Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene

Intrigue and majesty
This film, narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi, explores the precipitous, passionate life of the British writer Graham Greene. Three threads weave throughout Greene's like, and this film, all three of which invite intrigue and peril. To escape the boredom of ordinary life Greene pursues in his life and writing the desolation of some of the twentieth century's most tragic events--death and destruction in Kenya, Viet Nam, and Haiti--in novels such as "The Third Man" and "The Quiet American". A second thread leads Greene into the wilderness of depression and to the brink of despair, even to the point of suicide, for example, in his first novel "The Man Within". A third finds Greene precariously balancing faith and doubt, fidelity and infidelity, to God and wife. Doubts permeate his struggles as a Catholic Christian, while at the same time faith sustains him in those struggles, as portrayed in novels such as "Brighton Rock" and "The Heart of the Matter". Director Thomas O'Connor skillfully...

Dangerous Edge: Graham Greene's Intrigue and Depression
Dangerous Edge: Graham Greene's Intrigue and Depression

During his tenure with British intelligence, Graham Greene reported directly to the notorious Soviet mole Kim Philby. It was rather fitting the espionage novelist and chronic adulterer would be so closely associated with such a significant betrayer. Yet, Greene consistently offered tortured defenses of his friend. He was "complicated" that way. Thomas P. O'Connor surveys the writer's work and ironic life in Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene (promo here), which airs this Friday night on most PBS outlets.

Greene was never awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but he was nominated for an Oscar. Indeed, with so many Greene's books and screenplays produced for the big screen, O'Connor has a wealth of cinematic imagery available to illustrate Greene's oeuvre, without ever scraping the bottom of the barrel. In fact, at least two of Greene's scripts became outright masterpieces: The Third Man and...

A Graham Greene Biopic Walks the "Dangerous Edge" Between His Failures and Successes
Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene is a comprehensive look at the life and work of British author Graham Greene. While he is best known for his novels The Third Man, The Quiet American, and The End of the Affair, he also worked in British counter-intelligence for a time and spoke out against the United States government's misguided attempts at nation-building. As a writer and a public figure, he has a complicated but important legacy as a man who fought for the underdog and fought to survive his severe depression as thoughts of suicide plagued him his entire life. PBS has produced an excellent documentary that covers all these aspects of his life while still staying focused and informative.

I knew I was in for a treat with this documentary when I saw that Sir Derek Jacobi was the film's narrator and that Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Shaun of the Dead) would be reading Graham Greene's letters and other correspondence. I had heard of The Third Man but had no idea of its...

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