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Q. Which side had the better network of spies during the US War of Independence, the Americans or the British?A. Americans won the war despite having an intelligence service that was almost always markedly inferior to the British. The British always had plenty of moles—loyalists by ideology or from pecuniary motive—within and outside George Washington's headquarters. Washington had no such advantage, being forced to rely for the most part on what sympathetic civilians could observe from outside the British camps."However, the Culper Spy Ring achieved more than any other American or British intelligence network during the war. Information collected concerned key British troop movements, fortifications and plans in New York and the surrounding region. Greatest achievement when it uncovered British plans to ambush the newly arrived French army in Rhode Island. Without spy ring’s warnings, Franco-American alliance may well have been damaged or destroyed.Spies and Scouts, Secret Writing, and Sympathetic CitizensTHE CULPER SPY RING (history.com)5 Patriot Spies of the American RevolutionIntelligence in the American Revolutionary War - WikipediaThe Letter That Won the American Revolution (NatGeo)Charles Cornwallis and his men surrender at Yorktown.Spies and Scouts, Secret Writing, and Sympathetic Citizensby Ed CrewsDrink and discretion mix badly when secrets of war are at stake. A British officer accepts a glass from a bartender eager to extract intelligence for the patriot cause. Interpreter Robin Reed is the officer, Bill Rose the colonial agent.Methods of eighteenth-century trade craft. In July 1777, British General William Howe sent a message, top, rolled up and inserted in the quill of a large feather, to General John Burgoyne. He would invade Pennsylvania, he wrote, rather than meet up with Burgoyne in New York.Henry Clinton to John BurgoyneView detail.Clements Library,University of MichiganA simple method of secret writing that the Americans never caught on to. An apparently unexceptional letter from General Henry Clinton contained a secret message hidden in plain sight.Clements Library,University of MichiganWhen a mask, usually posted by separate mailing, was placed over the letter, the self-contained section with the covert message was revealed.Clements Library,University of MichiganThe intended message, in which Clinton regrets not being able to persuade Howe to move up to New York instead of Pennsylvania: "Sr W's move just at this time / the worst he could take."Clements Library,University of MichiganUnited States intelligence operatives are engaged around the globe in the contest with terrorism. Others are focused on postwar Iraq and Afghanistan. Covert activities have not been undertaken on so grand a scale since World War II.Some of these secret struggles have become public knowledge. Television viewers and newspaper readers have details of the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, unconnected dots before the September 11, 2001, attacks, the capture of Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda leaders, and the ambush and killing of Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay.In the string of news images, one in particular is rich in historical significance, a reminder that the American clandestine tradition is more than two centuries old. During early fighting with the Taliban, an official photograph showed American special operations soldiers riding into battle on horseback. The picture revealed the austere military environment in Afghanistan. It also provided a link to the secret side of the Revolutionary War. America's first elite, clandestine unit—Knowlton's Rangers—undertook missions for George Washington. The men photographed in Afghanistan, as well as the Army Rangers, Special Forces, Delta Force, and army intelligence, trace their origins to Knowlton's command.Thomas Knowlton's statue in Connecticut. Hale belonged to Knowlton's Rangers, which were used by Washington for spying and special operations.Washington's Rangers are part of the larger story of intelligence operations in the War for Independence. They spanned North America, the Atlantic, Great Britain, and Europe. Engaged in the undercover war were such revolutionaries as Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Washington.These men, other American leaders, their British opponents, and French allies understood that victory hinged on sound political and military intelligence. To get it, they used espionage, counterespionage, diplomatic sleight-of-hand, propaganda, scouting, partisan warfare, code making, code breaking, sabotage, bribery, deception, and disinformation.Beginning to end, secret activities shaped the Revolution's course. British generals moved on Concord in 1775 because spies told them munitions were there. Colonial agents informed the Americans of the British plans to capture the arms and frustrated the effort. Through deception, Washington fooled the British in 1781 into thinking a Franco-American assault on New York was pending. While the British strengthened positions there and waited for an attack that never came, Washington and the Marquis de Rochambeau slipped away to Virginia, where they defeated Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.The methods spies use have not changed much in two centuries. Keith D. Dickson, professor of military studies at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, says: "With the exception of technology, there are no differences. Everything familiar to intelligence professionals today was seen in the eighteenth century—double agents, secret writing, dead drops, clandestine meetings, codes, and signals."These techniques were used in the 1700s for the same reasons they are today, Dickson said. Agents sought, and still seek, tactical information—troop movements, enemy intentions, and battle plans—and such strategic information as the goals and objectives of national leaders, their plans and policy decisions. A former intelligence officer who recently returned from military duty in Iraq as a colonel, Dickson uses Revolutionary War examples to teach strategy and related subjects to American officers.Dickson says that then, as now, much intelligence came from nonsecret sources. "Both British and American forces depended heavily on local sources of information to gain a better picture of the enemy. Although we usually think of intelligence in terms of spies and espionage activities, most information of value to military operations during the Revolution came from what we now call open-source material: newspapers, rumors, gossip, quizzing casual observers or passers-by." These days Central Intelligence Agency analysts scan CNN and the New York Times for information.In the 1700s, no nation had highly structured, professional intelligence organizations comparable to modern ones, according to Christopher Andrew's book Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community. Spy agencies now are permanent, often large bureaucracies. They employ well-trained career officers who collect or analyze information. This institutionalized approach to secret operations began in the late nineteenth century but did not take fully its current form until the twentieth.In the 1770s, intelligence work was more ad hoc. Great Britain had a tradition of successful—but sporadic—intelligence work beginning with the Tudors, but no permanent secret service. Even code breaking was farmed out to contractors. Clandestine activity grew during crises, and all but disappeared in peacetime. William Eden, undersecretary of state, oversaw England's spy networks in Europe during the Revolution. His budget was large, £115,900 in 1775. It reached £200,000 within three years. The sums hint at the scope of Eden's system. They also reflect the British belief in the power of bribery, used frequently and effectively, as in the case of Benedict Arnold.The American revolutionaries had fewer funds and no clandestine tradition, a severe disadvantage, according to Edward Lengel. He's a military historian and associate editor of the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia and has written a military biography, General George Washington and the Birth of the American Republic, slated for publication in 2004 by Random House."The Americans won the war despite having an intelligence service that was almost always markedly inferior to the British. The British always had plenty of moles—loyalists by ideology or from pecuniary motive—within and outside George Washington's headquarters. Washington had no such advantage, being forced to rely for the most part on what sympathetic civilians could observe from outside the British camps."The Continental Congress created groups to pursue covert enterprises. The Secret Committee, for instance, sought military information and aid. The Committee of Correspondence engaged in secret activities abroad. The Committee on Spies dealt with counterintelligence. They attracted such congressional talents as Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Harrison.But the most difficult and sustained efforts were made by the Continental leaders closest to the military and diplomatic action. In 1997, the Central Intelligence Agency honored three patriots