

The film follows Robert Redfords's Martin Bishop and his small band of techies who make a living by having banks commission them to break into their vaults - to demonstrate their weaknesses. One day Bishop is contacted by men from the government and told that they want to use the skills of his group to get into a secret beyond he's ever seen before. Though he initially refuses, he has an 'interesting' past and is somewhat strong armed into helping them. When their plans start to unravel, in classic Hitchcockian style the only way Bishop can escape from a certain fate is to barrel headlong towards it.

Despite being a 15 certificate 'Sneakers' is something of a kids film. There's some comedy mileage and although several people are killed there's no violence shown at all. The film seems somewhat quaint now-a-days, and though standards have changed over the years it's more likely that the early 1990s depictions of the internet and gadgets with flashing lights are what give that impression. It would be rather harmless stuff if it were not for a central plot point that had me in a rage - i.e. the PROPAGANDA. Allow me to expand:

The central point of the film turns on Kingsley's character trying to convince Redford's character that the anarchy and freedom that they sought in their youth as hackers is now possible on a global scale. Kingsley argues that where in the past they could irritate a single bank, now he has the power to bring down the whole system - a world where there's no control, money or power. So I'm sitting there thinking "This is a great idea" - and then suddenly Kinglsey's the bad guy. From nowhere, he becomes this Bond villain with secret lair and goons that Redford's group has to break into and steal back 'the chip'. All because he expressed a vaguely anti-capitalist sentiment.

I believe I've opined several times before that the US government doesn't need to actively control Hollywood's media output, the American movie industry does a better job than the Soviet Union ever could of implanting pro-establishment ideology on to an impressionable population. 'Sneakers' seems to be another in a long line of such movies; in which a character is the bad guy for the simple reason that he opposes the status quo. Seriously, watch 'Sneakers' and tell me what it is about Ben Kingsley's character that makes him the bad guy. I promise you there's nothing in it beyond simple pro-establishment propaganda.

So, yet another moderately entertaining film ruined for me because I like to stop and think about what it is I'm watching. Maybe one of these days I'll turn my brain off when watching a film. This'll probably be the last review of 2011, top 5 of the year coming up in 2012...