 Since joining the CIA in 1964, Milton Bearden has witnessed, firsthand, many things he could tell us about, but then he'd have to… Well, you know. But it was after retiring from active service in 1994 that his career really got interesting. Bearden is a published author, newspaper contributor, and, of course, technical advisor on films such as Meet the Parents, The Good Shepherd, and Charlie Wilson's War, now on DVD. We cornered him in an undisclosed location for his thoughts on the CIA's role in movies.
As a consultant, are there still details you can't give away, even in the name of movie realism?
For me, the rule is: Don't do anything that makes the job harder for the people still doing it. So yeah, there are lines you can't cross. Real dark secrets that I hold would probably bore you to death, and get people hurt.
 OK, let's start with the Bourne trilogy: How accurate is its depiction of the CIA?
There are two kinds of films involving the CIA. Movies like the Bourne trilogy are designed for entertainment, but not authenticity, because the CIA is a vehicle for telling a good yarn. It doesn't really matter that it's the CIA, but you wouldn't believe it if they said he worked for the post office. Other movies, like The Good Shepard and Charlie Wilson's War, get it right, because the CIA isn't just a metaphor, it's real. But I'm not offended by anything that goes wildly off target in something like Bourne. I think they're just terrific, fun movies.
So The Good Shepard is accurate then?
Yeah, but the problem was with the old-timers from the CIA insisting that the Matt Damon character was James Angleton [one of the agency's early foundation builders], when he wasn't. We were doing a composite of a whole generation and using that as a metaphor for the way America was run—by guys that went to Yale and were maybe in Skull and Bones. Before World War II, America was a very tightly run club. I even had one guy from the CIA say, "You know, there was some shitty stuff about Skull and Bones in that movie…" So I said, "Were you in Skull and Bones?" And he said, "Well, I can't tell you." [Laughs.] But some of the props and stuff we really nailed. Nobody's ever nailed it like that.
 How deep is the Skull and Bones connection?
Who knows? We had two presidential candidates in the last election, Kerry and Bush, who are both Skull and Bones. And Bush's father, too. I don't think the CIA had too many, but I went out to Berkeley to do a panel on The Good Shepard, and someone said, "How many would you even have known?" Then you start thinking, Well…oh, shit! [Laughs.]
Now we're freaked out. Let's hit something lighter—namely, Felix Leiter in the Bond movies. How accurate is he?
The Bond movies started around the time I started with the CIA, and they were terrific fun—but they had nothing to do with anything. The Felix Leiter character was a jerk-off; they wrote him to have a little bit of built-in klutziness. It's Bond who does the cool stuff, and Leiter just dicks things up.
How about 3 Days of the Condor?
That was a pretty neat movie. Didn't have anything to do with the CIA. Didn't matter, though. I could ask you right now: What was Redford's job in the movie? You might say, "He did something with books or something…" Didn't matter. The chase was the story.
But did you have cool code names like "Condor"?
No, you actually want absolutely anodyne code names. If you get too cute and a code name gets compromised, there might be a clue in there that you don't want. Usually, they are not thought up by the people involved. You go to the Wicked Witch of Code Names in Room 41B, and she gives them to you.
Can you tell us your code name?
I wouldn't tell anyone that. But I also wouldn't flatter myself that anyone would give a shit. [Laughs.]
 Syriana—accurate or not?
I thought the agendas of the people involved made it all so convoluted and filigreed that it became bothersome. Whenever you do those Oliver Stone conspiracies—that every agency in Washington is in cahoots with Big Oil and they're ready to kill anyone who gets in on their secret—they bore me. And the Bob Baer character who Clooney played—Bob served with me in East Africa, he's a good friend, but the movie got off on tangents. I'll tell you, the most accurate thing ever done was in Meet the Parents.
Wait…what?
The polygraph. I was advising on the film, and Jay Roach, the director, called me and said, "We need something." I said, "Have you thought about a secret room?" And he liked that, then asked me, "What's in it?" I said he'd have some of his stuff in there, like an old Samsonite briefcase polygraph. And the rest is history. They even used my photographs on the walls, of me in Afghanistan, doctoring in Bob De Niro.
 What was so accurate about the polygraph?
The three types of questions. You have the question that you're really trying to get answered, then you have throwaway questions that you know will be answered truthfully, and then control questions that no one can get through. "Did we have roast beef tonight?" "Yes." Then, "Was it underdone?" Well, this guy's wife cooked it, so the subject's going to pause and think, Oh shit. That "oh shit" goes into all five polygraph needles. That's what you call a control question. Then he got to the real questions he wanted answered, like "Do you watch porn?"
Amazing. OK, one last movie: How accurate was Spies Like Us?
[Laughs.] Oh, jeez…
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