Movies: The Russia House (1990)

When the West went gaga for Glasnost, ‘The Russia House’ rightly did not

John Le Carre’s 1989 novel The Russia House was adapted as a major motion picture in 1990. The Russia House, directed by Fred Schepisi and co-starring Sean Connery, features a character that seeks to exploit a fleeting moment of openness (“glasnost”) before Soviet Russia collapsed. In those months, Western intellectuals heralded Soviet reform as a grand historic moment. It wasn’t. The Russia House, changing the catalyst character’s name from Goethe to Dante, runs flat and somewhat confusing. But it depicts Russia. In today’s context, this makes The Russia House worth a look.

“Nowadays you have to behave like a hero just to behave like a decent human being,” someone says in this espionage movie, which skewers the West (which would quicken its decline in the Nineties,) and Soviet Russia (which would collapse within months of the film’s Christmastime release.) I saw The Russia House in a movie theater after it debuted. I remember thinking that it was muddled but good. I remember concludin…