Search - Yuri Nosenko: Double Agent on DVD

Docudrama based on real events in the CIA/KGB war

jb | Boston, MA | 08/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Based largely on declassified transcripts, this is a very well-done reconstruction of the events surrounding a major scandal that ripped apart the CIA in the 1960s and 1970s. James Angleton was then chief of counter-intelligence, and after his close friend Kim Philby defected to the Soviet Union, Angleton grew increasingly obsessed with finding other Soviet moles in the highest ranks of U.S. intelligence. One defector (Golitsyn) played into the fears of the hawks by emphasizing the seriousness of the Soviet threat; another defector (Nosenko) insisted there was no serious threat. Following closely on the heals of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy assassination, the choice on whom to believe carried serious implications for U.S. security. In an unsuccessful effort to break Nosenko, Angleton and his staff put Nosenko into solitary confinement for almost three years--and though major inconsistencies were uncovered in Nosenko's story, he was never broken. In the course of the investigation, Angleton's drive to uncover the Soviet mole(s) in the CIA ruined the careers of more than forty people; the scandal that followed led to Angleton's dismissal, and the CIA's inclination to wash its hands of HUMINT (human intelligence sources) in favor of SIGINT (technology-driven intelligence). This opened the way for later Soviet infiltrations (Walker, Ames, Hansen), but also set an unfortunate precedent--the CIA's distrust of HUMINT--that seriously undermined U.S. security in the post-Cold War era.

For more details, see the CIA's dlecassifed version: http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/95unclass/Cram.html"

A very authentic film-Great acting!

Brent P. Lyons | Lombard, IL United States | 07/08/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The video is well rounded. The characters are based from the legendary members of the C.I.A. This is a true story. This video is highly recommended for its: to the point approach and gives a cold-war feel in history."

Yuri Nosenko: KGB Could be Better

Sean Winchell | Huntington Station, New York United States | 07/15/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Directed by Mick Jackson and starring Tommy Lee Jones as Steve Daley, Josef Sommer as James Angleton and Oleg Rudnik as Yuri Nosenko. Yuri Nosenko: KGB presents a well acted and interesting examination of the defection Yuri Nosenko, an intelligence officer with the Second Chief Directorate of the KGB. How due to the influence of Anatoli Golitsyn a paranoid KGB intelligence officer that defected to the United States in 1961, Nosenko was incarcerated for over three years. It does a good job of representing the conflict that is caused by Nosenko's defection and the damage that it did to the moral of the Central Intelligence Agency. Unfortunately, Yuri Nosenko:KGB fails to properly represent many of the facts of the case correctly, and simply misrepresents many others."

Interesting, accurate look at a real world spy case

Bruce Trinque | Amston, CT United States | 05/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tommy Lee Jones plays Steve Daley, a CIA officer tasked in the early 1960s with handling Yuri Nosenko, a supposed KGB defector with important information on Lee Harvey Oswald. "Steve Daley" is a pseudonym for "Pete" Bagley who recently wrote the book "Spy Wars" about the controversial Nosenko case. The movie gives an accurate picture of a very complex affair that was never completely resolved to everyone's satisfaction. This movie is the antithesis of a James Bond film of gun battles and car chases; instead, the battles are those of brains and will. The movie seems to largely reflect the opinions of Bagley/Daley, who ultimately concluded that Nosenko was a false defector intended to mislead the CIA about possible Soviet penetration."