Application for Luceti
Mun
Name : Mel
Livejournal Username: melodicinkysin
E-mail: melmal3@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: melmal03
Current Characters at Luceti: N/A
Character
Name: Guy Burgess
Gender: Male
Age: 34
Wing Color: Trench coat Beige
Time Period: 1945 (just after the 3rd film)
History: From what we find out from the films, Guy De Moncy Burgess was a child who predominantly grew up with only his mother. At a young age, his father died (a rather explicitly detailed story that Guy regales Donald with in the first film) leaving him with his mother, who sent him off to Eton college. After Eton, Guy went to Cambridge (Trinity College). The last year of his tutelage there is where the films begin.
At Cambridge, Guy is a member of the Apostles, an elite and invitation-based group that is claimed to be "the most influential society in Cambridge. All the top men are Apostles." From the Apostles, it is implied that Guy, along with Anthony Blunt, became a person of interest to the communist headquarters in Moscow. He and Anthony Blunt--who recruited who is speculation--work together as recruiters for the beginnings of the NKVD (the precursor to the KGB) to bring in young, red, idealist students to spy for Moscow and Stalin within the British societal infrastructure. The two begin to recruit Kim Philby and Donald Maclean not only to the Apostles, but also to bring them to work for Moscow as well.
We first meet Guy at a bar where Kim and Donald are sitting having drinks. When a Jewish girl Kim has taken an interest in is offended by Givens, Guy steps in, making an incredible fuss of insulting Givens until he leaves. The next morning at breakfast, Kim sits next to Guy in the dining hall. The two strike up conversation (beginning with Guy’s crass question, “Good fuck?”). Later, this serves as the tie so Guy and Anthony can begin befriending Kim and Donald in order to recruit them both for the NKVD. For while it is expressed both Anthony and Guy want Kim to join, Moscow will not have Kim without Donald.
Guy and Anthony become friends with Donald and Kim, Guy catching Kim's attention particularly with his boldness before administration, other students, and even fellows of the university. Yet while we come to learn of that blooming friendship and watch the recruitment process, we discover that Guy is in also in love with a poet named Julian, another member of the Apostles. Unfortunately for Guy, Anthony is sleeping with Julian, which Guy discovers just before the May Ball.
At the May ball, Guy is crushed by the revelation that his best friend is in a relationship with the man he loves, and makes a terrible scene by stripping naked atop the bridge and jumping into the water below. Kim and Donald join him, finally accepting their place as new recruits and know there is no turning back. Everything has changed.
As Kim works his way through his first assignment in Vienna, Guy and Anthony purchase a place of residence for the four of them. Upon Kim’s return with his wife, Litzi, we are introduced to Jack, Guy’s new lover who also serves as interior decorator and is a show boy.
When Kim is forced to leave his communist wife due to Otto’s orders to ‘bury the past’, they set to becoming that which they hate. Guy interviews for a position at the BBC, where he is hired to create a live ‘Agony Aunt’ program.
Unfortunately, as part of burying their pasts, none of the four are allowed to show sympathies toward anti-fascist ideas. The four go to a club where they run into Julian, who is taking up a collection to help the victims of the Spanish Civil War (a direct cause of Franco’s fascist rule). When Guy is forced to look his love in the eyes and lie that he is ‘not so sure he believes in all of this any more’, he grows upset. At the next party, Julian comes to bid Guy goodbye. He tells Guy that he is going to Spain to help fight in the war, which Guy protests. Julian tells Guy how disappointed he is that Guy has become what he is and leaves.
As a result, Guy grows despondent, slipping away to a public lavatory. There, he makes a pass at another man in the stalls via note and is caught. Before his hearing at the Bow Street Magistrate’s Court, Guy sets up a meeting with a Foreign Office official, who then attends his hearing. While Guy is acquitted from the charges of homosexuality, it is made clear that the judge, barrister, and official all know of Guy’s guilt. The official offers him a place in the Foreign Office as soon as the trial ends.
Guy sees Donald placed within the Foreign Offices. Soon after, news is delivered that Julian has died. Anthony and Kim break the news, and Guy rips a picture of Julian to keep with him.
While Kim is reporting in Spain, Guy is passed along orders from Otto to give to Kim. He meets Kim at a bar and tells him that while Kim is being pinned with a medal by Franco himself, Moscow has ordered that Kim assassinate the fascist leader.
Kim returns after being unable to do so, Guy comforts and hugs him. Afterwards, he asks Kim to bury the photograph of Julian in Spain for him. Guy soon returns to England.
Upon his return there is a mutual decision (voiced by Kim) that the past is buried enough. Anthony drinks with the Queen. Guy sees Kim placed in the Foreign Offices to join he, Anthony, and Donald. Everything is seemingly going well until Kim’s inability to assassinate Franco catches up. They lose their handler Otto, who is called back to Moscow answer for the failure. He dies there.
Kim and Anthony hear of the Hitler-Stalin Pact and all four men are crushed. Britain declares war on Germany. They are now spies at wartime, meaning they could be executed. At a bar, Guy loses his composure and threatens Kim with a broken tumbler glass. Rather than injuring him, however, he embraces him desperately in need of comfort. The men stay up all night, unable to sleep, and come to realize they stand or fall together as spies.
While Donald is stationed at the British Embassy in Paris, he takes an American wife and returns to England with her. He moves out of the house. After he reunites with the three others, Anthony confesses to Kim that he has been summoned, and it is agreed that Guy and Donald are not to know for their protection. Jack overhears and expresses his discontent with Guy and forces Anthony to explain why he is keeping the information between them.
The vetting goes well, and another party is thrown at the house. Guy asks Jack to cozy up to a diplomat the spies need to befriend, and Jack accuses Guy of whoring him out. Kim introduces his American shadow, James Jesus Angleton, who is CIA wanting to learn from the English. Anthony announces that it is his birthday, and after Guy plays the piano and gets the party to sing to him, he disappears. He and Jack begin a relationship, and Guy is abandoned by Jack.
