The Death of Spy Movies
I think one of the most important reasons for regime change in the White House that until now has been wholly overlooked at the 2004 Democratic National Convention is the complete credibility collapse of our intelligence agencies and its detrimental effect on the spy movie genre. Granted there’s still two days left of the convention and both John Edwards and John Kerry have yet to speak but I fear this issue is going to be without a champion and without a voice as we come closer and closer to November. I encourage everyone to call their senators and express your anger that our intelligence community has become a laughing stock. The 9/11 commission report, Bob Woodward, Richard Clark and a string of other whistle blowers have exposed the intel community to be nothing more than an unorganized group of feebleminded bungle-brains who can’t spell “Zawahiri” in a google search.
The lamentable snafu this has brought to the Hollywood spy movie industry is regrettable, and if things don’t change in Washington, probably fatal.

Take for example, The Bourne Supremacy. On first blush it looks like a thrilling action movie pitting a lone CIA castaway (Matt Damon) against the very agency that raised him and taught him to kill while remaining completely invisible. Bourne speaks like eight languages fluently, he’s able to move in and out of situation and place with absolute stealth and effective camouflage. The CIA, the agency that’s tracking Bourne, is totally mobile, high-teched out to the teeth, efficient, faultless, and frighteningly thorough in its ability to pinpoint and track individuals anywhere in the globe 24/7.

Just three years ago, or say back in the day when Robert Ludlum wrote the Bourne trilogy, this movie would have had me on the edge of my seat, blown away by the shock and awe of the CIA’s perfect execution. But today, I can only snicker and giggle at the complete implausibility of the story, the technology, and the resolve of the agency personnel the movie portraits. The intelligence transparency is too thin and the whole genre is in jeopardy. People, we must act now! We must restore credibility to the White House. We must put in power someone who will turn back the clock to a time when the CIA, the FBI, the DEA were all mysterious organizations that brought fear and excitement whenever their futuristic initials would appear like a computer password – all small-like at the bottom of a movie screen. The next James Bond movie depends on us to Act now!