THE ASSIGNMENT

THE ASSIGNMENT opens with a squalid scene of a little boy relieving himself in a street to the sounds of lovemaking. Nude Carlos (Aidan Quinn) looks out a shabby window and tells a naked woman to get lost as he burns a spider in its web with the end of his cigarette. He puts on a disguise, then enters a French café, where he greets CIA agent Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) just before he throws a grenade, which kills and maims innocent men, women, and children. Shaw realizes that the man who greeted him was the notorious Carlos.

Long, unkempt hair, Carlos interrupts an OPEC meeting at its ornate headquarters and holds the Arab delegates hostage until he gets a $20 million in ransom. Jack Shaw strenuously objects to giving into Carlos’ demands and recommends that the CIA kill the terrorist once and for all when they encounter him at the Paris airport just before Carlos boards his plane. Shaw’s boss interrupts the assassination of the killer and reminds Shaw that the United States does not officially assassinate people.

Annibal Ramirez (Aidan Quinn), a Navy lieutenant who bears a striking resemblance to Carlos wanders through an Israeli market on shore leave. A group of Israeli-looking men give chase, and Ramirez flees, running into a crowded market stall, where he is jumped, beaten and thrown into jail. Israeli Intelligence Officer, Amos (Ben Kingsley), a MOSSAD agent, is convinced he has found Carlos, but, during the interrogation, Amos realizes his mistake and releases a very angry Ramirez, who vows to sue him.

Realizing the strategic value of Ramirez’s cooperation, Shaw immediately seizes the opportunity to conscript Ramirez into CIA service to capture Carlos. He trains for months without knowing exactly what the operation is. After repeated objections, Shaw finally persuades Ramirez to join the fight after he shows him pictures of the young boys Carlos killed. Then, Shaw tells Ramirez that he must commit adultery and possibly murder others in order to snare this terrorist. Shaw tells Ramirez that he has to adopt Carlos’ mindset in order to survive, and he does.

Shaw plans to convince the KGB that Carlos has defected to the CIA in order that the KGB will kill him themselves. Because a French counter-terrorism operation goes wrong, Ramirez ends up committing adultery and killing French operatives. He returns to his family in Virginia and kills an over-zealous little league father in a spat. Angry and bitter, Ramirez realizes that he has become almost as evil as Carlos. His wife knows something is changed. He confesses to her that he has had another woman and has killed men in the service of his country.

Shaw pursues another plan to capture Carlos and conscripts Ramirez once again, this time threatening his family. The result has an interesting twist. In the end, Ramirez stares out a window and burns a spider in a web, indicating that Carlos’ evil has possessed Ramirez, perhaps forever.

The theme of the movie is that all intelligence organizations are deceitful, and the CIA and the MOSSAD are just as ugly and evil as the international terrorists against whom they fight. Quinn does a good job of rendering the dilemma of the double-minded man, torn between his desire to serve his country, and to love his family.

With good production values and superb acting, THE ASSIGNMENT communicates the message that the only way man can defeat evil is with more evil. This message is cynical and anti-Christian. Jesus Christ defeated evil on the Cross (Colossians 2:15), and He didn’t use more evil. He offered Himself, the Sinless One, as the only atonement for sin and evil. Jesus defeated evil once and for all time with good.

THE ASSIGNMENT opens with lewd images, apt images for a movie which exposes the truth that the world, without God, is evil and unsafe. The tragedy of this movie is that there is a deeper truth − there is a God who has defeated evil with good.