As Germany plans to invade Russia, Britain is now her ally. They celebrate, which boosts Guy’s emotional state for a time. Anthony, however, is beginning to feel the pressures of a double life. As he works his way in with the Windsors, he begins to pull his way out of the British side of intelligence.
As Guy begins to grow unstable, so do things grow unstable around him. Walter Kravitzki, a Soviet defecting to the west begins to expose Donald as a spy. Kim passes it on to Moscow, and they have him killed. Anthony is being tailed by Soviets due to Moscow’s distrust of his information.
Additionally, Anthony is given a final assignment by the Windsors to release him from the British side of intelligence. He completes it, essentially abandoning Kim in MI6 to watch over the deteriorating Donald and Guy.
The 3rd film ends upon this horrible realization that while Anthony has made them ‘safe’ by obtaining the perfect blackmail, everything threatens to collapse around them.
Personality: Guy Burgess, in many ways, is a man of smoke and mirrors, of gloriously dazzling masks and the sort of man that--as a spy--is not about what he hides. Everything he is and wants you to believe he is stems from what he draws your eyes to and brings you to see. He is, perhaps, the most unlikely man in the world to be a spy for the Russians for that very reason.
Guy is, undoubtedly, a loud man in both volume and how outspoken he is. He is not beyond making a scene, and perhaps is most well known for the fusses he makes. His bellowing and cantankerous displays are as much a part of him as they are a part of the show. For if you are looking at his performance, there is likely something he is drawing far away from your curious eyes, behind the curtain and away from your attention. The manner in which Guy is introduced in the films is a perfect example of this. While another Cambridge student, Givens, is expressing his anti-Semitic views and insulting Kim in a way that takes the attention of the entire bar, Guy is discontent to remain an onlooker. He shatters a bottle, pulling every eye in the room to himself and proceeds to anger Givens to the point where Givens takes Guy by the collar and shoves him against the bar. Nonchalantly, Guy provokes him further, asking Givens to "hit the bloody ponce". Givens is so flustered, he leaves the bar. Kim looks on incredulously as Guy smokes a cigarette, having not a care for the way he is regarded in that moment. In the course of those few minutes, Guy’s actions teeter between impulse and careful maneuvering. For while he babbles on and insults Givens’ taste for Nazi uniforms and conformity, the situation with Kim and the Jewish girl he bought a drink for are quickly forgotten. Guy essentially diffuses situations by aggravating them and exacerbating the parties involved until their positions are manipulated to where he wants them to be.
Yet Guy is not always so plotting. In many instances, his boisterousness is born from some sort of extreme emotional state. That is not to say that only instances that warrant extreme reactions are cause for such behavior. Guy is (fortunately... or rather unfortunately) someone who feels and expresses his emotions highly pigmented and in saturated ways. Anger and sadness do not exist. Rather there is rage, and being “absolutely fucking desolate.” The grandiose ways he expresses such sentiments are a direct mirror (in proportion) to the strength of them. When the dean of Cambridge ignored his direct disobedience of the rules and chose to turn a blind eye to his sexual orientation and direct inquiry into the dean’s sexual orientation, Guy bellowed out a window at the passers by. His disgust at the system and bitter hate for his lack of punishment are catapulted into an outburst. Such outbursts are, surprisingly, quite characteristic. For as Guy berates anyone who might happen to be outside, Anthony stands there, smiling and knowing that Guy is very much himself. When the Hitler-Stalin pact is brought to light, all four of the Cambridge spies are at a loss. Not only was the cause they served allied temporarily with the cause they sought to destroy, but England declared war against Germany. Each of the four had reason to be ill at ease. Yet Guy’s reaction is the most frightening. He suddenly acts suspicious, jealous, and malicious toward his two dear friends. He makes a conspiracy out of the way that they look at each other, and just as he has made them both uncomfortable, Guy begins to laugh and turns it into a ridiculous joke. The three share a moment of dissolving tension just before Guy then threatens to cut Kim with the broken bar glass in his hand. For but ten seconds, all are convinced he means to do Kim harm as he lunges in, yet the action is soon over, and Guy is wrapped around Kim, desperately clinging to him in a brotherly embrace.
Guy is a man of addictions, in many ways. They might more appropriately be called ‘vices’, yet one thing is made clear by the films: Guy is an alcoholic. Amongst all his belongings, one that hardly ever--if at all--leaves his persons is a brown glass bottle of liquor he carries with him. He is often seen taking drinks from said bottle, as a comfort as well as out of habit. His morning drink is a series of three, which the cocktail waiter at the club knows by heart. A Double Burgess, named after himself, consisting of two parts vodka, one part grapefruit juice. Three Double Burgesses later, he is ‘set up’ ‘for the day’. Particularly in the third film, we see the effects catching up to him. At a party, Guy stumbles into the restroom, throws up in the sink and washes out his mouth with more champagne. The bottle of it is then tucked away into his bag for later. Yet the bathroom serves a secondary purpose. For while he cannot seem to hold his liquor that evening, Guy then proceeds to make a drop of information for Boris, a Soviet who likely works for the Russian Embassy. Wrapped in a condom, the information is put in the tank atop a toilet within the restroom before Guy falls of of it and onto the bathroom floor, still drunk.
Despite his flamboyant personality, the films make it very clear that quite often, Guy is sloshed. The astounding realization one comes to during the films, however, is that Guy is just as brilliant as he is unstable when so. Sober, he is at his intellectual peak. Drunk, he is ‘deeply unpredictable’, yet still able to function. As a recruiter for the NKVD, a producer at the BBC and as a spy particularly, Guy is in a position where social ties and making connections is as much a part of what he does as the tasks his work gives him. He throws parties at the house he and his friends share in England, establishes his connections with the other pillars of British society through work, travels the world schmoozing politicians and persons of interest for the BBC, and is wildly charismatic. Yet while he does interact with such people, Guy very rarely is without liquor in him.
