Said it once (or more) before but it bears repeating now.

[dira]

Okay I am morally certain that it cannot actually have been over eight years since the last time I posted about Spy Game, the touching love story of CIA agents Brad Pitt and Robert Redford as directed by Tony Scott, but I cannot find a more recent post by going through my tags.

So: GUYS. SPY GAME IS A TOUCHING LOVE STORY BETWEEN BRAD PITT AND ROBERT REDFORD, PLEASE DISCUSS.

I would discuss but all I can do is make heart-hands at my TV. BOY SCOUTTTTTTTTT YOUR BOYFRIEND LOVVVVVVVES YOU HE JUST WANTS YOU TO BE SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFE.

Iulia: does not roll her eyes at all these days. ♥

Comments

[cereta]

I was about to point you to Yuletide, and then I remembered, you wrote me one of the stories there!

[dira]

Yes! :) And I think Dorinda wrote my personal definitive post-movie fic a few years ago. *g*

[ladyvyola]

Let's schedule Dinner Out! You bring the sniper rifle, I'll bring the retirement account.

[dira]

DONE! :D

[ladyvyola]

You motivated me to put my Yuletide 2004 story up on AO3. Damn, that "import from URL" function is slick.

I really need to get all my other Yuletides up, too. ::is lazy::

[dira]

Yay AO3! I think I spent more than a year slowly transferring all my fic onto it, but I'm glad to have it all there now. :)

[ladyvyola]

Yesterday I received a hand-me-down Kindle and I have been eyeing the Download function on the Archive like a kid in front of a candy store.

Download all the fics!

[mlyn]

OMG YES. And I have this ongoing sense of "Brad Pitt is the lovechild of Robert Redford + my heaaarrrrt and putting them together in projects always means MAGICAL FEELINGS". I mean, I probably shouldn't babble about A River Runs Through It, but Redford directed him, and did the voiceover for a present-day version of Pitt's character's brother, so it's kind of flappy-hand-making.

When I think of several of Redford's projects, it feels like Pitt could do justice rebooting them. Out of Africa. The Sting. (Clooney & Pitt?? C'MON. Although Pitt is too old now, WOE.) The Natural. Three Days of the Condor. All the President's Men. And I'll fully admit my shameful love of Indecent Proposal and Up Close & Personal. (Um, I may identify with Michelle Pfeiffer a little too much, and you can probably figure out why.)

[dira]

♥ ♥ ♥

I oddly have never seen Indecent Proposal, but OTOH love Up Close & Personal rather a lot, more so if I am allowed to pretend that the movie ends when the camera pans up and away after the prison riot. For lo, I am a wuss.

[mlyn]

I liked very little about Indecent Proposal other than that it's a beautifully shot movie, Demi Moore is by most measures a beautiful woman, and Robert Redford is as gorgeous as a perfectly aged scotch is delicious. He doesn't have the youthful beauty anymore, but his cragginess hasn't gotten too severe either. :D I don't give a fig for the plot or Woody Harrelson or anything. (Well, except that my reaction to the indecent proposal is "Who would turn THAT down????")

I saw Up Close & Personal at the perfect age when I was old enough to start really appreciating romance plots, and young enough to have All The Feelings. Allllll of them. So even the angsty ending is delicious for its angstiness. But yeah, it can end right after they meet up after the prison riot.

[isagel]

IT IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LOVE STORY! *draws a million sparkly hearts around it*

I never cease to be enthralled by Tom's struggle with wanting so much to please Nathan and yet wanting so much to do the right thing beyond just following orders. Best mentor-student relationship with D/s vibes ever. I am always floored by how it is a movie completely about how much Nathan loves Tom - it really has no other plot than that love story.

Heh. I see that out of the nine (why are there only nine?) Spy Game stories on the AO3, you and I have written two each. Oh, tiny fandom. *g*

[dira]

Tiiiiiiny fandom! But such BEAUTIFUL canon. *g*

(Ahhhh your icon! ♥ ♥ ♥)

[cesperanza]

I just for the first time recently saw this movie and was totally like OMG WHY NO HUGE FANDOM because yes yes yes yes.

[dira]

RIGHT? RIGHT? The movie is ACTUALLY, ON ITS FACE, about how Nathan Muir loves Tom Bishop so much he breaks all the rules and risks everything for him. And also about him Stockholming Tom into loving him back. So really.

[missmollyetc]

HE DOES EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO GIVE TOM WHAT HE WAAAAANTS, EVEN THOUGH NATHAN ARGUES WITH HIM AND TRIES TO TALK TOM OUT OF IT! THEY'RE JUST SO DAMN PERFECT TOGETHER.

