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The Double

    Good evening. It is cooler tonight, about 62 degrees at ten P.M. I had a nice day and so far a very pleasant evening. Carley and I just watched a very good movie called The Double. It stars Richard Gere as a retired CIA agent named Paul Shepherdson and Topher Grace as an FBI agent named Ben Geary. Martin Sheen stars as Paul's former boss, Tom Highland.
     Ben Geary is young, bright and naive. Most of his knowledge is based on the classes he had at Harvard. He got into the FBI because he wrote an exceptional thesis about a legendary assassin, code-named Cassius. He is convinced that Cassius is still alive, though Paul (Gere) claims to have killed the hit man many years ago.
     Paul is called out of retirement to assist the youngster on the case because he knows more about the guy than anyone. This is certainly true because we learn, early on, that Paul is actually Cassius. He assists Ben for a while and feels sorry for the poor bonehead, so he doesn't kill him. Actually, he likes the kid's family, a wife and two little ones. He doesn't want to make the children fatherless.
    So, Paul endeavors to keep Ben off his trail and tries to keep him alive at the same time. He could have killed the rascal in a hundred different ways but holds back.
      Paul, in his alter ego of Cassius, has a special watch he likes to use. It has a knob which is used to wind the watch but if you pull the knob out, there is a length of steel cable admirably suited for a Garote. He can and does take down one target on a busy street, stealing his bag and cutting his throat from ear to ear in a split second; then strolling away nonchalantly with the bag.
     Ben begins to get odd feelings about his new partner. (Not in a romantic way.) He suspects that Paul is the legendary killer. Paul just wants to be off the grid, out of action and to live in his quiet house on a quiet street. Since he has neither wife nor children, on lonely evenings he watches youth baseball games in which he has no child playing. The softer side of life has no place in the career of a spy or assassin. In fact, in that glamorized yet ugly world of espionage, all the good things in life are held at arms length in order to fully embrace the harshness. Goodness is weakness, kindness is a luxury thrown away the day you lose your conscious.
   I must refrain from going very far into this movie, lest I ruin it for you. Why it never was a hit, I don't know. I found it to be excellent. True, I love spy stories and have written several myself, but I love to watch them and I think this one is good enough to entertain anyone. Seldom will I look up who wrote a screenplay or story but I did this one. I think it was excellent. It was written by the director, Michael Brandt, and also by Derek Haas.
    Check it out, if you wish. From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

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