There are two other ‘vices’ Guy possesses, although due to the time he lived one of them is not truly considered to be. Guy is very much a smoker, going nowhere without his cigarette case and lighter. The second is the far more dangerous of the two, and that addiction is other men. He is flamboyantly and unapologetically homosexual. Despite the fact that there are heavy legal repercussions--imprisonment for 10 years or more--Guy has no issue with admitting that he is gay to his social scene, his handlers from Moscow, and even the dean of Trinity at Cambridge. (Never you mind that he has the gall to ask the man if he’s a homosexual himself.) Guy is by no means a monogamist. He is a man who sleeps with who he pleases, going so far as to obtain such pleasures by sitting in a public restroom and passing notes over to the nearby stall. Unfortunately, Guy seems to face no consequences for his blatant gayness. He faces no punishment for his overt activities when caught having sex with one of the waiters on campus. Not only this, but later when he is caught passing a note in the public bathroom, he is acquitted of his crime by a judge, barrister, and Foreign Office employee who all know he was guilty of his crime.
Guy is a passionate man, though his priorities are arranged so oddly that his reverence and respect toward the individual are lacking as a direct result to his dedication to ideals. In the first film, he gives a very tense speech to an eager Kim Philby who wants desperately to get involved.
“Listen. Babies are dying in this country because they’re not fed properly. Old Men and women die alone and without dignity. Why? Because they’re poor. That’s all. Because they’re poor. I hate it. I hate it with all my being and I would do anything to change it. Anything. Personal feelings, small indignities, they just have to be put aside. It’s hard, sometimes it’s very hard, but it has to be.”
In that moment, we are given a rare glimpse into what is truly important to him. Yet that very same man treats his partner, Jack Hewitt, quite heartlessly. It’s not that he means to make Jack feel like a tart, it’s that what he asks of Jack--on behalf of the connections they need to make--very much makes Jack feel like nothing but a tart. He’s a bitter individual, particularly when leading a double life begins to take its toll on him. At a single dinner, he offends Kim Philby’s wife four times in a thirty second period. He lights the spotted dog she’s cooked on fire by dousing it with the liquor from his personal bottle, asks if her custard is made or bought, loudly mentions, “Speaking of my dick--” at the table, and quite blatantly remarks about how Kim will not be able to speak with Donald’s wife, Melinda, a woman whom Kim is very in love with. He is, as Kim states, deeply unpredictable. His only refuge in Washington is his liquor and his dear friend, and nothing can seemingly keep him under control.
The way in which he speaks is a defining characteristic for Guy’s personality. He has ticks and quirks as any other man, perhaps more noticeable, however. It is very clear when Guy speaks that he is incredibly educated. Yet most of his speeches come off as pithy, with an undercurrent that he is trying to make some point or another in the form of argument. Guy is someone who talks because it is what he is best at, and his rants are well known enough amongst his close circle. Quite often, Guy takes on a mocking tone. He tends to enjoy the provocation of others when he speaks, and his voice is--volume wise--loud. His cadence is seemingly erratic and yet it possesses a continuity to it that leaves the listener either tuning him out (due to the length of his winded speeches) or feeling as though something is not being said upfront to them. They know they're being pulled in to something, but not a soul can place where.
Strengths:
Physical: The one physical feature that Guy has as an advantage is that he is a striking man. He falls into bed with other men with ease, for his charm is paired with the way his lips pull, the way he poises his body.
“There was something strange about him. A sort of fallen angel. Fair curly hair, bright blue eyes. Sensuous mouth. When you looked at him a little closer you saw the fallen aspect. Fingers stained by the perpetual cigarette, the black fingernails, the open fly, the unbrushed teeth, slovenly manner, so that the angel on close examination had fallen.” --Michael Strait
Mental: Guy is one of the most brilliant men of not only his class, but of his generation. He received a scholarship for history at Trinity in Cambridge after attending the most exclusive public school in England: Eton College. He spent two years after his graduation on a teaching fellowship, a time during which he recruited for the Apostles, an intellectual secret society at the school. The Apostles are said to be some of the most influential men in all of Cambridge. He is quick witted, sharp tongued, and has the ability to seemingly take in information like a sponge. In the film, the dean looks at him and remarks that he is "one of this college’s brightest stars. What's next? White Hall? Parliament?" Anthony himself describes Guy as "an extraordinarily persuasive person" while Harold Nicholson claimed that he possessed "one of the most rapid and acute minds I knew." His work for the Russians included not only photographing documents that he had clearance for, but coding messages through his broadcasts at the BBC to them. Guy was a walking, massive vessel for information. Vladamir Petrov wrote that "The volume of material Burgess supplied was so colossal that the cipher clerks of the Soviet Embassy were at times almost fully employed in enciphering it so that it could be radioed to Moscow, while other urgent messages had to be dispatched in diplomatic bags by couriers." All in all, Guy is undeniably and inarguably brilliant.
Emotional: Guy, unfortunately, has very few strengths within his emotions. However, the fact that he is so immersed in what he feels gives him the ability to empathize and sympathize quite powerfully. Because he ties his heart to his causes, he's an incredibly loyal individual to his principals, his ideals, his friends, and the people he loves. He loves fiercely. He loathes intensely. He just cares so damn much.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Guy is not a large man by any means. He is rather small by most standards, having little height to him and a lack of muscles. He lacks the ability to physically intimidate people, too boyishly charming to manage a feat by appearance alone.
Mental: As stated in his personality section, Guy has quite a few vices that impair him. Being an alcoholic, the man is often drunk, leaving his mental state impaired. The reason this even happens is due to a mental fault he never corrects: Guy has no self control whatsoever. He is indulgent, dependent, romantic, and impulsive. Despite that Guy's brilliance is unquestioned, Guy does not typically think before he speaks. He lacks a certain amount of tact, and he knows no subtlety. His ability to withstand the stress that spying places on his mental strength is, at best, volatile. Despite the high expectations set for him due to his brilliance, he in many ways falls short.
