CIA in fiction and the movies

Espionage and secret operations have long been a source of fiction, and the real and perceived United States Central Intelligence Agency is a source of many books, movies and video games. Some fiction may be historically based, or will refer to less action-oriented aspects, such as intelligence analysis (e.g., the main character of several of Tom Clancy's books is Jack Ryan, or counterintelligence (e.g., several works involving characters modeled after James Jesus Angleton).

Adaptations of real events

The film Charlie Wilson's War, released in December 2007, gives a popular account of the efforts of U.S. Congressman Charles Wilson to secure funding for CIA's Operation Cyclone giving covert assistance to Afghan rebels during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. This film gives the CIA a positive portrayal, while finishing with a muted scolding of Congress for funding the war but not funding subsequent peacetime reconstruction. This lack of funding for reconstruction, or what are called Operations Other Than War (OOTWA) in military parlance and counter-insurgency doctrine, are mooted as an antecedent to our present War on Terrorism. According to Declan Walsh, writing in The Guardian, the support of the mujahideen by the U.S. and Pakistan backfired on the U.S. in the form of the 9/11 attacks, and is now backfiring on Pakistan. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/16/pakistan.afghanistan "The Taliban blowback", April 16, 2008, The Guardian] ] The film has its critics. [citation
url = http://www.alternet.org/story/71286
title = Tom Hanks Tells Hollywood hopper in 'Charlie Wilson's War'"
first = Melissa | last = Roddy
journal = AlterNet
date = December 21, 2007] [citation
url = http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/usercomments?filter=hate
title = IMDB user comments for Charlie Wilson's War]

The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro in 2006 narrate the tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency as viewed through the prism of one man's life. While the lead character is a composite of several real people, the most important is the long-term chief of the CIA Counterintelligence Staff, James Jesus Angleton. Angleton is also the basis of William F. Buckley Jr.'s novel "Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton"citation
first = William F. Jr.
last = Buckley
title = Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton
publisher= Harvest Books
year = 2001
ISBN = 0156011247]

Hypothetical but modeled on real organizations

The character Jack Ryan in Tom Clancy books is a CIA agent.cite book
last =Clancy
first =Tom
authorlink =Tom Clancy
coauthors =
title =The Hunt for Red October
publisher =HarperCollins
id = ISBN 0-87021-285-0] Ryan is never an "agent" or case officer in the usual sense of the term, as opposed to characters such as John Clark and Domingo Chavez. Ryan starts as a contract consultant, becomes an analyst, and rises in responsibility. There are operations officers that play a major role in Clancy's novel, such as John Clark and Domingo Chavez, to say nothing of the creative and ruthless Mary Pat Foley.

Graham Greene's The Quiet American, which has been issued in two editions and made into a movie, is based on an amoral CIA agent operating in Southeast Asia.citation
first = Graham
last = Greene
title = The Quiet American
publisher = Penguin Classics
year = 2004
ISBN-10 = 0143039024] This book, whose protagonist is less than ideal, is often confused with The Ugly American, in which the title character is neither an intelligence officer nor anything but helpful to the resident of the fictional country in which he is a volunteer.

Action Movies

Jason Bourne is a former CIA Agent whom the CIA wishes to terminate for disobeying their orders to assassinate certain political figures.

Bad Company, Chris Rock plays an undercover CIA Agent who is buying a bomb from Russian Terrorists

The Recruit, Al Pacino plays a CIA trainer who recruits a young Colin Ferrel for CIA

Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Johnny Depp plays a corrupt CIA agent, Sheldon Jeffrey Sands, who is manipulating events in Mexico. Sequel to Desperado.

Games

The CIA is a central player in the events of "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell". In the game, NSA Splinter Cell Agent Sam Fisher must determine the fates of two CIA Agents who disappeared while spying on the government of Georgia. Fisher must then infiltrate the CIA Headquarters in Langley in order to track down the source of a security link within the agency. Later games in the franchise features operatives from a fictional NSA initiative known as SHADOWNET.

Sydney Bristow in the Alias (TV series) first works for a fake CIA branch, then the real CIA.

Comedy and spoofs

American Dad! is an animated comedy series that spoofs the CIA.

The CIA has most recently been portrayed in the new comedy television show on NBC called "Chuck"

Meet the Fockers is a comedy that features Robert De Niro as a retired CIA agent.

ee also

*
* Vince Flynn - author of government fiction with major characters who work for the CIA
* R J Hillhouse - author of political fiction about the outsourcing of the CIA
* "The Agency", a CBS television series about the CIA
* "Alias", an ABC television series about the CIA

References