as the Founding Fathers of American intelligence: Franklin for covert action, Jay for counterintelligence, and Washington for acquisition of foreign intelligence.Of the three, Franklin had the most experience in foreign intrigue. He had represented Georgia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania in London before the war. There he apparently learned much. Congress acknowledged Franklin's wisdom and experience when it sent him to France in 1776. He worked in Paris to secure military aid, recognition of the American cause, and an alliance.His diplomacy was overt and covert. He waged a public relations campaign, secured secret aid, played a role in privateering expeditions, and churned out effective and inflammatory propaganda. One coup involved distributing bogus newspaper reports of outrages committed by England's Indian allies on the frontier. Opposition members in Parliament were duped and used the material to attack the government.Franklin's success can be measured partially by the anxiety his mission created in England. The British ambassador to Paris called him a "veteran of mischief." Franklin knew he was the object of "violent curiosities." He did all he could to keep the enemy on edge while he parried with spies curious about him.Dickson says, "Franklin had a network of agents and friends in France who provided him excellent information on British naval force movements. On the other hand, Franklin's secretary in Paris, Edward Bancroft, was a British agent. He sent vital information written on paper in invisible ink sealed in little bottles dropped in a location for pickup by the British spymaster Paul Wentworth, who ran a very effective espionage network in Paris targeting American-French activities. Luckily for America, George III discounted most of what Bancroft provided. Franklin suspected a compromise and often sent false information out to trap the mole, but Bancroft was never discovered. Not until after his death was he discovered to be a traitor."The French also spied on Franklin, tracking his movements as well as the movements of the British agents tracking him. In late eighteenth-century France, the government kept a sharp eye on many people—Frenchmen as well as foreigners. French agents collected diplomatic information, street gossip, and pillow talk. As a saying of the time put it: "When two Parisians talk, a third listens."Franklin's finest achievement in duplicity came in the wake of the American victory at Saratoga. The British hoped the outcome might provide an avenue for reconciliation. The French feared it would. Franklin approached the British, pretending to open a dialog. The French found out—as Franklin anticipated—and rushed into an alliance with America, hoping to forestall a settlement.Jay's wartime experience in secret service was less glamorous. There are few jobs in intelligence more tedious, anxious, or disheartening than catching spies. Jay brought to the work intellect, energy, and patriotic spirit. From summer 1776 to winter 1777, he oversaw the activities of a New York legislative committee charged with "detecting and defeating conspiracies." The conspiracies largely were British attempts to use Tories to control New York City. Jay's committee made arrests, conducted trials, and used agents to gather information. After the war, Jay became chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He also helped argue the case for approval of the federal Constitution by the states as co-author of The Federalist Papers with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. In one piece, Jay argued that the executive branch needed the authority to conduct intelligence operations.Washington's intelligence performance had the greatest immediate impact on Continental Army operations. Although he gained military experience in the French and Indian War, nothing had prepared him to be a spymaster, but Lengel says Washington was deeply interested in secret activities, and enjoyed dealing with agents."Washington was a devoted amateur," Lengel said. "He valued intelligence and used it reasonably effectively. He was also discriminating and dismissed bad intelligence more often than not. But he was still an amateur, and no match for British professionals."Washington used scouts extensively, showed a flair for disinformation and deception, and looked for turncoats in the enemy ranks.Lengel said Washington was not above seeking traitors in the British army, especially Hessian officers, despite his moral outrage over Arnold's defection; he was just less successful.Washington's greatest intelligence failure involved Nathan Hale. Desperate for information in September 1776 about developments behind British lines, Washington sent Hale through them as a spy. Hale had no tradecraft and a tissue-thin cover. A manuscript found in 2003 at the Library of Congress revealed that a loyalist agent easily duped Hale into revealing his mission. Hale's arrest and execution followed quickly."He's still a hero," James Hutson, chief of the library's manuscript division, said late last year to reporters. "He was a brave guy who volunteered for a mission that no one else wanted to take. He was just not well-trained and didn't know quite what to do."Nathan Hale's statue outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.The CIA displays a statue of Hale at its Langley, Virginia, headquarters.Washington had espionage and counterespionage achievements. He ran agents and networks in Philadelphia and New York. He uncovered the treachery of Benjamin Church, Continental Army medical chief, who served as a British spy. In 1776, Washington's spy John Honeyman accurately described the laxity of Hessian troops in Trenton, New Jersey, then returned and persuaded the Hessians that the Americans would not attack. The result was Washington's victory after crossing the Delaware River at night.The capture of the British spy Major John Andre foiled Benedict Arnold's plot to betray West Point. Condemned to death, Andre went bravely to the gallows. Washington rejected pleas for clemency—some from his own officers—but not without regret.John André was tried by an ad hoc commission of Continental generals.Washington's understanding of the need for sound military intelligence is reflected in a letter he wrote to a confidant in 1777. His words still have a sense of immediacy and relevancy:The necessity of procuring good Intelligence is apparent & need not be further urged—All that remains for me to add is, that you keep the whole matter as secret as possible. For upon Secrecy, Success depends in Most Enterprises of the kind, and for want of it, they are generally defeated, however well planned & promising a favorable issue.Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War - WikipediaIntelligence in the American Revolutionary War was essentially monitored and sanctioned by the Continental Congress to provide military intelligence to the Continental Army to aid them in fighting the British during the American Revolutionary War. Congress created a Secret Committee for domestic intelligence, a Committee of Secret Correspondence for foreign intelligence, and a committee on spies, for tracking spies within the Patriot movement.Intelligence operations in the American Revolutionary War - WikipediaThe American War of Independence: The Rebels and the Redcoats (bbc.co.uk)Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War - WikipediaBY EVAN ANDREWS // OCTOBER 20, 2015Patrick HenryWho were the Sons of Liberty, and what roles did they play in igniting and organizing a revolution?During the American Revolution, the fledgling Continental Army employed a sophisticated network of spies, double agents and secret informants to gain the upper hand on the British. Espionage duty was notoriously hazardous work—operatives faced the gallows if caught—but that didn’t stop dozens of intrepid volunteers from collecting intelligence and undertaking covert missions behind enemy lines. From a doomed Patriot to an officer who spied on the British in plain sight, get the facts on five of the American Revolution’s most legendary secret agents.Nathan Hale“Last Words of Nathan Hale,” stipple engraving by Scottish artist Alexander Hay Ritchie. (Credit: Yale University Art Gallery)Often dubbed “America’s first spy,” Nathan Hale was a Yale graduate who served in Knowlton’s Rangers, a short-lived Continental reconnaissance unit. When General George Washington’s forces became bottled up on Manhattan Island in September 1776, Hale volunteered for a mission to gather much-needed intelligence behind enemy lines. He was ferried across the Long Island Sound on September 16, slipped into the occupied town of Huntington and began surveying British fortifications and encampments while posing as a schoolmaster.Hale was undoubtedly courageous, but according to most historians, he wasn’t a very skilled intelligence officer. It only took a few days before his suspicious questions drew attention from loyalist locals, and he later blew his cover after a British agent approached him in a tavern and pretended to be a fellow Patriot spy. Hale was arrested the next day and discovered to have incriminating documents concealed beneath the soles of his shoes. Charged as an illegal combatant, he was executed by hanging on the