The Whistle Blower (1987)

whistle blower came out in 1986 A war veteran tries to investigate the murder of his son who was working as a Russian translator for the British intelligence service during the Cold War. He meets a web of deception and paranoia that seems impenetrable.6/10 i gave it at 1hr 40 Min's it looks very 80 s set in the 60s ..Michael Caine ... plays a father called frank Jones widowed businessman and retired Navy officer his son is a Twenty-eight year old idealist Bob Jones is contemplating leaving his position as a Russian translator at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) as those at the top have issued a new whistle blowing policy - encouraging employees to report any suspicious behavior - in light of the highly publicized case of Ramsay Dodgson, a Soviet spy who was working undetected in the organization for ten years before being caught. Bob does not like the idea of being at the mercy of work colleagues, most, like Dodgson, who he did and does not know. he confides to his father that part of his want to leave the job, which also entails eavesdropping on private conversations between Soviet officials on a multitude of everyday topics, is that he believes the British and by association Americans are just as corrupt as the Russians in how they infiltrate institutions most of the public see as commonplace, this belief to which Within the Secret World of Governmental Cover Ups, Will the one man who dares to tell the truth survive?One of two espionage movies released in 1987 that starred Michael Caine. The other spy film was The Fourth ProtocolThe Whistle Blower tells a story which is likely to be obsolete nowadays. The end of the cold war rendered stories of this nature difficult to perceive but was written at a time when relations between the US and USSR were strained and scandals were rife in British Intelligence and at GCHQ.. The Whistle Blower tells a good story which is easy to follow and comprehend. It is bolstered by a good cast but let down by poor direction making it staid in places

I notice that Netflix has this film listed under "Thrillers." It's not a thriller, but rather a fairly complex drama about what happens when people who are schooled not to trust anyone have almost unlimited power with no accountability. There's never a "stupid moment" in this film that reveals to us, the audience, or to Michael Caine as the protagonist, who the bad guys are or what they've done. We have to peel the layers off the onion along with Michael Caine. There is no James Bond ending in which the bad guys' island explodes and collapses into the sea. Instead, there is a real world ending tailored for adults. I liked the film.

...but this movie was saved by Michael Caine (who can make a bad movie watchable) and Nigel Havers as his son... Caine was great as the father trying to find out why his son Robert (Havers) died... His son was an analyst for Britian's GCHQ (the equivalent of the NSA in the U.S)... Through flashbacks, we learn that Robert has stumbled on some activities that British Intelligence would just as soon not have made public, but Robert has a conscience...Good premise and well done... BUT, what really griped me was the ending sequence when Sir John Gielgud was given some lines to say that were lifted almost verbatim from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (both the book and the Alec Guinness mini-series)... I felt ripped off... This spoiled what was otherwise a reasonably entertaining cloak-and-dagger, paranoia flick...

It was nice to see a film about cold war paranoia that was about the U.K. and not the U.S. Caine is very good, and the script is above average. A good thriller that doesn't resort to inane/unrealistic violence to keep interest.