Film review: The Last Spy

It is immediately clear that Sichel is lighthearted, having clearly reached the stage of life in which he no longer worries about his reputation, career, or even his livelihood. This, coupled with the stereotype of European bluntness - to which Sichel confesses in the documentary - means that his frankness is on full display within the first two minutes. 

We are comically introduced to Sichel slowly entering the frame on a chair lift. We have almost a minute to study this person - someone who was so instrumental in forming the intelligence sector as we now know it - and he is positively unassuming. He is aged, obviously frail, and appears warm in demeanour. It is entirely possible at this point that the audience would assume this to be a story of heroic patriotism. While that is not entirely untrue, it is very clearly not the message that Peter Sichel wants us to take away.  In fact, he is intentionally denouncing the Central Intelligence Agency as soon as the documentary allows him to by suggesting that the over-classification of intelligence means the USA struggles to “learn from their mistakes”. This is our first hint that Otto-Bernstein, together with Sichel, is here to comment on a story far bigger than one man’s life - and rather the repeated stories of governments with a desire for power larger than they could ever satisfy. 

The Last Spy is unashamed in its genre, constantly flicking between interview shots of Sichel in his pristine, light, American home and the chaos of his wartime past. The quiet cleanliness of his current surroundings drastically contradicts the fear of his childhood, of which we are seeing constant imagery. Concentration camps, anti-semitic propaganda, the secret mass exodus of Jews escaping Germany, as whispers spread of their complete annihilation. Sichel speaks of his childhood matter-of-factly, as if it were normal. Most noteworthily, however, is the way he speaks of his mother. He is blunt about his father’s insecurity and fear mindset, and just barely mentions that he had a sister, but credits his mother with the survival of his entire family. He speaks of her instinct to get out of Germany when Hitler first came into power, and again when she knew they needed to flee Europe altogether. He is clearly deeply fond of her and speaks of her with a respect that he does not grant any other person in the whole feature - she is essential.

Sichel's childhood inside and escaping the Nazi regime is the foundation of his story. He has, from that point, an intrinsic understanding of power, manipulation, and freedom. He tells a shocking story of the family’s move to New York during World War Two, in which he quickly noticed that there was a Nazi contingency a few blocks away from them. It is a chilling realisation - and subtly parallels current events - that fascism could also be found in the land of the free. Perhaps this is helpful in Sichel, refreshingly not picking up the stereotypical American exceptionalist mindset. He is consistently honest about the USA’s selfish ambition in international relations and its blatant disregard for intelligence when it does not fit the story they want to tell. 

This inevitably becomes the story that Peter Sichel tells. His life is fascinating, fast-paced, and scandalous. He is evidently brave, passionate, and very intelligent. But the message that Otto-Bernstein so obviously wants us to hear is bigger. Sichel tells story after story of the USA bullying the rest of the world and basing very little of their actions on the intelligence received by their agencies. Most provocatively, he describes the fall of the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran. Placing the fault on the United States and the United Kingdom’s governments, who facilitated a coup d’etat to conquer Mossadegh without any perceived threat from their respective intelligence agencies. Of course, Mossadegh’s nationalisation of Iranian oil fields triggered fear in Western nations, and they grappled to regain some control over their resources and replaced Mossadegh with a pro-Western military government. Sichel consistently renounces the CIA and the US government for their lying, selfishness, and fear-mongering. He goes as far as to say that their destructive techniques were the catalyst for the ruin of multiple economies and governments around the world - namely Iran and Guatemala -  and he could no longer serve the CIA in good conscience. He expresses deep empathy for the affected nations, especially Guatemala, and declares that the USA “destroyed it for a long time… unforgivable”. 

The documentary is kind to Peter Sichel and allows much space for his storytelling. The nature of this format - interview-style questions and overlaid historical footage - risks being too slow. Although it honours Sichel’s life and truly dignifies him, this also sacrifices any form of dramatisation that may increase the pace of the film. Otto-Bernstein chooses instead to communicate a clear and assertive final message from an incredibly effective source. To hear such stark warnings directly from someone who played such a primary role in the post World War, Cold War, and Red Scare eras of intelligence cuts through the cloud of lies that have been perpetuated by the enormous world powers. It is a reminder to each of us that the story we are told by such powers must be questioned and challenged, and cannot be fooled by the notion that the West is the moral standard for the rest of humanity. Peter Sichel encourages us to always search for the truth, to prioritise the voice of the people, and to live in the world that we have been given - not the story we have curated. He clearly concludes that “poverty, disease, over-population and climate change - these are the things that are more important than gaining the upper hand over one another ”.