THE COURIER IS NOT JUST ANOTHER SPY MOVIE
Directed by Dominic Cooke, The Courier is the story of how the gravity of the Russian threat came to the attention of President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missiles Crisis of 1962. The basic facts are quite simple: In 1960, the Kremlin discovers that Major Pyotr Popov (played by Petr Klimes) is a spy for the CIA and is shot dead. That leaves a serious void in efforts to learn about the machinations of Nikita Khrushchëv (Vladimir Chuprikov) during the Cold War, when the United States had nuclear superiority but the Russians did not yet have first-strike capability—that is, until Khrushchëv decides to set up a missile base in Cuba and send missiles that could strike the southeastern United States. Acting on behalf of the CIA, M16 decides to ask Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch), a British business trader, to set up operations in Moscow so that he would be in a position to receive documents (become a courier) from a source inside the Red Army—Colonel Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze). After a slow start to the film, Wynne and Penkovsky meet, and the flow of documents goes inside “presents” from Penkovsky to various British citizens. At first Wynne is not enthusiastic about his role, but he becomes more committed as he flies back and forth between London and Moscow, albeit to the potential detriment of his marriage. The two men interact so often that filmviewers will come to the conclusion that they are too chummy for their own good, and indeed the KGB sets up a trap. A crisis point arrives when Wynne tries to gain freedom for Penkovsky after the latter is denied the opportunity to attend a trade fair in London. The escape fails, and both men are arrested. Wynne remains imprisoned, questioned, and tortured for a year until he is traded for a Soviet citizen in a British jail. The actual fate of Penkovsky is left out of the film, but he is doubtless executed. Although the film is somewhat longer than needed to portray a true story, the Political Film Society has nominated The Courier for best film exposé of 2021. The film treats Wynne and Penkovsky as heroes willing to sacrifice their lives to avoid a Third World War, so the nomination also includes best film promoting peace. MH