Rating: 
Summary: The spy next door
Review: Based on a true story, the film details how two young men sold U.S. secrets to the Soviets in the mid-seventies during the height of American apathy and disillusion.Taken from the excellent non-fiction book by Robert Lindsey, director John Schlesinger's film does a fine job of creating the feeling and temperament of the time but stumbles in a couple of important areas, though the leads, Timothy Hutton as Christopher Boyce and Sean Penn as Daulton Lee, are in terrific form. Boyce was the "falcon" as he dabbled in falconry, Daulton the "snowman" due to his dealing cocaine, or snow. Boyce was the oldest of a large Catholic family whose father was retired FBI. Boyce was given a job too quickly with TRW, at the time working with the CIA on secret projects. Working from the "Black Vault," Boyce eventually decided to sell the information he saw to the Soviets. His drug dealing childhood friend Lee became the courier who transported the data to the Russian Embassy in Mexico. While the story flows well on screen, the film cannot deliver what the novel makes apparent, namely WHY Boyce became a traitor. Other minor nitpicks include a scene (that never occured in real life) of Boyce seeing his ex-girlfriend Alana before impending arrest added for schmaltz effect only, and a badly edited moment of him ripping apart a gift from his co-workers that leaves the viewer puzzled. However, everything else is fine. The cast is superb, particularly Pat Hingle as Boyce's father. The look of the film is true to the era it occured in. Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays produced a compelling score, collaborating with David Bowie on the theme song. This is not an action film, and the better for it. Instead The Falcon And The Snowman gives the viewer psychological insight into espionage. It does not go far enough but is a solidly enjoyable film and deserves your attention.
Rating: 
Summary: Dorian Harewood Is Very Good
Review: Dorian Harewood gives a brilliant performance in his tiny part that is worth remembering, he should be given more important roles, he is also in Full Metal Jacket, remember his name, Dorian Harewood, and help him get some respect. He is just as good as Sean Penn who is great in the lead role. One day Dorian Harewood will earn the respect that he deserves, but until that time I'll be here, crying out his name in the dark to anyone who will listen. Actually I'm going to sleep. Dorian Harewood Appreciation Foundation, President, (currently 1 members but steadily growing)
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: Enter the world of Christopher Boyce and Andrew Dalton Lee. Both are from well-to-do families that turn right at every second, so to speak. But somehow, these two prodical sons, former alter boys and childhood friends, turn left, so to speak. Played brillantly by Timothy Hutton (Christopher Boyce) and Sean Penn (Andrew Dalton Lee) these two take you on a magic coaster ride from Southern California to Mexico as they sell secrets for almost 2 years to the former Soviet Embassy there. Do you feel a sense of empathy for these 2 misguided misfits that are portraying real life characters? Most certainly. Each seeks to please his own important and domineering paternal figure, yet neither one is successful in their attempts. Boyce, a high security clearance seminary drop out for a defense company, uses his childhood friend, the bumbling and drug addicted Snowman (Dalton), to right what he perceives to be a wrong...US involvment in the Aussie Government. All through the movie, the Falcon (Boyce) is the antithesis of evil, while somehow the Snowman, appears to be the antithesis of good. The only problem with this movie is that it raises more questions than it answers, that is, Where was Boyce's mindset for delivering secrets to the Soviets? Why would he send such a joke of a courier? It is easy to see why Lee would pursue such an endeavor. He was always in search of wealth, but most importantly, some form of fame. The beauty of this cinematic tale is that it raises so many more questions than need to be addressed. Is it possible that any god-fearing, government employed family, could actually bring a traitor into this world? Even worse, a spy for the former Soviet Union? A Communist spy? Where are Boyce and Lee now?? Have they survived prison life? Boyce escaped from a medium security prison for 2 years and is now in Levanworth. Ouch. But the question remains, how exactly was he found? Perhaps a sequal will answer the many question that this excellent portrayal of Boyce and Lee brings to the big screen.
Rating:
Summary: This movie raises more questions than it answers
Review: Enter the world of Christopher Boyce and Andrew Dalton Lee. Both are from well-to-do families that turn right at every second, so to speak. But somehow, these two prodical sons, former alter boys and childhood friends, turn left, so to speak. Played brillantly by Timothy Hutton (Christopher Boyce) and Sean Penn (Andrew Dalton Lee) these two take you on a magic coaster ride from Southern California to Mexico as they sell secrets for almost 2 years to the former Soviet Embassy there. Do you feel a sense of empathy for these 2 misguided misfits that are portraying real life characters? Most certainly. Each seeks to please his own important and domineering paternal figure, yet neither one is successful in their attempts. Boyce, a high security clearance seminary drop out for a defense company, uses his childhood friend, the bumbling and drug addicted Snowman (Dalton), to right what he perceives to be a wrong...US involvment in the Aussie Government. All through the movie, the Falcon (Boyce) is the antithesis of evil, while somehow the Snowman, appears to be the antithesis of good. The only problem with this movie is that it raises more questions than it answers, that is, Where was Boyce's mindset for delivering secrets to the Soviets? Why would he send such a joke of a courier? It is easy to see why Lee would pursue such an endeavor. He was always in search of wealth, but most importantly, some form of fame. The beauty of this cinematic tale is that it raises so many more questions than need to be addressed. Is it possible that any god-fearing, government employed family, could actually bring a traitor into this world? Even worse, a spy for the former Soviet Union? A Communist spy? Where are Boyce and Lee now?? Have they survived prison life? Boyce escaped from a medium security prison for 2 years and is now in Levanworth. Ouch. But the question remains, how exactly was he found? Perhaps a sequal will answer the many question that this excellent portrayal of Boyce and Lee brings to the big screen.
