Ugh! I don't like these mind games. We have two characters who are identical now I have to figure out who's who. This has been done in various genres with movies like "Big Business" with Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler, "Dead Ringers" with Jeremy Irons, "Dead of Winter" with Mary Steenburgen, "Double Impact" with Jean-Claude Van Damme, "Twin Dragons" with Jackie Chan, and others.
In this movie, "The Assignment," there is a super-terrorist named Carlos (Aidan Quinn) who has no regard for human life. He has evaded all law enforcement agencies, and one man, CIA agent Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland), has a particular pining for him. Carlos is all but abandoned as far as a target until a doppelganger named Annibal Ramirez (also Aidan Quinn) is taking shore leave in Israel. Once he was able to convince Israeli counterterrorism agent Amos (Ben Kingsley) that he wasn't Carlos, he was recruited by Amos and Shaw to help capture Carlos.
The plan was simple, yet so very complex. Amos and Shaw were going to train Annibal to be Carlos so that they could set Carlos up. If Annibal could convince the watchful eye of the KGB that Carlos was selling intel to the CIA, then the KGB would do the world a favor and kill Carlos itself.
Carlos, like most bad guys, was a hard target. But what I appreciated about this movie is that it wasn't riddled with thousands of spent rounds, ridiculous car chases, and superfluous explosions. The point was that Carlos was hard to get to, not hard to kill. It wasn't as if Carlos was just outrunning everyone, he was just that adept at laying low and being well guarded.
"The Assignment" showed just how far a government, or just some government agents, will go to get a precious target. Boundaries of personal ethics were really pushed in this movie. There comes a point in which you have to ask yourself, "Where does country rank on my list of priorities and allegiances?" Is it above self? Is it above religion? Is it above family? Maybe the answers are easy when a person is musing by himself on his porch on a Saturday afternoon, but what about when a CIA agent is working you and working you from every angle? It becomes a little cloudy then.
In this movie, "The Assignment," there is a super-terrorist named Carlos (Aidan Quinn) who has no regard for human life. He has evaded all law enforcement agencies, and one man, CIA agent Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland), has a particular pining for him. Carlos is all but abandoned as far as a target until a doppelganger named Annibal Ramirez (also Aidan Quinn) is taking shore leave in Israel. Once he was able to convince Israeli counterterrorism agent Amos (Ben Kingsley) that he wasn't Carlos, he was recruited by Amos and Shaw to help capture Carlos.
The plan was simple, yet so very complex. Amos and Shaw were going to train Annibal to be Carlos so that they could set Carlos up. If Annibal could convince the watchful eye of the KGB that Carlos was selling intel to the CIA, then the KGB would do the world a favor and kill Carlos itself.
Carlos, like most bad guys, was a hard target. But what I appreciated about this movie is that it wasn't riddled with thousands of spent rounds, ridiculous car chases, and superfluous explosions. The point was that Carlos was hard to get to, not hard to kill. It wasn't as if Carlos was just outrunning everyone, he was just that adept at laying low and being well guarded.
"The Assignment" showed just how far a government, or just some government agents, will go to get a precious target. Boundaries of personal ethics were really pushed in this movie. There comes a point in which you have to ask yourself, "Where does country rank on my list of priorities and allegiances?" Is it above self? Is it above religion? Is it above family? Maybe the answers are easy when a person is musing by himself on his porch on a Saturday afternoon, but what about when a CIA agent is working you and working you from every angle? It becomes a little cloudy then.