John Hurt, Colin Firth, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Benedict Cumberbatch, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong |
Alec Guinness as George Smiley |
I have spent the last year doing intensive research about the CIA, MI6 and other mysterious organizations in an attempt to understand the bizarre events that have happened to me on a personal level over the past few years. Reading John Le Carré was part of that research, as was reading "Operation Mincemeat," the truth behind "The Man Who Never Was." One of the fascinating things I learned is that intelligence agencies love to hire novelists! (Since the fictional story they tried to impose upon me was written by a hack, one can assume that the story was written by an American or a very lousy British writer.) In any event, I did learn a lot about the spy business and was very much looking forward to this movie.
John Le Carré is a brilliant author, though I have not yet gotten my hands on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Nor have I ever seen Alec Guinness, a brilliant actor, in the TV series. So, my point of view is not colored by warm fuzzy images that come from a beloved television show, or an image I've created myself from reading a novel. George Smiley is a new character for me.
Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious |
Here is the review I agree with the most, Leslie Felperin from Variety:
John Le Carre reportedly once said, "Seeing your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes." Maybe so, but in the case of helmer Tomas Alfredson's version of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," the result is best likened to a perfectly seasoned consomme. An inventive, meaty distillation of Le Carre's 1974 novel, pic turns hero George Smiley's hunt for a mole within Blighty's MI6 into an incisive examination of Cold War ethics, rich in both contempo resonance and elegiac melancholy. Finely hammered to appeal to discerning auds and kudo-awarding bodies, "Tinker" should do sterling biz.
Here is my favorite snippet from Leslie Felperin's review:
Gary Oldman as George Smiley |
One of the pic's biggest departures from the source is to weave in flashbacks to a Christmas party, a scene that was never in the book. The party sequence efficiently reveals how Smiley learned about his wife Ann's infidelity, a crucial component in the theme of betrayal, and also sets an atmosphere and tone that makes this version of "Tinker, Tailor" feel fundamentally different from its predecessor: Under unglamorous strip lights redolent of '70s-era think tanks and the opposite of the gentlemen's club atmosphere of the TV series, the men and women who work for the Circus look more like the pasty nerds real Mi6 people probably were then (and maybe are now). They may hold the fate of the Western world in their hands, but many of them are outsiders to the regular establishment.
They are a bunch of pasty nerds! I've met them! Not just the MI6 people, but also the CIA and State Department people! It was a conclusion I had reached on my own, and I am happy to have it confirmed. Except for some who are "born" into the business, intelligence agencies seem to recruit nerds who dream of being somebody: wanna-be actors, wanna-be writers, wanna-be artists, wanna-be photographers. There are inept clergymen (much more exciting to be a spy Chaplain), and inept doctors, judges and lawyers (cash kick-backs for spy doctors, judges and lawyers). And like members of a Circus, they are also often freaks. I kept running around saying: "Who are these people? SAG extras are better actors than these characters!" Because our image of spies has been colored by James Bond and Hollywood glamor, it was quite a shock to realize that in reality they are actually pasty nerds and circus freaks! Movie stars have made them glamorous, but in real life, they are not.
Colin Firth as Bill Haydon |
Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter Guillam |
Other people's suffering gives them pleasure, especially if the people they have targeted are glamorous or talented or sophisticated or don't agree with them. They are often sexually frustrated, and are obsessed with the sex lives of others.
I am sure there are many legitimate, healthy people that work in intelligence, but the ones I've actually encountered are pasty nerds or they are so clever and excellent at their jobs that I don't know they are spies. From what I've read, the original CIA was founded by elegant, sophisticated people who really wanted to serve the country, but nowadays the quality has gone down, and the quantity has gone up. If the world could grasp the enormity of this concept -- that the people who hold the fate of the Western world in their hands are a bunch of pasty nerds and circus freaks motivated by envy, jealousy and greed -- we will begin to understand much about why the world is in the mess it is today.
John Hurt as Control |
Ciao from Venice,
Cat
Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog
Gary Oldman, however, is one of my favorite actors. He is the new George Smiley in the movie version of Tinker, Tailor. I first saw Gary Oldman on the London stage in the 1980s before he became a movie star. Back then, he was a very talented, very bad boy, full of explosive passion and rage. Now, under the helm of Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, Oldman's passion and rage are internal, a smoldering volcano, completely under control.
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