Emotional: When one delves into Guy Burgess, they are presented with a sentimental romantic who has the least stable mood sets perhaps of any unmedicated individual. His moods and emotional states are as predictable as his behavior. He is perhaps one of the most emotionally weak men of the Cambridge spies, yet rather than setting to master them Guy finds himself a victim to them. He is nearly always ruled by his sentiments, which for a spy is highly dangerous. He is also a pacifist in wartime. While he may have strong principals against the unneccessary taking of life, it does eat away at his conscience that the information he passes to the Russians will deliver only God knows how many people into the arms of death. We see this particularly in the third film when Guy is caught up with by the agent Boris. As he lies on the bathroom floor, he rants about the information he's passing on.
"Do you know what's in there? It's a long list of agents we're dropping into Albania by parachute. Where, when, who, the lot. And it's all yours, Boris...so Moscow can arrange to catch them as they fall. Bumpy landing, eh Boris? Out of the sky and into the arms of death. BUMP THEM OFF BORIS. BUMP, BLOODY BUMP."
He may be drunk, but he is also emotionally disturbed and swayed knowing that his actions will cause hundreds of people to die. Being a pacifist and doing what he does is nearly torturous. All the self-loathing that comes with being something he hates is intensified, and in a way, Guy collapses.
Samples
First Person: [In the plaza, near the fountain, you will find two very loud things, one clearly moreso than the other, bellowing above the water to make it plashless and drowned. On the ground sits a record player, playing this bit of music as a man in a well-tailored suit, a bowler hat, and a trench coat paces back and forth, hopping back and forth from atop the fountain's rim as he sees fit in part of his pacing.]
I want to know what happened to paper. White, rectangular, pieces of paper. The sort of thing one writes in without ever expecting a message to come bleeding through the page of it. When I write, I don't want some ruinous black markings seeping through my writing. If I wanted the world to scribble on my letters I'd send them off to people first.
You see--[He's holding an unlit cigarette between his lips, the white paper tubing keeping his lips together and muffling his words]--when I wanted to tell someone something, and I felt so compelled to use a pen, [He pauses to light the smoke, taking a puff before it's plucked between his fingers] my paper didn't have bloody commentary. That's just the thing! It should be exactly what it is. It's pulp! It's watered shredded pulpous scraps of a deadened tree, sawed down from its glorious state to be shredded for thin, white, glorified slates for thought.
[He scuffs up a bit of loose pebbles beneath his feet before he seems compelled to start shouting at one of the shop windows.]
IT'S ALL DEAD. THE TREES WERE AND NOW THEIR THOUSANDS OF HEADSTONES WE LIKE TO WRITE ON ARE AS DEAD AS THE CORPSE WHICH THEY WERE RIPPED FROM.
[He puts his cigarette back in his mouth draws from it, then jams a hand in his pocket for his brown bottle. With the smoke still perched between his fingers, he takes a healthy drink from it and recorks it.]
All I want from my paper... from all of you sodden, complacent, fucking exiles is to write my piece in peace!
[He pauses for a moment and takes a few aggravated puffs.]
OR SHOULD I START TALKING TO ALL MY VOLUMES AS WELL THEN? OH YES, FORTINBRAS! I THINK I'LL GO DOWN FOR A LITTLE PISS NEAR THE LOCAL BAR. MIND YOU, DON'T INVITE THAT POLONIOUS. DREARY OLD SOD. WORSE THAN MARX I SAY.
[Guy steps up onto the rim of the fountain again, smoking his cigarette down to the filter while the chorus on the record sings triumphantly above the din. He looks brooding, yet oddly content.]
Third Person: Germans. The only thing he could possibly assume since his arrival was that somehow, facist Germany was involved. Since he had awoken beside Kim and Anthony, there had been somewhat of a sinking fear. Guy had always been a man who experienced emotions potently, in doses far more concentrated than most men--or women, for that matter--ever did. Fear was not one of the countless he became consumed by. Anticipation was perhaps one of the closest, the burst of adrenaline and the swell of knowing there was a chance that--for a man carrying a briefcase full of folders marked 'secret' and 'top secret' out of the Foreign Offices every night to be photographed and returned before morning--he could be caught. A spy in wartime. He knew what would happen. They all did.
Moscow was not blind or ignorant to Germany's views and treatments of human beings and neither was British intelligence. Horrid stories circulated and reached his ears of men and women degraded and gassed, tattooed and forced to work themselves to death if they were fortunate. Some were made to dig their own graves, then walked in a line to be shot and fall into it. Marches to hell. As spies they knew all that there was to know about Germany and England and Russia and the United States of bloody America. They knew about the doctors who conducted experiments, the accelleration of the proclaimed Aryan race.
They knew it all. He felt the wings on his back and their pain, drank away their tenderness with the first liquor he could find. If he was drunk, he could convince himself that's why they were there. He saw the tattoo on his neck in the mirror and rubbed the skin till it bled hoping to God it was some sick fucking joke, that it would wash away with enough soap, pressure, and insistence.
Germany. He was in Germany. A prisoner of war. A discovered, caught, and expedited spy.
He would be experimented on, he would be tortured for information, he would die here.
He stood in in front of a bookshelf within the house he had been given. His hands were shoved in his pockets, a cigarette between his lips that he puffed anxiously. Smoked curled about his face and his eyes peered hawk-like at the books that lined the shelves. One hand palmed the bottle in his coat, which he found in a nearby shop, the glass still in the pocket. Title after title after title of book, not a single one of them consequential.
Then there was one. Work For The Winter.
His eyes raked down the spine. No, not him. He plucked the cigarette from his lips and reached out a shaking hand toward the lettering.
Julian Bell
Something inside him became broken and lost in that instant. He was in Nazi Germany. He was branded. He wanted to burn the entire fucking house down, yet still there lingered those ghosts of sweet England, just a breath away.
