Two-time Oscar nominee Steve James is superb at establishing the context of World Warfare II and its quick aftermath, the beginning of the so-called Chilly Warfare, the propaganda of the Purple Scare, and the wild fluctuations of the American Left. He makes use of archival footage (word the chilling “blooper” when President Truman begins laughing in the midst of saying America dropped the bomb on Hiroshima) and propagandistic songs like “Atomic Energy,” paranoia engulfing the “free world” after the conflict ended.
The true nature of the Soviet system, and Stalin’s monstrosities, have been clear for a lot of to see, regardless of the “helpful idiots” parroting Soviet propaganda, typically within the pages of the New York Instances (see: Pulitzer-Prize winner Walter Duranty). The cynical Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939, wherein Russia and Germany secretly determined to carve up Poland, despatched shock waves. When Hitler invaded Russia in 1941, the pact was rendered null and void, however many onlookers by no means recovered from the betrayal. The Halls, nonetheless, felt betrayed a lot later when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia to quash the “Prague Spring.” It’s necessary to underline that many individuals noticed the reality 30 years earlier (see: George Orwell, who additionally noticed the world by means of “pinkish” glasses however was clear-sighted sufficient to get the memo about what was occurring in 1936-38 throughout his experiences within the Spanish Civil Warfare.).
James makes use of re-enactments to indicate us Ted and Joan’s life. Whereas they’re gently and respectfully finished, they’re pointless, significantly when you might have as sturdy a storyteller as Joan Corridor, who paints vivid photos along with her phrases. The re-enactments do not serve the identical goal because the re-enactments in, say, Errol Morris’ “The Skinny Blue Line,” the place they underline the unreliability of witness testimony. Right here, they’re interruptions, not illuminations.
“A Compassionate Spy” is strongest in digging into the archives to offer audiences who won’t know this cultural historical past an actual really feel for what was occurring. The Chilly Warfare did not simply occur. It was constructed by Wall Road and industrialists (one thing which Ted Corridor predicted throughout his time at Los Alamos). The very current previous the place America was pro-Russia was unthinkable within the 70 years that adopted. James exhibits fascinating clips from Michael Curtiz’s 1943 movie “Mission to Moscow,” starring Walter Huston and Ann Harding, that includes a flattering portrait of Soviet society in addition to a rattling close to cuddly Stalin. (If you happen to’re considering a deeper dive into Hollywood’s interpretation of Russia within the late ’30s and early ’40s, pre-Chilly Warfare, you need to undoubtedly take a look at Farran Smith Nehme’s in-depth essay Shadows of Russia: A historical past of the Soviet Union, as Hollywood noticed it.)