morning of September 22. According to legend, the 21-year-old patriot faced the gallows with “gentle dignity” before uttering the famous words, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”James ArmisteadJames Armistead Lafayette (R) at Yorktown, standing with Marquis de La Fayette (L).During the Yorktown campaign, the Marquis de Lafayette found an unlikely secret agent in James Armistead, a black slave who got his master’s permission to assist the Continental Army. The Virginia-born bondsman began his service by transporting dispatches and intelligence reports across enemy lines. He then graduated to full-blown espionage in the summer of 1781, when he infiltrated Charles Cornwallis’s camp by posing as a runaway slave loyal to the British. He proved so convincing in the undercover role, that Cornwallis eventually enlisted him to work as a British spy. Armistead agreed and immediately began funneling the Redcoats phony information supplied by Lafayette, including a fraudulent report that referenced nonexistent units of Continental troops. He also kept his ears open for any word of enemy movements. In July 1781, he was one of the first sources to inform Lafayette that the British were marshaling their forces at Yorktown.Despite having risked his life for his country’s freedom, Armistead was sent back to his master after the war and held as a slave for several more years. He finally won his release papers in 1787, thanks in part to Lafayette, who wrote a letter to the Virginia legislature on his behalf. As a sign of his gratitude to his former commander, Armistead later changed his name to James Armistead Lafayette.Benjamin Tallmadge and the Culper RingBenjamin Tallmadge, member of the United States House of Representatives and spymaster for George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. (Credit: Universal Images Group/Getty Images)Serving with distinction at the Battles of White Plains, Brandywine, and Germantown, Continental dragoon Benjamin Tallmadge was also the mastermind behind the Culper Spy Ring, one of the most effective espionage networks of the American Revolution. The New York native first organized the cabal in late-1778 at the behest of General George Washington. Operating under the pseudonym John Bolton, he recruited childhood friend Abraham Woodhull and several other acquaintances to provide intelligence from in and around British-controlled Long Island. Tallmadge instructed his operatives to communicate via a complex system of dead drops and coded messages. He even had them write some of their reports in invisible ink that could only be read after being brushed with a chemical compound. Once smuggled out of the city, the documents would be ferried to Tallmadge’s coastal Connecticut headquarters by a fleet of whaleboats operated by an agent named Caleb Brewster.Despite operating from the heart of enemy territory, Tallmadge’s Culper Ring managed to gather intelligence for some five years without losing a single agent to the British. One of their most significant achievements came during the summer of 1780, when they informed Washington of a British plan to ambush French forces gathered at Newport, Rhode Island.Enoch CrosbyFrench map of the Hudson River Valley and surrounding area, New York, 1778. (Credit: Buyenlarge/Getty Images)Enoch Crosby’s spy career began with a simple case of mistaken identity. In 1776, the Connecticut-born shoemaker was making his way to a Continental Army camp in New York when he was confused for a British sympathizer and invited to a meeting of loyalist militiamen. Crosby played along and later reported what he learned to Patriot leader John Jay, who seized the opportunity to recruit him as one of the nation’s first counterintelligence operatives. The job required Crosby to work deep undercover. To help sell his new identity, his handlers arranged for him to be arrested as a loyalist before staging his escape to the Hudson River Valley. Crosby then reunited with the British sympathizers and began reporting on their movements. Thanks to the intelligence he gathered, the entire gang was rounded up in a Continental raid a few days later.In the months that followed, Crosby infiltrated British loyalist groups on at least four more occasions. Each time he would be “arrested” along with his hapless co-conspirators, only to later escape and return to the field to start the whole process over again. The young spy carried a special pass that would identify him as an American agent in a pinch—he once had to use it to avoid being picked up by Continental sentries—but outside of Jay and a few others, no one knew he was actually working for the colonials. Before he was finally discharged and hailed as a hero in 1777, even Crosby’s own parents believed their son was a traitor to the Patriot cause.Lewis CostiginBritish-Hessian troops under the command of General Howe parading through New York as they took over the city during the American War of Independence. (Credit: MPI/Getty Images)Not only did Lieutenant Lewis Costigin supply valuable intelligence from behind British lines, he did it while openly wearing a Continental Army uniform. His bizarre career in espionage began in early 1777, when George Washington sent him to New Brunswick, New Jersey to report on British movements after the Battle of Trenton. Costigin was promptly captured, but he was wearing enough of a uniform at the time to be classified as a soldier rather than a spy, thereby avoiding the noose. After shipping him to New York City as a prisoner of war, the British placed him on parole and allowed him to wander the city freely on a pledge that he wouldn’t take up arms or communicate with his superiors.Costigin was exchanged for a British officer in September 1778, but rather than return to his unit, he remained in occupied New York and began collecting intelligence for the Continentals—which he was now legally free to do under the terms of his parole. Luckily for Costigin, the British had grown so used to seeing him around town they no longer viewed him as a threat. Though still clad in an enemy uniform, he was able to openly roam the streets gathering information on everything from troop movements to military shipping and British army rations, all of which he reported to Washington in dispatches written under the pseudonym “Z.” By the time Costigin finally left New York in January 1779, he had spent some four months spying on the British in plain sight.Revolutionary War, Espionage and Intelligence█ ADRIENNE WILMOTH LERNERThe American Revolution officially began with the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. However, the conflict between Britain and the American colonies escalated to full-scale war from several orchestrated acts of subversion against British authority. High taxation, shipping restrictions, controls on employment and land ownership, as well as lack of representation in British government prompted resistance to British laws by American colonial citizens. The first shots of the Revolution are said to be those that occurred during the Boston Massacre, the British armed retribution for acts of sabotage against British interests, including the events of the Boston Tea Party. The conflict ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, granting international recognition for the newly independent United States. The Revolution marked the beginning of a new era in international politics, shifting the world balance of power and military might over the next 230 years.Formation of the United States Intelligence CommunityAt the outbreak of war, the fledgling American government had few resources, and was still divided by the competing interests of rival colonies. Many leaders were suspicious of establishing permanent, national militaries. The American colonies had to recruit volunteers, train, and arm soldiers, a daunting task for the new nation. Colonial militias aided in training soldiers, and at the outbreak of the war, American military command decided to use their more limited forces in guerilla attacks against the stronger, more formalized British army.In addition to troop strength and weaponry, the British had the significant advantage of having a developed strategic intelligence force within its military corps. The British established a network of Loyalist spies and informants, many of whom were able to infiltrate and report on American military formation, tactics, battle plans, and defensive positions. This espionage gave Britain a decided upper hand in the early months of the conflict, with devastating effect on the American armies.Statue of Nathan Hale, revolutionary soldier captured and hung by the British for espionage, in front of Tribune Tower, in Chicago, Illinois.SANDY FELSENTHAL/CORBISBefore the outbreak of the Revolution, the American colonial government, the Continental Congress, created the Committee of Correspondence in 1775. The purpose of the committee was to establish foreign alliances and gain the aid of foreign intelligence resources. The original intent of the committee was to facilitate the sharing of information about British colonial policy, but at the start of the Revolution, the Committee seized and combed mail for vital intelligence information. The organization was renamed the Committee of Secret Correspondence, and