Did you know that Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (with commas) was a 1979 TV Series starring Alec Guiness? It ran for a full 7 episodes it would seem. I tried my best to get my hands on the book before I saw the movie but sadly could not find it . Will keep the search on for a while – not just for academic interest but because the movie is so heavy and slow that ironically you find it difficult to keep pace with it. Funny right. But one has to read the book before you can understand the movie completely. I guess you will experience it when you watch it. It is difficult to explain it in words. I will now add the mini-series search to the list of must watches as well.
Tomas Alfredson peels out the story layer by layer by layer and that too in a very disjointed manner. That’s what I would call giving exceptional credit to the audience’s intelligence. Sometimes it backfires like it did with Tree of Life. At other times it comes out exceptionally well like in the case of Pulp Fiction. And then there are really good movies such as TTSS which kind of lose it in an attempt to increase the intrigue.
TTSS is an espionage movie that forces you to concentrate. Despite its slow pace, you could actually miss the plot if you miss a few seconds – like I did. The good news though is that it allows you to catch up unlike a lot of other movies which don’t. It traces the story of British Intelligence which suspects a Russian mole in its highest ranks. The task of unearthing the same is given to George Smiley (Gary Oldman) who builds his own mini team of sorts and starts the arduous task of figuring out who is the actual culprit – Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) OR Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) OR Percy Alleline (Toby Jones) OR Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds). They are code named – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier and Spy – not respectively.
TTSS has some really solid performances by the entire cast. Little known names such as David Dencik and the vastly under-rated Ciarán Hinds have come up with really solid performances. The movie has some outstanding editing and cinematography which is apparent within the first few frames. The use of light and colour is quite stunning. The only thing, if any, which could have been in doubt were the costumes. Not sure if there were some errors on that count – pardon me for not being familiar with the kind of clothes which were worn in the 70s. Cannot comment on the screenplay either because I haven’t read the book. However, independent of the book, the screenplay would be OK in my books. Overall, one of the better movies of the year. 7 on 10. Must watch again to be totally sure of the concept – willing to do it too.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3394673689/
Tomas Alfredson peels out the story layer by layer by layer and that too in a very disjointed manner. That’s what I would call giving exceptional credit to the audience’s intelligence. Sometimes it backfires like it did with Tree of Life. At other times it comes out exceptionally well like in the case of Pulp Fiction. And then there are really good movies such as TTSS which kind of lose it in an attempt to increase the intrigue.
TTSS is an espionage movie that forces you to concentrate. Despite its slow pace, you could actually miss the plot if you miss a few seconds – like I did. The good news though is that it allows you to catch up unlike a lot of other movies which don’t. It traces the story of British Intelligence which suspects a Russian mole in its highest ranks. The task of unearthing the same is given to George Smiley (Gary Oldman) who builds his own mini team of sorts and starts the arduous task of figuring out who is the actual culprit – Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) OR Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) OR Percy Alleline (Toby Jones) OR Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds). They are code named – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier and Spy – not respectively.
TTSS has some really solid performances by the entire cast. Little known names such as David Dencik and the vastly under-rated Ciarán Hinds have come up with really solid performances. The movie has some outstanding editing and cinematography which is apparent within the first few frames. The use of light and colour is quite stunning. The only thing, if any, which could have been in doubt were the costumes. Not sure if there were some errors on that count – pardon me for not being familiar with the kind of clothes which were worn in the 70s. Cannot comment on the screenplay either because I haven’t read the book. However, independent of the book, the screenplay would be OK in my books. Overall, one of the better movies of the year. 7 on 10. Must watch again to be totally sure of the concept – willing to do it too.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3394673689/
I am a hard core John Le Carre fan. I have the complete John Le Carre collection and TTSS was the first JLC novel that I read, back in the '90s. George Smiley is an iconic character from post-war literature, a complete opposite of the flamboyant James Bond (who when compared to GS is almost a parody). I'll catch the movie sometime but I did see a few clips of the old TV series you mentioned and Guinness does capture the conflict in Smiley's mind - the disillusionment of the Cold War policies and the resultant treatment of people as pawns vs his own personal concern for the welfare of those working with him and his values of truth, honesty, etc.
ReplyDeleteFor the quizzer in you, this might be interesting. John Le Carre was in British Intelligence and an associate of Kim Philby who turned out to be a KGB double agent. Le Carre had to quit the service because he was no longer "secure" after Philby crossed over. TTSS is a novel based on that with the mole in the book resembling Philby and the moral destruction he caused to the British system.
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