Television: The Company

The Company
Executive Producers - Ridley and Tony Scott
Writer - Ken Nolan
Director - Mikael Salomon


On Sunday night, AMC wrapped up the third and final part of its CIA miniseries, The Company. It was a “television event” executive produced by the Scott brothers (Ridley and Tony) and headed up by heavy hitter thespians, Alfred Molina, Michael Keaton and a guy who’s been under the radar for a while, Chris O’Donnell. Also starring, and they are truly stars in this piece are Allessandro Nivola, who you will recognize but may have trouble placing, Rory Chochrane, who you will recognize but may have trouble placing because last time you probably saw him he was rotoscoped in “A Scanner Darkly” and Tom Hollander, a Brit whom you will definitely recognize if you’ve been paying attention to any pirate themed blockbusters in the last while. I normally would not take so much time just to tell you who is in the six hour miniseries but all five of these actors, along with the rest of the huge cast are the ones that make sitting down to watch worth it.

The story is that of three friends (O’Connell, Nivola and Chochrane) and their role as it related what many probably think of as its most interesting but are probably only the most declassified years of the CIA: The Cold War. Starting in post WWII Germany and spanning all the way to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, The Company has a stunning amount of ground to cover but cover it, it does.

It centers around Chris O’Donnell as Jack McCauliffe, an idealist who suffers greatly at the hands of either his idealism or the cold bureaucratic indifference of the espionage game. The fact that Salomon, the Scott Brothers and writer Ken Nolan never tell us which is to blame, the CIA itself or Jack’s refusal to leave it is part of what makes The Company such a good watch. Even when the whole thing is over the smoke never clears. It is not moral ambiguity that is currency here but the question of what morality really is.

The rest of the cast take on the roles of real characters or characters that are based on real people (even Nivola and Chochrane’s having basis in history). Michael Keaton takes on the role of James Jesus Angleton, one of the most renowned master spies of all time, who even after being destroyed body and soul by his own many delicate webs of intrigue remains a very well respected figure, having pretty much written the manual for counter-intelligence. Keaton brings the man to life in an intensely chilling and nuanced way, always taking his time to speak, always carrying something up his sleeve and never too proud to let you know it though what it was he would never tell. Angleton, while respected, was not well liked in his later years and from Keaton’s portrayal, it’s easy to see why.

On a visual level the series takes you from one incredible set to another. From tensions in Berlin to Russian tanks rolling through Hungary to the disaster of the Bay of Pigs, the audience is kept in the action, drawn along to see both the puppet masters and the consequences of their games, all the while keeping it humanized by bringing you back to the three friends and the lives they affect and effect. There is a little of both.

After summers full of Bourne or Bond or winters with ‘real spy’ doses like The Good Shepherd (incidentally, a movie entirely about Keaton's character going by a different name), The Company finds a good compromise between the very slow waiting game that is clearly hardest part of espionage and the brutal violence and war-torn countries that come as the result of a few men’s scheming. A few men on both sides, trying to do what they believe is correct.