then the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and employed trusted Patriot sympathizers in Britain to feed American leaders intelligence information. After establishing protocol for obtaining information, the committee established a network of couriers to disperse information to battlefield commanders and key government officials. The committee also sought the aid of French forces in the war effort.The Second Continental Congress also established the Secret Committee. This clandestine committee arranged for American privateers to purchase and smuggle arms to the United States. The committee used large sums of money to pay for weapons, and additionally solicited aid from Britain's numerous European rivals. The world of the Secret Committee began in 1775, amassing weapons while still under British rule. After the Declaration of Independence was signed, the committee burned its papers and transaction ledgers to protect their contacts in case the colonies lost their bid for sovereignty.The smuggling of weapons proved a successful venture. The United States armed its troops within months, although supplies remained limited throughout the course of the war. Many American leaders, including Thomas Jefferson, ran successful privateering ventures, using their wealth and diplomatic contacts abroad to smuggle arms for the war effort. American privateers ran their illegal cargo through the British blockade under the guise of foreign named vessels and foreign flags. Patriot spies also learned the new British semaphore code, enabling blockade runners to falsely identify themselves as British ships.The first United States counterintelligence operations were directed by the Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies. The commission endowed several groups, mostly in New York and Philadelphia, with the task of apprehending British spies. The organization was the nation's first secret service, employing local militia under its command to help ferret out suspected traitors and enemy spies. The group used the criteria defined by the Committee on Spies when identifying, trying, and sentencing suspects. The rules of the committee, incorporated into the Articles of War in 1776, defined the crimes of treason and espionage during the course of war, and shaped the American intelligence community with its strict definitions of intelligence information, espionage acts, conspiracy, and aiding the enemy.EspionageAlthough the secret committees of the Second Continental Congress were the first national organizations to address intelligence issues, individuals and civilian spy networks carried out the most vital American intelligence operations of the Revolutionary War.Robert Townsend used his position as a prominent merchant in British-occupied New York to gather intelligence information on behalf of the American government. Townsend operated a significant spy ring, known as the Culper Ring. The ring employed both men and women, and based its operations in New York and Long Island. Most members of the espionage group used their professions as cover, relying on customers and patrons from the British military to divulge information about British military operations voluntarily. Several member of the Culper Ring were caught by British occupation authorities, but the ring never stopped feeding information to American authorities during the war.Major John Clark established and administered a similar espionage group in Philadelphia. Clark and his group fed General George Washington critical information and supplies while his troops wintered at Valley Forge. The Clark Ring obtained detailed information about British defenses , supply lines, and battle plans, allowing the American Patriot forces to plan a series of successful surprise attacks, breaking the British stronghold in the region and paving the way to seize control of Philadelphia.Several other Patriot civilian espionage rings operated across the country and in Britain. Individual civilians most often contributed to counterintelligence measures by posing as Loyalists and infiltrating British-sympathizing groups. Enoch Crosby and John Honeyman both infiltrated several pro-British organizations and delivered valuable intelligence information about the planned use of Hessian mercenaries in British military operations.Within the military, espionage operations were often tailored to fit the strategic needs of the battlefield. Scouts, many of whom were American Indians, reported on the location and strength of British military instillations and encampments. The first recorded American military agent of espionage was Nathan Hale. After a crushing defeat at the Battle of Long Island, Washington called for a volunteer to spy on the British and report to the American command with details of future battle plans. Hale volunteered, but was later captured behind enemy lines and hanged.Despite objections from some of his own officers, Washington sent British spy Major John Andre to the gallows in 1780.Covert actions and special operations. Most American, government-backed espionage actions against the British were covert, strategic operations of deception or sabotage. Blockade running was of critical importance to the American war effort. Though British ships clogged United States harbors, American privateers successfully ran British blockades to provide troops with supplies, ammunition, and even supporting troops from France.The American government, usually through diplomats abroad, employed a number of agents to sabotage wartime industries in Britain. Munitions factories, shipyards, and weapons storage facilities were the main targets of Patriot sabotage. Twelve separate targets were attacked in London and Portsmouth in a three-year period by one American saboteur before the agent fell into British custody and was executed.Some operations of deception were more insidious. British troops, wanting to keep some local Indian populations from joining the American cause, bribed village leaders with gifts of blankets and jewelry. Earlier, they gave the Indians blankets from their military sick wards, often infected with smallpox. The disease continued to devastate the American Indian population during the course of the war. Both British and American military personnel traded contaminated goods through Indian trade networks, hoping the goods would fall into enemy hands.Codes, cryptology, and secret writing. American and British forces employed codes and ciphers to disguise their communications, and took precautionary measures to ensure that crucial messages were not intercepted by the enemy. Both armies employed replacement codes, where pre-set letters or words replaced other letters or words in communications. This required intense memorization of static codes, or the use of codebooks, which had a high risk of being stolen by rival spies. The codes used in the American Revolution were simple and easy to decipher, permitting both armies to read intercepts with relative ease. In 1777, the Americans unveiled a new mathematical code that remained unbroken throughout the war, but the complexity of the code precluded its daily use and limited its effectiveness to overseas diplomatic dispatches that did not have to be deciphered in a timely manner.In lieu of complex codes, American cryptologists developed and used secret writing techniques. Disappearing inks are an ancient espionage trick, but during the Revolution, American scientists developed several inks that needed a series of reagents to reveal the hidden message. Some of these inks were waterproof and held up for months in difficult conditions, a necessity for warfare across wild and vast terrain. To further disguise messages, agents were instructed to write their communications between the lines of common publications, such as pamphlets and almanacs.Intelligence operations abroad and at sea required further technological advances in espionage tradecraft. With the British blockade, American agents had to be ready to conceal or destroy intelligence information that they carried. To preserve and conceal information, agents developed small, silver containers in which information could be hidden. The container could then be thrown into the fire and melted or be swallowed by the agent, permitting to information to possibly remain intact and undetected.After the end of the Revolution, and the establishment of an independent United States government, most military and espionage institutions were dissolved. Until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, American intelligence agencies and services were exclusively wartime organizations, rapidly assembled in times of conflict, and dissolved in times of peace. Though intelligence operations certainly aided the victory of American forces over the larger and better-armed British military, peacetime intelligence remained scattered, and largely focused on political and diplomatic espionage operations.American Spies of the RevolutionMount VernonNathan HaleDuring the Battle of Long Island, Nathan Hale--a captain in the Continental Army--volunteered to go behind enemy lines in disguise to report back on British troop movements. Hale was captured by the British army and executed as a spy on September 22, 1776. Hale remains part of popular lore connected