Name : Mel
Livejournal Username: melodicinkysin
E-mail: melmal3@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: melmal03
Current Characters at Luceti: N/A
Character
Name: Guy Burgess
Gender: Male
Age: 34
Wing Color: Trench coat Beige
Time Period: 1945 (just after the 3rd film)
History: From what we find out from the films, Guy De Moncy Burgess was a child who predominantly grew up with only his mother. At a young age, his father died (a rather explicitly detailed story that Guy regales Donald with in the first film) leaving him with his mother, who sent him off to Eton college. After Eton, Guy went to Cambridge (Trinity College). The last year of his tutelage there is where the films begin.
At Cambridge, Guy is a member of the Apostles, an elite and invitation-based group that is claimed to be "the most influential society in Cambridge. All the top men are Apostles." From the Apostles, it is implied that Guy, along with Anthony Blunt, became a person of interest to the communist headquarters in Moscow. He and Anthony Blunt--who recruited who is speculation--work together as recruiters for the beginnings of the NKVD (the precursor to the KGB) to bring in young, red, idealist students to spy for Moscow and Stalin within the British societal infrastructure. The two begin to recruit Kim Philby and Donald Maclean not only to the Apostles, but also to bring them to work for Moscow as well.
We first meet Guy at a bar where Kim and Donald are sitting having drinks. When a Jewish girl Kim has taken an interest in is offended by Givens, Guy steps in, making an incredible fuss of insulting Givens until he leaves. The next morning at breakfast, Kim sits next to Guy in the dining hall. The two strike up conversation (beginning with Guy’s crass question, “Good fuck?”). Later, this serves as the tie so Guy and Anthony can begin befriending Kim and Donald in order to recruit them both for the NKVD. For while it is expressed both Anthony and Guy want Kim to join, Moscow will not have Kim without Donald.
Guy and Anthony become friends with Donald and Kim, Guy catching Kim's attention particularly with his boldness before administration, other students, and even fellows of the university. Yet while we come to learn of that blooming friendship and watch the recruitment process, we discover that Guy is in also in love with a poet named Julian, another member of the Apostles. Unfortunately for Guy, Anthony is sleeping with Julian, which Guy discovers just before the May Ball.
At the May ball, Guy is crushed by the revelation that his best friend is in a relationship with the man he loves, and makes a terrible scene by stripping naked atop the bridge and jumping into the water below. Kim and Donald join him, finally accepting their place as new recruits and know there is no turning back. Everything has changed.
As Kim works his way through his first assignment in Vienna, Guy and Anthony purchase a place of residence for the four of them. Upon Kim’s return with his wife, Litzi, we are introduced to Jack, Guy’s new lover who also serves as interior decorator and is a show boy.
When Kim is forced to leave his communist wife due to Otto’s orders to ‘bury the past’, they set to becoming that which they hate. Guy interviews for a position at the BBC, where he is hired to create a live ‘Agony Aunt’ program.
Unfortunately, as part of burying their pasts, none of the four are allowed to show sympathies toward anti-fascist ideas. The four go to a club where they run into Julian, who is taking up a collection to help the victims of the Spanish Civil War (a direct cause of Franco’s fascist rule). When Guy is forced to look his love in the eyes and lie that he is ‘not so sure he believes in all of this any more’, he grows upset. At the next party, Julian comes to bid Guy goodbye. He tells Guy that he is going to Spain to help fight in the war, which Guy protests. Julian tells Guy how disappointed he is that Guy has become what he is and leaves.
As a result, Guy grows despondent, slipping away to a public lavatory. There, he makes a pass at another man in the stalls via note and is caught. Before his hearing at the Bow Street Magistrate’s Court, Guy sets up a meeting with a Foreign Office official, who then attends his hearing. While Guy is acquitted from the charges of homosexuality, it is made clear that the judge, barrister, and official all know of Guy’s guilt. The official offers him a place in the Foreign Office as soon as the trial ends.
Guy sees Donald placed within the Foreign Offices. Soon after, news is delivered that Julian has died. Anthony and Kim break the news, and Guy rips a picture of Julian to keep with him.
While Kim is reporting in Spain, Guy is passed along orders from Otto to give to Kim. He meets Kim at a bar and tells him that while Kim is being pinned with a medal by Franco himself, Moscow has ordered that Kim assassinate the fascist leader.
Kim returns after being unable to do so, Guy comforts and hugs him. Afterwards, he asks Kim to bury the photograph of Julian in Spain for him. Guy soon returns to England.
Upon his return there is a mutual decision (voiced by Kim) that the past is buried enough. Anthony drinks with the Queen. Guy sees Kim placed in the Foreign Offices to join he, Anthony, and Donald. Everything is seemingly going well until Kim’s inability to assassinate Franco catches up. They lose their handler Otto, who is called back to Moscow answer for the failure. He dies there.
Kim and Anthony hear of the Hitler-Stalin Pact and all four men are crushed. Britain declares war on Germany. They are now spies at wartime, meaning they could be executed. At a bar, Guy loses his composure and threatens Kim with a broken tumbler glass. Rather than injuring him, however, he embraces him desperately in need of comfort. The men stay up all night, unable to sleep, and come to realize they stand or fall together as spies.
While Donald is stationed at the British Embassy in Paris, he takes an American wife and returns to England with her. He moves out of the house. After he reunites with the three others, Anthony confesses to Kim that he has been summoned, and it is agreed that Guy and Donald are not to know for their protection. Jack overhears and expresses his discontent with Guy and forces Anthony to explain why he is keeping the information between them.
The vetting goes well, and another party is thrown at the house. Guy asks Jack to cozy up to a diplomat the spies need to befriend, and Jack accuses Guy of whoring him out. Kim introduces his American shadow, James Jesus Angleton, who is CIA wanting to learn from the English. Anthony announces that it is his birthday, and after Guy plays the piano and gets the party to sing to him, he disappears. He and Jack begin a relationship, and Guy is abandoned by Jack.