Rating:
Summary: A good movie, well above typical Hollywood fare.
Review: I agree with the other reviewers that this movie does not explain why an intelligent guy with a promising future like Boyce would become a spy. American and British spies during the 1930s and 1940s did so for ideological reasons, whereas the Walker family was motivated solely by money. Where Christopher Boyce falls on the continuum is not made clear by the movie. I grew up in a Southern California suburb not unlike Palos Verdes, and I was hoping that the movie would shed a little more light on how these two guys became Soviet spies. Otherwise, I thought it was a good movie.
Rating:
Summary: Christopher Boyce
Review: I enjoyed this movie immensely. It was fairly true to life and very well done. Hutton and Penn are terrific and Schlesinger does an excellent job in directing.
For those of you that are curious, Christopher Boyce will be released from a halfway house in San Francisco on March 15, 2003. He will be paroled after 25 years in prison, including spending time in SuperMax in Colorado, alongside Oklahoma City bombers Timothy J. McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols, and the Unabomber, Theodore J. Kaczynski. (Information taken from the LA Times story "The Falcon and the Fallout" by Richard A. Serrano, published March 2, 2003.)
Rating: 
Summary: Poison Penn
Review: I hate to disagree with my fellow Amazonians, but I was supremely disappointed with F&S. It's a shame, since Penn and Hutton give great performances (especially Penn). The movie has a strong start, develops the relationship between Hutton & Penn's characters well, and offers first-rate tension in their half-baked spy escapades. However, just as their plans unravel, so does the film as it devolves into Hollywood shtick. Worst is Hutton's relationship: Lori Singer's portrayal of H's girlfriend is so wooden she barely furrows her brow when H breaks up with her. My biggest beef is with Pat Metheny's score. His overmixed, cheesy newage noodling dates the movie and makes it sound like a training video. As a DVD, F&S fares no better. There isn't even a *trailer*, much less bios or information about the people the movie is about.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic Cold War politcal thriller
Review: I watched this film as part of a bonus assignment for an American government class.
The Falcon and the Snowman is a political thriller about two young guys (one with a great future - Timothy Hutton - and one without one - Sean Penn) who decide to capitalize on their government's secrets. In a nutshell, they "sew the wind and reap the whirlwind."
But this film was made during the 1980s during the Reagan presidency, a time in which the cold war with the Communist Soviet Union was on everyone's mind. No doubt, the filmmakers capitalized on this concept.
This film also contains a good deal of what one might call "Bonnie and Clyde" syndrome. This is where the viewers know that the main characters are villains, and yet they receive so much exposure to these characters, that they end up rooting for them in end, forgetting that they received what they deserved.
Actually, they received better than they deserved: Christopher Boyce (Hutton) received 40 years, and Daulton Lee (Penn) received a life sentence. One hundred years before they both would have been put to death.
One of my major complaints is the amount of nudity in the film. Sorry if it sounds old-fashioned, but just bear with me here. Would this film really have lost any of its artistic merit without these scenes? Would it have lost any of its suspense or intrigue had the filmmakers at a bare minimum simply toned it down at least? So, I can only give this otherwise intriguing film three stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Favorite Film
Review: Most of the other positive reviews offer good insights to the film, which I must've seen 5 or 6 times - each time appreciating it a bit more, or discovering some nuance that slipped by me before. For example...in my most recent viewing, I caught a part where the Timothy Hutton character (Christopher Boyce) tells his girlfriend that he's named his falcon, " 'Fawkes'...he's a guy who tried to blow up Parliament" (Guy Fawkes). If a true aspect of this true story, I find it reveals a bit more about what may have occupied the troubled soul of Boyce that he would name a pet in honor of a lead conspirator in "The Gunpowder Plot" of 1605. The story takes place in the mid-70's...in another time, would Boyce have loaded a Ryder rental truck with a fertilizer bomb and parked it next to a federal target? Both actors - Sean Penn & Timothy Hutton - performed superbly, though I am more intellectually drawn to the "deeper" character played by Hutton, and more interested in what drives him. The film begins with him abandoning a seminary...he had a theological faith that he lost for some reason, he seems to not have much faith in his family life, and now he's about to completely lose his patriotic faith. It's sad. By the way, to the reviewer who didn't understand why he ripped open the stuffed-owl gift from a co-worker...the paranoia was kicking in and he was looking for a bug ("where's the wires!?").
Rating:
Summary: Christopher Boyce
Review: The agony of people wronged and the pain of being spit out. A true story that shows how every ordinary family has great potential and great danger. How only some are enlightened to how the world really works and how some choose to ignore it. One of my favorite films and soundtracks.
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