with the American Revolution for his purported last words, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."Benjamin TallmadgeBenjamin Tallmadge oversaw the Culper Spy Ring operating out of New York (Litchfield Historical Society)In November 1778, George Washington charged Major Benjamin Tallmadge with creating a spy ring in New York City, the site of British headquarters. Tallmadge led the creation of the Culper Spy Ring, recruiting friends to work as his informants. Tallmadge served as the main handler for the Culper Spy Ring until the end of the war.Learn More: The Culper Spy RingAustin RoeA tavern owner, Austin Roe was closely tied to other members of the Culper Ring, even growing up near the home of fellow spy Caleb Brewster. Roe served as the group’s courier, transporting materials from Robert Townsend’s New York City coffee shop all the way back to Setauket, Long Island, a trip of more than fifty miles. Roe’s position as courier was fraught with danger, traveling a long distance with the possibility of being caught with incriminating evidence of his activities.Jamie Bell plays the part of Abraham Woodhull in AMC’s new series Turn (AMC)Abraham WoodhullA farmer and the son of a local Patriot judge, Abraham Woodhull joined the Culper ring in November of 1778. Woodhull was essentially the leader of the Culper Spy Ring, deciding what information was transmitted throughout the group, which would eventually make its way to George Washington. In order to evade British detection, Woodhull operated under the pseudonym, “Samuel Culper Sr."Anna StrongWell-connected within the New York, colonial, upper class, Anna Strong utilized her farmstead on Long Island to help transfer intelligence information to the other members of the Culper ring. Strong’s husband, Selah Strong III, was a prominent Patriot judge who served as a captain during the war. Anna Strong arranged clothes on her clothesline as a means to signal fellow Culper spy Caleb Brewster regarding the location of hidden documents to be transported.Robert TownsendA tavern owner in New York City, Robert Townsend participated in a complex cover up to mask his true loyalties. Townsend was a Patriot who publicly presented himself as a Loyalist supporter of Britain, even writing for a Loyalist newspaper to build credibility. The guise worked as Townsend was trusted with sensitive information, even from British military officers. Townsend then relayed the information to Austin Roe.Marquis de Lafayette's original certificate commending James Armistead Lafayette for his revolutionary war service (Marquis de Lafayette Collections, Skillman Library, Lafayette College)James Armistead LafayetteAn enslaved African-American who volunteered to join the army under Lafayette in 1781, Armistead served as a double agent working for the Patriots. Armistead posed as a runaway slave who agreed to work with the British, though in actuality he was collecting intelligence from the British and reporting back to Patriot forces. Armistead spied on Brigadier General Benedict Arnold (who had already defected to lead British forces), and eventually visited the camp of Lord Cornwallis to gather information about the British plans for troop deployment and armaments. The intelligence reports from Armistead’s efforts were instrumental in helping to defeat the British during the Battle of Yorktown.Primary Source: Lafayette's Testimonial to James Armistead Lafayette (November 21, 1784 )Ann BatesA Philadelphia school teacher and the wife of a British soldier, Ann Bates claimed to be a Patriot in order to collect and identify important information to send to British forces. After walking into George Washington’s White Plains headquarters, Bates explained that she “had the opportunity of going through their whole army remarking at the same time the strength and situation of each brigade, and the number of cannon, with their situation and weight of ball each cannon was charged with.” Bates’ information influenced General Henry Clinton's decision to send more forces to defend Rhode Island, leading to American and French armies to withdraw from Newport.THE CULPER SPY RING (history.com)British forces occupied New York in August 1776, and the city would remain a British stronghold and a major naval base for the duration of the Revolutionary War. Though getting information from New York on British troop movements and other plans was critical to General George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, there was simply no reliable intelligence network that existed on the Patriot side at that time. That changed in 1778, when a young cavalry officer named Benjamin Tallmadge established a small group of trustworthy men and women from his hometown of Setauket, Long Island. Known as the Culper Spy Ring, Tallmadge’s homegrown network would become the most effective of any intelligence-gathering operation on either side during the Revolutionary War.George WashingtonSiege of YorktownBattles of Trenton and PrincetonTHE DANGERS OF SPYINGIn mid-September 1776, the American officer Nathan Hale was hanged without trial in New York City. British authorities had caught Hale when he was on his way back to his regiment after having penetrated the British lines to gather information. Hale’s death illustrated the grave dangers inherent in spying for the rebels during the Revolutionary War, especially in the British stronghold of New York. Meanwhile, Benjamin Tallmadge, a young cavalry officer from Setauket, had enlisted in the Continental Army when the American Revolution began in 1775 and was soon awarded the rank of major. In mid-1778, General George Washington appointed Tallmadge the head of the Continental Army’s secret service; he was charged with establishing a permanent spy network that would operate behind enemy lines on Long Island.In addition to serving as head of Washington's secret service, Major Benjamin Tallmadge participated in many major battles fought by the Continental Army in the northern states. Fellow spy Caleb Brewster served under Tallmadge in the capture of Fort St. George at Mastic, New York in November 1780.Tallmadge recruited only those whom he could absolutely trust, beginning with his childhood friend, the farmer Abraham Woodhull, and Caleb Brewster, whose main task during the Revolution was commanding a fleet of whaleboats against British and Tory shipping on Long Island Sound. Brewster, one of the most daring of the group, was also the only member whom the British had definitely identified as a spy. Tallmadge went by the code name John Bolton, while Woodhull went by the name of Samuel Culper.WORKINGS OF THE CUPLER SPY RINGWoodhull, who began running the group’s day-to-day operations on Long Island, also personally traveled back and forth to New York collecting information and observing naval maneuvers there. He would evaluate reports and determine what information would be taken to Washington. Dispatches would then be given to Brewster, who would carry them across the Sound to Fairfield, Connecticut, and Tallmadge would then pass them on to Washington. Woodhull lived in constant anxiety of being discovered, and by the summer of 1779 he had recruited another man, the well-connected New York merchant Robert Townsend, to serve as the ring’s primary source in the city. Townsend wrote his reports as “Samuel Culper, Jr.” and Woodhull went by “Samuel Culper, Sr.”Austin Roe, a tavernkeeper in Setauket who acted as a courier for the Culper ring traveled to Manhattan with the excuse of buying supplies for his business. A local Setauket woman and Woodhull’s neighbor, Anna Smith Strong, was also said to have aided in the spy ring’s activities. Her husband, the local Patriot judge Selah Strong, had been confined on the British prison ship HMS Jersey in 1778, and Anna Strong lived alone for much of the war. She reportedly used the laundry on her clothesline to leave signals regarding Brewster’s location for meetings with Woodhull.ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CULPER SPY RINGDespite some strained relations within the group and constant pressure from Washington to send more information, the Culper Spy Ring achieved more than any other American or British intelligence network during the war. The information collected and passed on by the ring from 1778 to war’s end in 1783 concerned key British troop movements, fortifications and plans in New York and the surrounding region. Perhaps the group’s greatest achievement came in 1780, when it uncovered British plans to ambush the newly arrived French army in Rhode Island. Without the spy ring’s warnings to Washington, the Franco-American alliance may well have been damaged or destroyed by this surprise attack.The Culper Spy Ring has also been credited with uncovering information involving the treasonous correspondence between Benedict Arnold and John Andre, chief intelligence officer under General Henry Clinton, commander of the British forces in New York, who were conspiring to give the British control over the army fort at West Point. Major Andre was captured and hung as a spy in October 1780, on Washington’s orders.The Letter That Won the American RevolutionGeorge Washington paid the new nation's first spies out of his own pocket. Here he studies a map with Nathan Hale, who volunteered to gather intelligence behind British lines. He was soon captured and hanged.PHOTOGRAPH BY HULTON ARCHIVE, GETTY IMAGESBy Nina Strochlic PUBLISHED JULY 3, 2017In 1777, the American colonies were badly losing their fight for independence from Great Britain. The British Army had captured New York City’s crucial port. Expecting further advances, the Continental Congress was evacuated from Philadelphia. It seemed that the war was lost. Then George Washington, then Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, wrote a letter that changed the course of the war.Washington was desperate to discover what was happening inside New York, but military scouts couldn’t get close enough. The general needed someone to penetrate enemy lines, but when he asked for volunteers, few of his troops raised their hands.