[dira]

The fact that Nathan ALSO GETS ELIZABETH OUT SO TOM CAN BE HAPPY just kiiiiiiiiillls me. (Although I assume that if Elizabeth has any sense of self-preservation she will be like "...Um, it's great that your insane stalker boyfriend helped you get me back out of the prison he got me put into in the first place but I think I'm going to not get between the two of you ever again. Thanks.")

[missmollyetc]

God, so TRUE AND CREEPILY ADORABLE. It's like he decided 'Well, I sent her to DIE IN PRISON, but it turns out you STILL REALLY LIKE HER, SO...fine. LE SIGH.' NATHAN IS LIKE A CAT, DIRA.

(Also, HELL YES. God, I hope she got out, had some PT and all the therapy, and then hit the road to sanity, a boyfriend WITHOUT an insane stalker SO, and all the margaritas ever.)

[dira]

Possibly there is also an element of IF I DON'T BRING HER OUT FOR YOU YOU'LL JUST TRY SOMETHING EVEN STUPIDER NEXT TIME, WON'T YOU. FINE.

And, yeah, I mean, I feel a tiny bit Terrible Slash Fangirl wanting to just remove Elizabeth from the picture but then again: SERIOUSLY TOM BISHOP HAS DANGEROUS BAGGAGE. RUN AWAAAAAAAY.

UNLESS YOU ARE NATHAN MUIR IN WHICH CASE YOU ARE THE BAGGAGE SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL BOTH START GETTING ORGASMS OUT OF IT.

[missmollyetc]

Yep, pretty much! ::laughsandlaughs:: NATHAN'S LOVE IS NOT WITHOUT EXASPERATION, DIRA! WHY WON'T PAWNS JUST STAY PUT?!


And, yeah, I mean, I feel a tiny bit Terrible Slash Fangirl

I mean, kinda? BUT on the other hand, at the end of the movie I was left with the Really Firm View that Elizabeth's happy ending was NOT with TOM BISHOP OMG EVEN WITHOUT THE SLASH ANGLE, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY MOVE ALONG THERE! The movie's mostly from Nathan's POV, true, but on the very face of it, I never thought Tom and Elizabeth were particularly healthy together.

YES. IF YOU MUST BE UNHEALTHILY CO-DEPENDENT, AT LEAST GET A BLOWJOB OUT OF IT, BOYS. WE'RE JUST SAYIN'

[dira]

Yeah. And also they had a supremely dishonest sexual/romantic relationship for, like, a month? tops? and then more or less honest for one night, and then didn't see each other for five years which she spent in prison. Sooooo. Not a great foundation for a long-term relationship. She's glad to see him again BECAUSE HE GOT HER OUT OF PRISON AND SHE THOUGHT HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN KILLED FOR IT! He's happy to have gotten her out of prison because seriously Nathan went too far there. Justice is served! And then they hug and part.

(I mean, I can see Nathan feeling he had supplied Tom with a perfectly reasonable happy ending, giving Elizabeth to him. And Tom then going and finding him and being like "...No.")

[missmollyetc]

Pretty much! Even allowing for the Hollywood view of the relationship timeline, it's not much to go on, and I feel like Spy Game is too pragmatic a movie to buy into the idea that Tom and Elizabeth had an Instant Love Connection. I think it wasn't the sort of relationship that could endure, because it was based on deceit, and self-deceit, and the idea that somehow they'd wind up with a mythical picket fence ending. They recognized something in each other, to be sure, but fellow feeling doesn't always end in marriage, especially when I don't see them as actually agreeing with what their counterpart has dedicated his/her life to.

tl:dr I like your post-script the best. ::grins::

(LOLOL. ABSOLUTELY. That part of Tom that gets to Nathan the most is how he always goes past what Nathan expects of him. If Tom wasn't squirrelly, Nathan wouldn't be half as interested.)

[ladyvyola]

RUN AWAY, ELIZABETH! RUN AWAY!

Go be apolitical and self-sacrificing in a figurative sense somewhere else 'cause sticking close to these boys takes sacrifice to a whole 'nother level. Nathan is way too good at seeing a board full of pawns and Tom as his king to be protected no matter what and oh, dear god, I need to stop this metaphor now that Nathan has become a raging queen....

OH, MOVIE, WHAT YOU DO TO ME.

[missmollyetc]

::LAUGHS:: Yes! Run away, Elizabeth! Run to where the men are healthier and unattached!

Also, that is the PERFECT analogy! Nathan = Raging Queen is perhaps the most searingly precise definition I've heard in years. ::grins:: It's so perfect! Nathan can go anywhere, and do what he has to, and Tom just moves one bit at a time! ...andthentheyhavesex!