As Germany plans to invade Russia, Britain is now her ally. They celebrate, which boosts Guy’s emotional state for a time. Anthony, however, is beginning to feel the pressures of a double life. As he works his way in with the Windsors, he begins to pull his way out of the British side of intelligence.
As Guy begins to grow unstable, so do things grow unstable around him. Walter Kravitzki, a Soviet defecting to the west begins to expose Donald as a spy. Kim passes it on to Moscow, and they have him killed. Anthony is being tailed by Soviets due to Moscow’s distrust of his information.
Additionally, Anthony is given a final assignment by the Windsors to release him from the British side of intelligence. He completes it, essentially abandoning Kim in MI6 to watch over the deteriorating Donald and Guy.
The 3rd film ends upon this horrible realization that while Anthony has made them ‘safe’ by obtaining the perfect blackmail, everything threatens to collapse around them.
Personality: Guy Burgess, in many ways, is a man of smoke and mirrors, of gloriously dazzling masks and the sort of man that--as a spy--is not about what he hides. Everything he is and wants you to believe he is stems from what he draws your eyes to and brings you to see. He is, perhaps, the most unlikely man in the world to be a spy for the Russians for that very reason.
Guy is, undoubtedly, a loud man in both volume and how outspoken he is. He is not beyond making a scene, and perhaps is most well known for the fusses he makes. His bellowing and cantankerous displays are as much a part of him as they are a part of the show. For if you are looking at his performance, there is likely something he is drawing far away from your curious eyes, behind the curtain and away from your attention. The manner in which Guy is introduced in the films is a perfect example of this. While another Cambridge student, Givens, is expressing his anti-Semitic views and insulting Kim in a way that takes the attention of the entire bar, Guy is discontent to remain an onlooker. He shatters a bottle, pulling every eye in the room to himself and proceeds to anger Givens to the point where Givens takes Guy by the collar and shoves him against the bar. Nonchalantly, Guy provokes him further, asking Givens to "hit the bloody ponce". Givens is so flustered, he leaves the bar. Kim looks on incredulously as Guy smokes a cigarette, having not a care for the way he is regarded in that moment. In the course of those few minutes, Guy’s actions teeter between impulse and careful maneuvering. For while he babbles on and insults Givens’ taste for Nazi uniforms and conformity, the situation with Kim and the Jewish girl he bought a drink for are quickly forgotten. Guy essentially diffuses situations by aggravating them and exacerbating the parties involved until their positions are manipulated to where he wants them to be.
Yet Guy is not always so plotting. In many instances, his boisterousness is born from some sort of extreme emotional state. That is not to say that only instances that warrant extreme reactions are cause for such behavior. Guy is (fortunately... or rather unfortunately) someone who feels and expresses his emotions highly pigmented and in saturated ways. Anger and sadness do not exist. Rather there is rage, and being “absolutely fucking desolate.” The grandiose ways he expresses such sentiments are a direct mirror (in proportion) to the strength of them. When the dean of Cambridge ignored his direct disobedience of the rules and chose to turn a blind eye to his sexual orientation and direct inquiry into the dean’s sexual orientation, Guy bellowed out a window at the passers by. His disgust at the system and bitter hate for his lack of punishment are catapulted into an outburst. Such outbursts are, surprisingly, quite characteristic. For as Guy berates anyone who might happen to be outside, Anthony stands there, smiling and knowing that Guy is very much himself. When the Hitler-Stalin pact is brought to light, all four of the Cambridge spies are at a loss. Not only was the cause they served allied temporarily with the cause they sought to destroy, but England declared war against Germany. Each of the four had reason to be ill at ease. Yet Guy’s reaction is the most frightening. He suddenly acts suspicious, jealous, and malicious toward his two dear friends. He makes a conspiracy out of the way that they look at each other, and just as he has made them both uncomfortable, Guy begins to laugh and turns it into a ridiculous joke. The three share a moment of dissolving tension just before Guy then threatens to cut Kim with the broken bar glass in his hand. For but ten seconds, all are convinced he means to do Kim harm as he lunges in, yet the action is soon over, and Guy is wrapped around Kim, desperately clinging to him in a brotherly embrace.
Guy is a man of addictions, in many ways. They might more appropriately be called ‘vices’, yet one thing is made clear by the films: Guy is an alcoholic. Amongst all his belongings, one that hardly ever--if at all--leaves his persons is a brown glass bottle of liquor he carries with him. He is often seen taking drinks from said bottle, as a comfort as well as out of habit. His morning drink is a series of three, which the cocktail waiter at the club knows by heart. A Double Burgess, named after himself, consisting of two parts vodka, one part grapefruit juice. Three Double Burgesses later, he is ‘set up’ ‘for the day’. Particularly in the third film, we see the effects catching up to him. At a party, Guy stumbles into the restroom, throws up in the sink and washes out his mouth with more champagne. The bottle of it is then tucked away into his bag for later. Yet the bathroom serves a secondary purpose. For while he cannot seem to hold his liquor that evening, Guy then proceeds to make a drop of information for Boris, a Soviet who likely works for the Russian Embassy. Wrapped in a condom, the information is put in the tank atop a toilet within the restroom before Guy falls of of it and onto the bathroom floor, still drunk.
Despite his flamboyant personality, the films make it very clear that quite often, Guy is sloshed. The astounding realization one comes to during the films, however, is that Guy is just as brilliant as he is unstable when so. Sober, he is at his intellectual peak. Drunk, he is ‘deeply unpredictable’, yet still able to function. As a recruiter for the NKVD, a producer at the BBC and as a spy particularly, Guy is in a position where social ties and making connections is as much a part of what he does as the tasks his work gives him. He throws parties at the house he and his friends share in England, establishes his connections with the other pillars of British society through work, travels the world schmoozing politicians and persons of interest for the BBC, and is wildly charismatic. Yet while he does interact with such people, Guy very rarely is without liquor in him.