“Spying wasn’t seen as gentlemanly,” says Vince Houghton, resident historian at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.George Washington dabbled in espionage when, as a 21-year-old, he spied on the French in the Ohio Territories. “One of the things he did particularly well was to exploit the social environment of drinking sessions and meals with French officers to acquire useful intelligence,” notes a CIA report.PHOTOGRAPH BY HULTON ARCHIVE, GETTY IMAGESFinally, a young army captain named Nathan Hale volunteered for the dangerous assignment. He was caught a week later and hanged, the first known American spy to be executed on the job. (He’s memorialized with a statue outside CIA headquarters.) Washington realized that the mission was too big for untrained volunteers, so he set about building an espionage organization.YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKEPresident George Washington: Calm, Cool, and Collected Commander in ChiefWhat a Toilet Shows About Life During the American RevolutionSee Nine Amazing Treasures from the Revolutionary WarJohn Jay, later the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, had been running counterintelligence as head of the New York State Committee and Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies. One of Jay’s operatives, a merchant named Nathaniel Sackett, had experience in secret writing and codes. In February 1777, Washington wrote a letter to Sackett in which he offered him $50 a month—out of his own pocket—to establish the first formal apparatus for the “advantage of obtaining the earliest and best Intelligence of the designs of the Enemy.”Washington's letter created America's first intelligence gathering operation. “He wasn’t a military genius,” says one historian of Washington. “What made him good was putting the right people in the right positions.”PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM“Without the organization that Sackett set up, it would have been very difficult for us to win the war,” says Houghton. “We had a ragtag army and [the British] had the greatest army, greatest navy, and greatest economy in the world. We had no real business winning this war.”But America’s spy service got off to an inglorious start. Most of Sackett’s agents failed at their jobs—including Sackett himself, who was fired after just six months. Fortunately for the infant nation, Sackett’s replacement, 26-year-old Benjamin Tallmadge, created what is considered one of America’s greatest espionage operations: the Culper Spy Ring. Comprised of childhood friends from Long Island, the group included a shop owner inside New York City who gathered information, a traveling trader who smuggled it out of the city, and a whale boat captain who delivered it to Washington’s camp.Benjamin Tallmadge took over the role of spymaster for George Washington during the war. Later, he served eight terms in the House of Representatives.PHOTOGRAPH BY UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, GETTY IMAGESEmploying the tools and tricks of the 18th-century spy trade—hiding secret messages in hollow feather quills, using “dead drops” to transport letters—the Culper operatives unmasked enemy spies, busted a money counterfeiting plan, and stopped the British from sabotaging a French aid mission to the colonies.After important letters were lost during an enemy raid, Tallmadge invented a “numerical dictionary” code that matched 763 cities, names, and words to numbers. (Washington’s code name was Agent 711.) Washington also asked physician James Jay (brother to John) to invent an invisible ink that could be revealed only with another chemical and would “relieve the fears of such persons as may be entrusted in its conveyance.”Washington’s espionage experiment paid off. In 1781 the British surrendered, thanks in part to the intelligence gathered by the Culper Ring and their networks. “Washington didn’t really out-fight the British. He simply out-spied us,” a British intelligence officer allegedly said after the war. None of the Culper spies were ever caught, and even Washington himself never learned exactly who was in the group. The ring’s very existence wasn’t discovered until the 1900s, and to this day no one knows for certain how many members it had.After the war Washington asked Congress to reimburse him $17,000—nearly half a million dollars today—for his espionage expenses. The lawmakers obliged.Washington’s letter establishing the first American espionage operation was passed down from owner to owner until 2003, when it found a home at the International Spy Museum.PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUMLearn to decipher the CUPID code."The Cupid Code" is taken from Colonial Williamsburg's Electronic Field Trip In the General's Secret Service, which will be broadcast during the 2004 - 2005 Electronic Field Trip series. For more information on registering your classroom for the live broadcast and interactive activities of this exciting interactive educational resource, visit Electronic Field Trips.View Quicktime video clips from In the General's Secret Service Electronic Field TripEd Crews contributed to the spring 2004 journal a story on colonial roads. Crews says readers interested in Revolutionary intelligence operations might review the relevant chapters in Spying for America: The Hidden History of U.S. Intelligence, by Nathan Miller, as well as Honorable Treachery: A History of U.S. Intelligence, Espionage, and Covert Action from the American Revolution to the CIA, by G. J. A. O'Toole.

Choosing a movie to watch isn't a fraught decision if you know who to trust. That's the simple idea driving this list, which will be consistently updated and meticulously rearranged throughout the year. With some films getting their release days moved and others premiering early on VOD because of the ongoing global pandemic, this is already a strange, challenging year for the movie industry. But, like last year, we'll still do our best to keep you in the loop on the explosion-filled blockbusters you can't miss and the more intimate smaller films you must seek out. If it's good, we want it on here.From skin-crawling horror movies to hard-hitting documentaries, there should be something on this list to satisfy your highly specialized cinematic cravings as the year goes on. We recognize that you're busy and there's a lot of forces fighting for your attention at the moment, so we pledge not to waste your time. These are the best movies of 2020.15. The Vast of NightRelease date: May 29Cast: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Gail Cronauer, Bruce DavisDirector: Andrew PattersonWhy it’s great: This low-budget debut feature is a UFO movie that takes time to achieve lift off. In addition to saddling the story with a mostly unnecessary framing device, which underlines the already obvious echoes of The Twilight Zone, director Andrew Patterson and the film's writers open the 1950s New Mexico-set story with a handful of overly precious exchanges featuring the two main characters, chatty DJ Everett (Horowitz) and young switchboard operator Fay (McCormick). In the beginning, these two might get on your nerves. But once the movie locks them in place, tampering down the acrobatic camerawork and letting the sound design take control, the material finds a more natural rhythm, drawing on the hushed intimacy of old-fashioned radio drama. Like many of the best UFO yarns, The Vast of Night taps into a deep sense of yearning. Wanting to believe is half the battle.14. Bad Boys For LifeRelease date: January 17Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Paola NúñezDirector: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Black)Why it’s worth watching: In what hasn't exactly been a great year for action movies so far, Bad Boys for Life has to be the biggest surprise. Given its lengthy production history, its January release date, and the departure of series director Michael Bay -- the action auteur gets a winking cameo here, perhaps taking a break from shooting Netflix's 6 Underground -- this movie could've been a disaster. Instead, Smith and Lawrence easily slip back into the roles that made them action movie icons in the '90s and the writers find a way to update the garish, over-the-top aesthetic of the series for the franchise era. In a wise decision, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah don't even bother trying to top the excess and mayhem of Bay's Bad Boys II.Bad Boys For Life is a gentler, sillier movie