MovieChat Forums > Spy Game (2001) Discussion > Tom Bishop was originally scripted to be...

Tom Bishop was originally scripted to be korean?

posted 15 years ago by bcrow-2
3 replies | jump to latest

There are some events in the film that are hinting in that direction.

Some history beforehand: During the Vietnam war, around 300,000 (south) korean soldiers fought in vietnam on the american side, though generally not welcomed by american soldiers since they, well, were asian, just like the enemy.

When Tom Bishop is introduced in the flashback in Vietnam, he is found in the korean part of the camp site, and it is, AFAIR, not explained why he is there. Just that the food smells odd. He even speaks korean, and is accompanied by a fellow korean soldier on the mission.

In the chinese prison, nobody seems to care that he is a non-asian in a secured prison, though that could be explained by being in a NGO like the red cross. Still makes you wonder.

In Beirut, he works as a photographer, an occupation that works well with the clichee of the camera obsessed asian.

It would also explain, why the US officials in the present are so eager of NOT acknowledging the captured Tom Bishop as one of their own.

There are a few things that contradict the theory, though.

An asian agent at the inner-german border would probably raise suspicion. Perhaps this episode was sketched out in the first script with the north-korean+south-korean border? Or was entered later?

Anyway, a lot of the confusing events in the film make a lot more sense when Tom Bishop was originally sketched out as a korean soldier.

[–] schumithecat 15 years ago

I don't think those guys were Korean. They were South Vietnamese. They are referred to as "ARVN" (pronounced r-vin) (Army of Republic of Vietnam, i.e. South Vietnam) in the movie. Redford was trying to help some valuable ARVN soldiers because he knew when the US pulled out shortly they would be executed or put in reeducation camps if the South lost the war).

[–] DPir1320 15 years ago

It's explained that the snipers like to stay by themselves, plus nobody else likes the smell of the food they cook. They cook that food because out in the field, Vietcong or North Vietnamese soldiers wouldn't notice their food versus the different smelling food that regular American soldiers would be eating.

[–] dweil2-2 12 years ago

"It's explained that the snipers like to stay by themselves, plus nobody else likes the smell of the food they cook. They cook that food because out in the field, Vietcong or North Vietnamese soldiers wouldn't notice their food versus the different smelling food that regular American soldiers would be eating".

It's not about the smell of the food, it's about the smell of the soldiers' BODY ODOR. North Vietnamese soldiers were supposedly adept at detecting the presence of US soldiers by their smell, which was different than the smell of Asians, due primarily to the food that they ate.