There are two other ‘vices’ Guy possesses, although due to the time he lived one of them is not truly considered to be. Guy is very much a smoker, going nowhere without his cigarette case and lighter. The second is the far more dangerous of the two, and that addiction is other men. He is flamboyantly and unapologetically homosexual. Despite the fact that there are heavy legal repercussions--imprisonment for 10 years or more--Guy has no issue with admitting that he is gay to his social scene, his handlers from Moscow, and even the dean of Trinity at Cambridge. (Never you mind that he has the gall to ask the man if he’s a homosexual himself.) Guy is by no means a monogamist. He is a man who sleeps with who he pleases, going so far as to obtain such pleasures by sitting in a public restroom and passing notes over to the nearby stall. Unfortunately, Guy seems to face no consequences for his blatant gayness. He faces no punishment for his overt activities when caught having sex with one of the waiters on campus. Not only this, but later when he is caught passing a note in the public bathroom, he is acquitted of his crime by a judge, barrister, and Foreign Office employee who all know he was guilty of his crime.
Guy is a passionate man, though his priorities are arranged so oddly that his reverence and respect toward the individual are lacking as a direct result to his dedication to ideals. In the first film, he gives a very tense speech to an eager Kim Philby who wants desperately to get involved.
“Listen. Babies are dying in this country because they’re not fed properly. Old Men and women die alone and without dignity. Why? Because they’re poor. That’s all. Because they’re poor. I hate it. I hate it with all my being and I would do anything to change it. Anything. Personal feelings, small indignities, they just have to be put aside. It’s hard, sometimes it’s very hard, but it has to be.”
In that moment, we are given a rare glimpse into what is truly important to him. Yet that very same man treats his partner, Jack Hewitt, quite heartlessly. It’s not that he means to make Jack feel like a tart, it’s that what he asks of Jack--on behalf of the connections they need to make--very much makes Jack feel like nothing but a tart. He’s a bitter individual, particularly when leading a double life begins to take its toll on him. At a single dinner, he offends Kim Philby’s wife four times in a thirty second period. He lights the spotted dog she’s cooked on fire by dousing it with the liquor from his personal bottle, asks if her custard is made or bought, loudly mentions, “Speaking of my dick--” at the table, and quite blatantly remarks about how Kim will not be able to speak with Donald’s wife, Melinda, a woman whom Kim is very in love with. He is, as Kim states, deeply unpredictable. His only refuge in Washington is his liquor and his dear friend, and nothing can seemingly keep him under control.
The way in which he speaks is a defining characteristic for Guy’s personality. He has ticks and quirks as any other man, perhaps more noticeable, however. It is very clear when Guy speaks that he is incredibly educated. Yet most of his speeches come off as pithy, with an undercurrent that he is trying to make some point or another in the form of argument. Guy is someone who talks because it is what he is best at, and his rants are well known enough amongst his close circle. Quite often, Guy takes on a mocking tone. He tends to enjoy the provocation of others when he speaks, and his voice is--volume wise--loud. His cadence is seemingly erratic and yet it possesses a continuity to it that leaves the listener either tuning him out (due to the length of his winded speeches) or feeling as though something is not being said upfront to them. They know they're being pulled in to something, but not a soul can place where.
Strengths:
Physical: The one physical feature that Guy has as an advantage is that he is a striking man. He falls into bed with other men with ease, for his charm is paired with the way his lips pull, the way he poises his body.
“There was something strange about him. A sort of fallen angel. Fair curly hair, bright blue eyes. Sensuous mouth. When you looked at him a little closer you saw the fallen aspect. Fingers stained by the perpetual cigarette, the black fingernails, the open fly, the unbrushed teeth, slovenly manner, so that the angel on close examination had fallen.” --Michael Strait
Mental: Guy is one of the most brilliant men of not only his class, but of his generation. He received a scholarship for history at Trinity in Cambridge after attending the most exclusive public school in England: Eton College. He spent two years after his graduation on a teaching fellowship, a time during which he recruited for the Apostles, an intellectual secret society at the school. The Apostles are said to be some of the most influential men in all of Cambridge. He is quick witted, sharp tongued, and has the ability to seemingly take in information like a sponge. In the film, the dean looks at him and remarks that he is "one of this college’s brightest stars. What's next? White Hall? Parliament?" Anthony himself describes Guy as "an extraordinarily persuasive person" while Harold Nicholson claimed that he possessed "one of the most rapid and acute minds I knew." His work for the Russians included not only photographing documents that he had clearance for, but coding messages through his broadcasts at the BBC to them. Guy was a walking, massive vessel for information. Vladamir Petrov wrote that "The volume of material Burgess supplied was so colossal that the cipher clerks of the Soviet Embassy were at times almost fully employed in enciphering it so that it could be radioed to Moscow, while other urgent messages had to be dispatched in diplomatic bags by couriers." All in all, Guy is undeniably and inarguably brilliant.
Emotional: Guy, unfortunately, has very few strengths within his emotions. However, the fact that he is so immersed in what he feels gives him the ability to empathize and sympathize quite powerfully. Because he ties his heart to his causes, he's an incredibly loyal individual to his principals, his ideals, his friends, and the people he loves. He loves fiercely. He loathes intensely. He just cares so damn much.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Guy is not a large man by any means. He is rather small by most standards, having little height to him and a lack of muscles. He lacks the ability to physically intimidate people, too boyishly charming to manage a feat by appearance alone.
Mental: As stated in his personality section, Guy has quite a few vices that impair him. Being an alcoholic, the man is often drunk, leaving his mental state impaired. The reason this even happens is due to a mental fault he never corrects: Guy has no self control whatsoever. He is indulgent, dependent, romantic, and impulsive. Despite that Guy's brilliance is unquestioned, Guy does not typically think before he speaks. He lacks a certain amount of tact, and he knows no subtlety. His ability to withstand the stress that spying places on his mental strength is, at best, volatile. Despite the high expectations set for him due to his brilliance, he in many ways falls short.