than its predecessor, less interested in moments of vulgarity than in scenes of sitcom-like human connection and familial melodrama. There are explosions and car chases through the streets of Miami and jokes about getting too old for this shit, but the material is given a light touch that lets the two stars do what they do best.13. Palm SpringsRelease date: July 10Cast: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J. K. Simmons, Camila MendesDirector: Max BarbakowWhy it’s great: Arriving on streaming in the middle of a pandemic, a time when many lives have fallen into unceasing loops of quarantine-related repetition and tedium, the Lonely Island produced comedy Palm Springs perhaps resonated differently than when it premiered at Sundance earlier this year. Jokes about doing the same shit over and over just hit harder now. Tracking a romance between a goofball wedding guest (Andy Samberg) and the bride's self-destructive sister (Cristin Milioti), writer Andy Siara's clever script combines Groundhog Day existentialism with a quippy take on quantum physics, doling out inspirational life lessons and math cram sessions at a clipped pace. In the same way Tom Cruise had to battle aliens in Edge of Tomorrow, the two must relive a wedding over and over, struggling to escape from an Instagram-ready, celebratory hell. It might not be as purely funny as Samberg's other big screen adventures Hot Rod and Popstar, but Palm Springs finds its own winning spin on a surprisingly robust micro-genre.12. The Way BackRelease date: March 6Cast: Ben Affleck, Al Madrigal, Michaela Watkins, Janina GavankarDirector: Gavin O'ConnorWhy it’s great: Disciplined in its approach and unapologetic about its contrivances, Ben Affleck's basketball coach in crisis drama The Way Back is a sports movie that understands the fundamentals. What it lacks in flashiness or ingenuity -- the underdog narrative of a crappy team hitting its stride under the leadership of a gruff coach hits all the requisite Hoosiers notes -- it makes up for with an oddly enthralling downbeat craftsmanship. Little details, like the freeze-frame when the scores of games pop up on screen or the click-clack percussion-heavy music, accumulate emotional power over the film's brisk runtime. Playing a washed-up ex-athlete with an immediately apparent drinking problem and a number of strategically hidden personal demons, Affleck delivers a weary performance that resonates with his off-screen persona (and his recent tabloid headlines) in ways both obvious and surprising. In brief stretches, director Gavin O'Connor, who helmed the similarly intense melodramas Miracle and Warrior, pulls off the ultimate sports movie trick of making you believe the character's redemption isn't inevitable. Every win is a battle -- even if you know the results going in.11. The AssistantRelease date: January 31Cast: Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Kristine Froseth, Makenzie LeighDirector: Kitty Green (Casting JonBenet)Why it’s great: The systemic culture of indifference and cruelty that often forms around a powerful serial abuser gets put under the microscope in this studiously observed New York office drama, which draws inspiration from the behavior of Harvey Weinstein while intentionally blurring some of the details. We never learn the name of the tyrannical boss in the story and the exact nature of his crimes are never fully revealed; instead, Julia Garner's assistant Jane, a Northwestern grad fresh off a handful of internships, provides our entryway into the narrative. The movie tracks her duties, tasks, and indignities over the course of a single day: She makes copies, coordinates air travel, picks up lunch orders, answers phone calls, and cleans suspicious stains off the couch. At one point, a young woman from Idaho appears at the reception desk, claims to have been flown in to start as a new assistant, and gets whisked away to a room in an expensive hotel. Jane raises the issue with an HR rep, played with smarmy menace by Succession's Matthew Macfadyen, but her concerns are quickly battered away and turned against her. Rejecting cheap catharsis and dramatic twists, The Assistant builds its claustrophobic world through a steady accumulation of information. While some of the writing can feel too imprecise and opaque by design, Garner, who consistently steals scenes on Netflix's Ozark, invests every hushed phone call and carefully worded email with real trepidation. She locates the terror in the drudgery of the work.10. Bad EducationRelease date: April 25Cast: Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, Ray Romano, Geraldine ViswanathanDirector: Cory Finley (Thoroughbreads)Why it’s great: A chronicle of greed, status, and vanity, Bad Education shares more than a few qualities with Martin Scorsese's financial crimes epic The Wolf of Wall Street, the story of another Long Island striver with slicked-back hair. Trading the stock market for the public education system, director Cory Finley's wry docudrama, which takes its inspiration from a wild New York Magazine feature from 2004, charts the tragi-comic downfall of Roslyn School District superintendent Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman), a charming and beloved administrator in a rising wealthy area. When his assistant superintendent Pam Gluckin (Allison Janey) gets caught allowing family members to make personal charges using the school's credit cards, Frank's world of healthy smoothies, expensive suits, and gleeful deception begins to unravel. Using a high school newspaper reporter as an audience surrogate (Geraldine Viswanathan), the script withholds key details of Frank's life for large sections of the runtime, allowing Jackman to give a performance that gradually reveals new layers of emotional complexity and moral emptiness. Like the tweezers Frank uses to dutifully pluck his nose hairs, the movie takes a surgical approach to its subject.Where to watch: Stream on HBO/HBO Max (9. Sorry We Missed YouRelease date: March 6Cast: Kris Hitchen, Debbie Honeywood, Rhys Stone, Katie ProctorDirector: Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake)Why it’s great: The modern gig economy is set up so that the customer rarely has to think very much about the person delivering a package to their door. Sorry We Missed You, the latest working class social drama from 83-year-old English filmmaker Ken Loach, is a harsh reminder that those piles of cardboard Amazon boxes have a human cost. The film follows married couple Ricky (Kris Hitchen) and Abbi (Debbie Honeywood) as they attempt to raise their two kids, keep their humble home in Newcastle, and and hold down jobs stripped of conventional protections. As Ricky's domineering boss tells him at the beginning of the movie, he's not an "employee." No, he's his own small business owner and independent contractor. Loach finds dark laughs and absurdity in the the convoluted language of precarity, particularly the way management attempts to sell poor working conditions as a form of empowerment, but he also captures the tender, intimate moments that occur in even the most soul-sucking jobs. Ricky and his daughter find joy in knocking on doors and leaving notes; Abbi, who works as a nurse, genuinely cares for her patients like her own family even if the company she works for refuses to pay for her transportation. Though the script leans too hard on melodrama in its final stretch, setting up scenes that don't always deliver on their dramatic potential, Loach never loses his moral grasp on the material.8. ShirleyRelease date: June 5Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, Logan LermanDirector: Josephine Decker (Madeline's Madeline)Why it’s great: In short stories like The Lottery and novels like The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson conjured unease, tension, and queasy strangeness that made them difficult to put down. Fittingly, Shirley, an adaptation of a novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, examines a highly pressurized moment in the author's life that makes for occasionally nerve-rattling viewing. As played by Elisabeth Moss, Jackson can be temperamental, brilliant, and cruel, especially to Rose (Odessa Young) and Fred (Logan Lerman), the newlywed couple that move into the paper-strewn house she shares with her controlling professor husband (Michael Stuhlbarg). Where Decker's previous exploration of the creative process, the dizzying Madeline's Madeline, took an often nonlinear, combustible approach, Shirley retains some of the stuffy mechanics of the writerly biopic, particularly in the scenes of Jackson typing away at what will become her novel Hangsaman. (That book, which was partially inspired by the real-life disappearance of college student Paula Jean Welden, was written earlier in Jackson's life than the movie portrays.) But Moss's mischievous performance, the subtle interplay between the two women, and the feeling that the movie could tilt over the edge into chaos, chasing darker impulses and rolling around in the mud with Decker's roaming camera, keeps it from falling into many of the traps set by the often worshipful "great artist" micro-genre.7. Color Out of SpaceRelease date: January 24Cast: Nicolas Cage, Joely Richardson, Madeleine Arthur, Brendan MeyerDirector: Richard Stanley (Hardware)Why it’s great: For a certain type of moviegoer, any film where Nicolas Cage says the word "alpacas" multiple times is worth seeking out. Luckily, Color Out of Space, a psychedelic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story from 1927, offers more than just furry animals and unhinged Cage theatrics. Mixing hints of science-fiction intrigue and bursts horror movie excess, along with a couple splashes of stoner-friendly comedy, Richard Stanley's proudly weird B-movie vibrates on its own peculiar frequency. Cage's Nathan, a chatty farmer with a loving wife (Joely Richardson) and a pair of mildly rebellious kids, must contend with a meteoroid that crashes in his front yard, shooting purple light all over his property and infecting the local water supply. Is it some space invader? A demonic spirit? A biological force indiscriminately wreaking havoc on the fabric of reality itself? The squishy unknowability of the evil is precisely the point, and Stanley melds Evil Dead-like gore showdowns with Pink Floyd laser light freak-outs to thrilling effect, achieving a moving and disquieting type of genre alchemy that should appeal to fans of Cage's out-there turn in the similarly odd hybrid Mandy. Again, you'll know if this is in your wheelhouse or not.6. She Dies TomorrowRelease date: July 31Cast: Kate Lyn Sheil, Jane Adams, Kentucker Audley, Chris MessinaDirector: Amy Seimetz (Sun Don't Shine)Why it’s great: The strobing lights and shifting colors that flash across the at crucial points in She Dies Tomorrow signal a psychological shift that can't be fully explained or articulated by any of the characters. They all know something is wrong -- unavoidable death is approaching, soon -- but they can't exactly put a name to it or make others empathize with their anxiety until the reaction spreads. And this condition spreads fast: starting with Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil), who just moved into a sleek new house, and jumping to her obsessive friend, and then that friend's family and on and on. Is this a medical thriller stripped of jargon or a dark social comedy of manners stylized into a more abstract register? Quibbles about genre feel less urgent as the movie builds its peculiar world of dune buggies, leather shops, and swimming pools. Director Amy Seimetz scrutinizes behavior with a careful eye, and she brings joy out of the performers even in dire circumstances, but the movie's big questions are metaphysical. Surrendering to the void or stepping into the light can only do so much.5. Bloody Nose, Empty PocketsRelease date: July 10Directors: Bill and Turner Ross (Western)Why it’s great: The theme song from Cheers succinctly summed up the communal appeal of the local bar: "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name." On the surface, this genre-bending documentary from brother filmmaking team Bill and Turner Ross is a straightforward celebration of that concept, one that explores depths of feeling, patterns of behavior, and types of language you wouldn't see on a network sitcom. Chronicling the closing night of a Las Vegas dive called Roaring '20s in November 2016, in the the shadow of Donald Trump's election victory, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets introduces a series of bartenders and barflys, observing them in verité style as they watch Jeopardy! on TV, sing songs, and get in arguments. An Australian regular takes acid; a cake gets smashed. Just another night out. The setup is simple and the hangout vibe is a pleasure, but the story of how the the film was made, which goes mostly unacknowledged on screen, blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction in a way that gives the events a woozy texture. It's a sentiment most bar-goers can relate to: Why let the truth get in the way of a great story?4. Da 5 BloodsRelease date: June 12Cast: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm LewisDirector: Spike LeeWhy it’s great: Exploding with historical references, directorial flourishes, and flashes of combat action, Spike Lee's war epic Da 5 Bloods is a movie that embraces the inherent messiness of its subject matter. At first, the story sounds simple enough: four elderly Black veterans regroup and travel to Vietnam to recover the remains of their squad leader Norman (Chadwick Boseman) and search for a shipment of gold they buried in the jungle decades ago. But Lee, pushing the movie in sharply funny and emotionally fraught directions depending on the demands of the scenes, refuses to approach the Treasure of Sierra Madre-like set-up in a straight-forward manner. Instead, the movie pings between the MAGA-hat speckled present and the bullet-ridden past, using his older actors in the flashbacks as their younger selves to underline the strangeness of time's passage. While some of the detours might test your patience, particularly once the men discover the gold and start arguing over what to do with it, the powerful ending, which becomes a moving showcase for the great Delroy Lindo, makes this a long journey worth embarking on.3. Never Rarely Sometimes AlwaysRelease date: March 13Cast: Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin, Ryan EggoldDirector: Eliza Hittman (Beach Rats)Why it’s great: The Port Authority bus terminal provides the backdrop for a good deal of the drama and the waiting in Eliza Hittman's powerful portrait of a teenager traveling from Pennsylvania to New York to have an abortion, a procedure she can't receive in her home state. Quiet and watchful, Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) observes the world around her from benches, bus seats, and doctor's office chairs, dragging an enormous suitcase through the drab interiors of various midtown locations. She doesn't tell her parents about her pregnancy or her trip. She's joined by her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder), who wants to be a supportive friend and sounding board. Still, the two don't talk much. The movie's most striking image shows the two holding hands in a moment of shared vulnerability, like their bond transcends language. As a filmmaker, Hittman is most interested in behavior and gesture, approaching her story with the type of careful rigor that allows for poetic moments to emerge in unexpected places. It's a style that's especially suited to the challenging emotional terrain of the material.2. BacurauRelease date: March 6Cast: Sônia Braga, Udo Kier, Bárbara Colen, Thomas AquinoDirectors: Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano DornellesWhy it’s great: When a movie tells a story about a community joining together to fight off outside invaders, there are certain shots, moments, and heroics you want to see. Bloodshed, vengeance, and justice all have a place in Bacurau, a feverish, quasi-dystopian genre mash-up centered around a fictional Brazilian city in the country's Northwestern region, but the film doles out its cathartic showdowns in an inventive, dizzying manner. After a stretch exploring the geography, political realities, and daily routines of the city, a scheming American villain arrives and, in an inspired bit of casting, he's played by B-movie staple Udo Kier, reveling in the cruelty and complexity of the role. He's leading a team of aspiring would-be commandos, the type of people who view killing as a novel thrill. Exposition gets tucked in odd narrative corners; the tactical demands of the situation shift; scenes play out in tense, curious confrontations. Eventually, the movie explodes like a volcano, bursts of stylized gore and righteous indignation flying everywhere. Both visually hallucinatory and morally centered, Bacurau excites and inspires in equal measure.1. First CowRelease date: March 6Cast: John Magaro, Orion Lee, René Auberjonois, Toby JonesDirector:Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women)Why it’s great: First Cow, Kelly Reichardt's evocative and wise tale of frontier life, begins with the discovery of two skeletons in the woods. An unnamed young woman (Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat) and her dog -- echoing the human-and-canine pair at the center of Reichardt's 2008 road story Wendy and Lucy -- come upon the bones in the modern day Pacific Northwest. Then we flash back to a time when the Oregon territory was far less developed, an era of perilous opportunity and rampant exploitation, and meet Cookie (John Magaro), a bashful and unassuming cook for a team of unruly fur trappers. Eventually, he befriends the wandering King-Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant who claims to be fleeing some Russians. The two stumble on an opportunity to make some money: a wealthy landowner (Toby Jones) brings the first cow to the region. Cookie and King-Lu decide to steal the cow's milk at night and use it to bake sweet honey biscuits, which they sell at the local market. The story has an allegorical quality, gently pulling at classic American notions of hope, ambition, and deception. Reichardt, who chronicled a similar historical period in 2010's neo-Western Meek's Cutoff and an equally rich male friendship in 2006's buddy comedy Old Joy, has a gentle human touch that never veers into sentimentality. On a literal and metaphoric level, she knows where the bodies are buried.