The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

Man…  that one hasn’t lost anything in the past 17 years.  I’d go watch it in the theater tomorrow.

This one will linger with you in badassery.

When and where exactly did it enter the public consciousness that intelligence agencies (even Western and/or democratic) would hire assassins, run extraordinarily dubious paramilitary operations (even on US soil) and plan a fake terrorist attack to increase budgetary appropriations?  I think this one simultaneously implicates the CIA and State Department (unlikely, more likely from the Department of Defense).  Let’s revisit that last one though, our government running a false flag/black flag operation which results in civilian casualties in an effort to blame it on terrorists.  Where did that idea come from?  This was 5 years before 9/11.  I remember seeing it back then and thinking it was despicable but not unreasonable to think that it would be legitimately possible for a secret government agency to do something like that.  I’m sure most of you responded similarly.  Why exactly was it that we weren’t having issues with that?  Where did that kind of plot originate?  Seriously?

I don’t think 9/11 or 7/7 were government planned and funded.  From some of the background reading I’ve been doing and as far as one can observe trends and patterns of government activity – I don’t think they had to get their hands dirty.  I think it was a case of someone leaving the door open, hoping someone would come in and give them an excuse to pull the trigger.  Then they took that ball and ran with it all the way to Iraq and Guantanamo with a pitstop at Abu Ghraib along the way.

On a less serious note, this movie has some of our well known and favorite spy movie features: gunfights and explosions, sexual innuendo followed up by a climax in physical violence, cover identities, a key to a dropbox, torture, “normal citizen” turns out to be highly trained operative, a sleeper cell/deep cover feel, more gunfights and explosions, Samuel L. Jackson, blown covers, recruitment of criminals to do the “dirty work”, consequence free closure and reward, and last but not least Brian Cox.

–Kryptosfan