By Jason Apuzzo. We wanted Libertas readers to know that a movie we were very excited about last year, the new Cold War thriller Farewell, just recently came to Blu-ray/DVD – and is available now here through the LFM Store. Special thanks to reader Vince for tipping me off about Farewell‘s release.
Farewell tells the true story of a disenchanted K.G.B. colonel — code-named ‘Farewell’ by Western spy agencies – who decided that he could no longer serve the Soviet state, and consequently chose to funnel classified information to French intelligence agents. This intelligence apparently included information on what the Soviets knew about our air defenses, how much the Soviets were spending on defense, what defense technologies they were stealing from the United States, and also a list of highly placed K.G.B. agents who’d infiltrated government and industry in the West.
The leaking of this information, when later combined with President Reagan’s public commitment to create the ‘Star Wars’ missile defense system, were crucial elements in the winning of the Cold War. In fact, President Ronald Reagan himself called L’Affaire Farewell “one of the most important espionage cases of the 20th century.”
Farewell stars Willem Defoe, David Soul and Fred Ward as Ronald Reagan, and you can read Joe Bendel’s glowing Libertas review of the film here. The film is available on Blu-ray/DVD, and through Amazon streaming. Give it a look!
Posted on April 22nd, 2011 at 12:04pm.
Great, riveting film that is a good bookend to “The Lives of Others.” My wife who traveled through Russia during 80-81, as an American college student in Krakow, Poland, says that this really captures the look and feel of “behind the Iron Curtain.”
I spent some time in East Germany and also in Soviet Russia before the Cold War came to an end. These films do a wonderful job of recreating the drabness and low-level anxiety of that world.