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The Ipcress File (DVD, 2003)
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factory sealed b1
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The Ipcress File is a spy-thriller with a difference. Gone are the foreign travel, glamour, and superman competence of Bond. Here, it's grubby, impoverished, postwar London, with British traitors and young clueless spies, who could learn a few lessons from the local police. Together with its cockney star, Michael Caine, this falls into the category of a 1960s `Working Class Hero Film', along with earlier efforts like This Sporting Life & Saturday Night Sunday Morning. The latter films showed talented working-class men trying to live on their own terms in their home environment. In The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The Establishment is mocked as selling outdated patriotic dreams to the working class. Here, in The Ipcress File, elements of The Establishment are indicted for concealing incompetence, greed, & treachery under a cloak of over-stated, ridiculous patriotism. The British military establishment has always used the rank of `Sergeant' to denote the most able and useful working class men under its command, from Norman sergeant-knights to the sergeant-pilots of WWII. Such men have always been expected to fight for reasonable pay, train and lead the lower ranks, show appropriate deference to the commanding officer, and save his blushes when he errs or runs out of ideas. Despite their competence, they have always known that officer rank is beyond them, that being the domain of born gentlemen. In the rare event that their courage demands higher promotion, they try desperately to fit into a foreign social world. With this understood background, Sergeant Michael Caine is gloriously different. Like an American, he despises rank, and only works for a rise in salary. He doesn't attempt to blend in by wearing the clothes of an officer, or by modifying his accent. He equally despises both the praise & blame of his superiors, offering them as much insolence as he can get away with. Nonetheless, he takes a pride in his work, and is always more able than those around him. In addition, despite his contempt for the elite, he enjoys their cultural toys: Mozart, fine cuisine, and smart, pretty women. Here, the working class hero is living on his own terms beyond his native environment, and posing a challenge to a decaying ruling order. This echoes the postwar movement of newly-educated talent from the North & working class into a London which had begun to value ability over family background. The feckless upper class incompetents, represented here by Chilcott-Oakes, were getting the chop. The brainwashing plot itself had become a bit stale in the 3 years since the publication of Deighton's 1962 novel: the same year Manchurian Candidate was released. The term `brain drain' was then in use to mean the exodus of educated Britons for better money abroad. Here, Deighton envisions an audio weapon that literally drains the higher intelligence of previously-kidnapped government scientists. The majesterially pompous Colonel Guy Doleman assigns Sergeant Caine to investigate, under the immediate eye of a suspect department head in British military intelligence. Caine succeeds in contacting the kidnappers, who hope to trade their weapon. However, the betrayal of Caine's carefully-laid ambush and the suspect behaviour of his new lover, make him distrust all in authority, even Doleman. The climax, involving blood and torture, is a little harrowing. However, order is restored. Caine, having briefly held the power of life and death over both of his superiors, returns to the humdrum life of intelligence detective work, still a sergeant, if slightly better paid. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Film reproduction excellent condition
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
A great classic film with Michael Caine at his best well worth a watch.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
a classic film
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The king of the Harry Palmers
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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