Emotional: When one delves into Guy Burgess, they are presented with a sentimental romantic who has the least stable mood sets perhaps of any unmedicated individual. His moods and emotional states are as predictable as his behavior. He is perhaps one of the most emotionally weak men of the Cambridge spies, yet rather than setting to master them Guy finds himself a victim to them. He is nearly always ruled by his sentiments, which for a spy is highly dangerous. He is also a pacifist in wartime. While he may have strong principals against the unneccessary taking of life, it does eat away at his conscience that the information he passes to the Russians will deliver only God knows how many people into the arms of death. We see this particularly in the third film when Guy is caught up with by the agent Boris. As he lies on the bathroom floor, he rants about the information he's passing on.
"Do you know what's in there? It's a long list of agents we're dropping into Albania by parachute. Where, when, who, the lot. And it's all yours, Boris...so Moscow can arrange to catch them as they fall. Bumpy landing, eh Boris? Out of the sky and into the arms of death. BUMP THEM OFF BORIS. BUMP, BLOODY BUMP."
He may be drunk, but he is also emotionally disturbed and swayed knowing that his actions will cause hundreds of people to die. Being a pacifist and doing what he does is nearly torturous. All the self-loathing that comes with being something he hates is intensified, and in a way, Guy collapses.
Samples
First Person: [In the plaza, near the fountain, you will find two very loud things, one clearly moreso than the other, bellowing above the water to make it plashless and drowned. On the ground sits a record player, playing this bit of music as a man in a well-tailored suit, a bowler hat, and a trench coat paces back and forth, hopping back and forth from atop the fountain's rim as he sees fit in part of his pacing.]
I want to know what happened to paper. White, rectangular, pieces of paper. The sort of thing one writes in without ever expecting a message to come bleeding through the page of it. When I write, I don't want some ruinous black markings seeping through my writing. If I wanted the world to scribble on my letters I'd send them off to people first.
You see--[He's holding an unlit cigarette between his lips, the white paper tubing keeping his lips together and muffling his words]--when I wanted to tell someone something, and I felt so compelled to use a pen, [He pauses to light the smoke, taking a puff before it's plucked between his fingers] my paper didn't have bloody commentary. That's just the thing! It should be exactly what it is. It's pulp! It's watered shredded pulpous scraps of a deadened tree, sawed down from its glorious state to be shredded for thin, white, glorified slates for thought.
[He scuffs up a bit of loose pebbles beneath his feet before he seems compelled to start shouting at one of the shop windows.]
IT'S ALL DEAD. THE TREES WERE AND NOW THEIR THOUSANDS OF HEADSTONES WE LIKE TO WRITE ON ARE AS DEAD AS THE CORPSE WHICH THEY WERE RIPPED FROM.
[He puts his cigarette back in his mouth draws from it, then jams a hand in his pocket for his brown bottle. With the smoke still perched between his fingers, he takes a healthy drink from it and recorks it.]
All I want from my paper... from all of you sodden, complacent, fucking exiles is to write my piece in peace!
[He pauses for a moment and takes a few aggravated puffs.]
OR SHOULD I START TALKING TO ALL MY VOLUMES AS WELL THEN? OH YES, FORTINBRAS! I THINK I'LL GO DOWN FOR A LITTLE PISS NEAR THE LOCAL BAR. MIND YOU, DON'T INVITE THAT POLONIOUS. DREARY OLD SOD. WORSE THAN MARX I SAY.
[Guy steps up onto the rim of the fountain again, smoking his cigarette down to the filter while the chorus on the record sings triumphantly above the din. He looks brooding, yet oddly content.]
Third Person: Germans. The only thing he could possibly assume since his arrival was that somehow, facist Germany was involved. Since he had awoken beside Kim and Anthony, there had been somewhat of a sinking fear. Guy had always been a man who experienced emotions potently, in doses far more concentrated than most men--or women, for that matter--ever did. Fear was not one of the countless he became consumed by. Anticipation was perhaps one of the closest, the burst of adrenaline and the swell of knowing there was a chance that--for a man carrying a briefcase full of folders marked 'secret' and 'top secret' out of the Foreign Offices every night to be photographed and returned before morning--he could be caught. A spy in wartime. He knew what would happen. They all did.
Moscow was not blind or ignorant to Germany's views and treatments of human beings and neither was British intelligence. Horrid stories circulated and reached his ears of men and women degraded and gassed, tattooed and forced to work themselves to death if they were fortunate. Some were made to dig their own graves, then walked in a line to be shot and fall into it. Marches to hell. As spies they knew all that there was to know about Germany and England and Russia and the United States of bloody America. They knew about the doctors who conducted experiments, the accelleration of the proclaimed Aryan race.
They knew it all. He felt the wings on his back and their pain, drank away their tenderness with the first liquor he could find. If he was drunk, he could convince himself that's why they were there. He saw the tattoo on his neck in the mirror and rubbed the skin till it bled hoping to God it was some sick fucking joke, that it would wash away with enough soap, pressure, and insistence.
Germany. He was in Germany. A prisoner of war. A discovered, caught, and expedited spy.
He would be experimented on, he would be tortured for information, he would die here.
He stood in in front of a bookshelf within the house he had been given. His hands were shoved in his pockets, a cigarette between his lips that he puffed anxiously. Smoked curled about his face and his eyes peered hawk-like at the books that lined the shelves. One hand palmed the bottle in his coat, which he found in a nearby shop, the glass still in the pocket. Title after title after title of book, not a single one of them consequential.
Then there was one. Work For The Winter.
His eyes raked down the spine. No, not him. He plucked the cigarette from his lips and reached out a shaking hand toward the lettering.
Julian Bell
Something inside him became broken and lost in that instant. He was in Nazi Germany. He was branded. He wanted to burn the entire fucking house down, yet still there lingered those ghosts of sweet England, just a breath away.