Steppenwulf A good production, decent actors and a fairly tight script makes this an enjoyable watch! Fast-forwarding through decades of Cold War espionage is hardly a new idea, but this one does it with a nice balance of the real and the fictional. However this is all brought down by the overall script: The series must have been made for the US and UK audience only. My guess is they are the only ones willing to accept unquestioningly the Soviet operatives almost without fail being portrayed as stone-faced, leering fanatics. Whereas the Yanks and Brits are naturally, mostly just decent dudes, somewhat concerned with morality and generally "the good guys". A shame on an otherwise fairly good little series! (Have not read the book, so have no comments on that aspect.)

fred-houpt After having read Robert Littell's masterpiece (can you believe that only 6 people have given their opinion on the book over at Amazon???) I was already set up with very low expectations for a film version. I have been more disappointed than satisfied with the film versions of good novels and this was just one more flop.The novel is very long (896 pages) but is as deep as it is wide from the point of view of a plot that grabs you from the outset and doesn't let you go until the very last page. The story he weaves is a believable pattern of interconnecting stories that are borrowed from real Cold War history and fictions crafted from the vapours of that real history. If you know your history well then Littel's craft shines; I mean, without that knowledge you would not be able to differentiate where the real and the imaginary part ways or merge.The film version, in my view, suffers from several weak points and I'll describe them. Much is made of Michael Keaton, one of my favourite American actors, known for his versatility in both dramas and comedy (see: Clean & Sober, Beetlejuice and Multiplicity). He gets the mannerisms and physical gestures of Angleton down pat. What works against him and I know that I am being very picky, are his looks. Keaton looks like what he is: a very healthy and squeaky clean guy. Angelton was a chain smoking and borderline alcoholic whose many decades of this lifestyle left him looking like a train wreck. Keaton looked too healthy. John Turturo would have been a better choice. Alfred Molina is a terrific and very physical actor but for me he drew too much attention and gave me the impression of over acting but without the inner turmoil that his character possessed. His role would have been better captured by a younger Gene Hackman or Charles Durning. Molina was not believable as the man depicted in the novel. Next is Chris O'Donnell, someone I have yet to like in any movie. I think he was completely miscast as Jack McCauliffe. His boyish good looks worked against him. His character would have done better with Jude Law or Colin Farrel.I found Rory Cochrane to be a delight, giving a finely honed and substantial performance. His responses were periodically obscure as if his attention had wandered and I think that the writers/director could have given his character more time....which the book certainly does. The woman actors were all fine and I had no problems with them.All in all I think that one would be better off reading the book as its power far eclipses this film.

mpag Michael Keaton's performance is spellbinding, astounding. I couldn't believe what I was watching. When he's on screen, he lifts the piece onto a wholly different level. Unreservedly worth watching for his screen time alone. The unnerving atmosphere he creates happily offsets the unfortunate mawkishness that marrs parts of the Berlin and Budapest stories. Alfred Molina also deserves praise for a strong, gutsy performance as a permanently booze-fueled, no nonsense old time field commander. Production values are pretty high for a television series - Ridley Scott's production presence no doubt helped on that front - and the post-war look and atmosphere of the Berlin sequences is particularly well realised. But this is unmistakably Keaton's tour-de-force.

Hal Guentert "The Company" had an entertaining quality that leads you to believe you were getting inside information about the period covered. However, like other CIA/spy plots there is a main character who runs around all over the map, more or less trying to save the day, with a few other interesting characters thrown in.I wish I had read the book, but the interesting aspect to this plot was that it at least shows the spies as locals willing to sell information for money and/or a new life, not really heroic characters. However, I agree that the best aspect was Michael Keaton's portrayal of James "Jesus" Angleton as a strange person with incredible power and hold of the flow of information. He does not seem to be either worthy or trustworthy enough to hold such control over an out of control agency.Keaton's performance hints at the quirky and strange person Angleton was and made me wonder how this person could hold his position without much suspicion being place on him for all the moles who could not be found. The others were either too alcoholic or too much in denial to question Angleton and his highly questionable "friendships" in addition to the good chance of being thrown into a mental institution. Angleton's power was in knowing the dirt on everyone, and covering up his own dirt pile. Once it was learned that the mole, Ken Philby, was Angleton's close friend they should have been gone, preferably with prejudice.Although the movie or series does not really go far enough into why nothing was done to change counter intelligence personnel when moles were not uncovered in a very short period of time, it does present the CIA, including Dulles as less than efficient protectors of liberty here in America or anywhere else.After viewing "The Company", it is less surprising that Robert Hannsen, the FBI Mole, was able to sell prime secrets for years, and even become the counter intelligence agent in charge of looking for himself (a mole). The greatest problem with the CIA and similar intelligence agencies is that eventually the fox gets in charge of guarding the hen house or worse.Today, we had better learn these lessons of the past, and get members of other countries military & intelligence agencies, dual citizens, out of our government, or we will continue to self-destruct.