"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"

[Mickey Brausch]

Spy films are no more, in case you didn’t notice. The last great spy film was on television, shot in 1974 and broadcast in 7 parts in Britain. Saw again last week “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” on DVD [1] and I don’t think such films will ever be appreciated again by anyone over 35. And even 30 is close. Communism fell some 25 years ago. Can you understand and be moved by the themes running through “Tinker, Tailor” when you haven’t felt the feverish paranoia of the Cold War? Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the ideological battle lines, the mysterious and omnipotent Soviet behemoth, the red banners, the firing squads, Eastern Europe struggling to remain Mittel Europa, the western ambivalence and doubts, the ghost of Fascism, the Cambridge Four.

There are no fancy interiors, car chases or special effects. This is a film for grown-ups. (I call it a film because it plays like one.) No explanations or facile macguffins. The dynamics are not coming from computers but from a brilliant screenplay, brought to life by top actors, in understated, poignant performances. It’s the equivalent of chamber music, with tension and suspense created by little things, gestures, glances, and words.

The dialogue is superb. Quaint English, spoken half-sardonically and self-deprecatingly, and interspersed with the spy lingo [2] of the time. The actors are all masters their craft, effortlessly and unobtrusively bringing the whole thing to life [3].

The plot involves deception, a theme based on the Kim Philby case. There’s a mole inside British intelligence, and its existence comes about by a chance happening in a foreign land (as happened in the real case [4]). Smiley, an intelligence senior who fell from grace along with the previous Chief, is called back by the Ministry to look into the matter. We will have to go back to a bond between two adolescent boys in school, boys who grew up to become brother spies, to trace a betrayal more sinister than of one’s country. Lost youth -- like I said, the madly atmospheric direction will be understood mostly by those over-40.

Violence is rare, as in most every life, but breaks out without warning, clumsily, extremely, and unsettlingly. The threat of violence is present to the last frame. (A tightly/aggressive piece of art.)

The opening sequence of each episode is the last scene of the previous one, and then the titles come on: A Russian doll, crudely painted with a smile, reveals another one inside it, which is frowning, and next is revealed another one which is angry, and finally a doll without an expression, without a face at all. The musical theme of the opening credits is a minimal piece of melody (even Andy Fox can play it). It’s devastatingly evocative. (The whole thing, in case you haven’t understood by now, is about loss, memory and choices.) The end credits roll under a choral hymn [5] sung by a solo young voice, pointing us once again to the direction where it all began, at school.

I know, I'm rambling and being silly, lamenting a bygone genre. I apologize for my inability to do justice to this masterpiece.

Mickey Brausch

Library:

* Kim Philby, “My Silent War”, the memoir of the biggest spy ever. Foreword by Graham Greene.
* “The Private Life Of Kim Philby”, written by his Russian second wife, Rufina Philby. Master spy in Moscow retirement. (Read his speech to cadres at KGB headquarters. Begins with a joke, "This is the 8th secret service I penetrate…", which goes over the heads of his hosts.)
* “Philby, The Spy Who Betrayed A Generation", a solid book about the affair.
* “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”, the BBC series on DVD.
* John le Carré’s, "The Spy Who Came In From Cold". The original.

Notes:

[1] : John LeCarré is interviewed in an extra feature shot in 2000 (“The Secret Centre”) and reveals his personal background. A brilliant feature, which revisits the whole era. A rprimer for those under-40, actually.

[2] : E.g. : Scalphunters, babysitters, lamplighters, the Circus, the nursery, the tribe, reptile fund, etc. Le Carré later insisted that most of the terms were invented by him -- but even so, they remain exquisitely evocative. As Mario Puzo also discovered with real-life gangsters and his Godfather series, real-life MI5 people began using the Le Carré terms.

[3]: It’s not just Alec Guiness and who burns the screen with quiet intensity, but also the stellar presences of Michael Aldridge, Ian Richardson, Terence Rigby, Bernard Hepton, (the “magic circle”, pictured above), and Michael Jayston, Anthony Bate, , Berryl Reid (superb cameo as the old Englishwoman ex-MI5 icy caretaker and resident mom), Joss Ackland (you’ve seen him as the South African embassy boss in a Lethal Weapon), Hywell Bennett (he of the cherub killer face) as the unwitting untangler of the web – and Patrick Stewart, who plays the part of the Soviet master spy without saying a single word. Ian Bannen, in the key role of field agent Prideaux, seethes with menace and is a towering avenging angel, but is also the best teacher/father to his schoolboy students.

[4] When Guy Burgess, who was working in the Foreign Office and was already under suspicion by the FBI, was posted in Washington, he asked to lodge in Philby’s residence, and Philby to his later regret, agreed. There was no significant e previous connection between the two. When Burgess (with Maclean) later defected, Philby came under suspicion himself.

[5] : The lyrics, perhaps a lament for the final body falling dead in the film, are

Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace
According to Thy word
For Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation
Which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people
To be a light, to lighten the gentiles
And to be the glory of Thy people Israel
Glory be to the Father
And to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be
World without end
Amen

[diebitter]

I never saw this, and was 9 or 10 when it was on TV, and then James Bond was way more appealing.

I will try and catch it, and post back here when I do.

thanks for the great review and reminder of this.

[whiskeytown]

I tried reading these books as a high-schooler - I found the CIA and MI6 to be fascinating, and thought the representations might be more accurate then the James Bond stuff -

it nearly bored me to tears, just like real field work - I also remember a cool miniseries called "Smiley's People" with Alex Guinness - one of the last roles I saw him in -

I did like The Spy who Came in from the Cold, however. They translate much better to film then the books did, IMHO

RB

[MidGe]

I liked both mini-series mentioned previously but they can't really true justice to the books. Le Carre is easily one of my favourites authors (sorry to disagree here whiskytown [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ). What I find absolutely fascinating is Le Carre abilities to enter/show the psychological layers of the protagonists which even to them are only fragmentarily accessible as it is with most lies/cover/deceptions (of which there are plenty) in everyone's life. It is like a self slow discovery of own's own psyche. I have read all of his books, some a number of times. I buy the book as soonas they come out in hardback. I always have been dissapointed by the cinematographic renditions. I think they never do convey the subtleties of the mind mechanisms Le Carre so craftily (pun intended) explores.

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]
I know, I'm rambling and being silly, lamenting a bygone genre. I apologize for my inability to do justice to this masterpiece.

Mickey Brausch

Library:

[/ QUOTE ]

....au contraire, my friend!

IMHO, you have done an excellent job of whetting the appetite of those who have not seen this brilliant classic.

Like many 'classic' movies, "Tinker, Tailor..." requires the observer to THINK; something sadly missing in most of the trash put on the screen today.

You have done readers here a service with your post.

I would urge anyone who is not familiar with this work to become familiar with it.

It's been far too long since PBS has re-broadcast it. I think I'll write them a letter to see if they still have it.

If I rememeber correctly, was there not also a sequel called "Smiley's People"?

[Mickey Brausch]

I have not read the book "Tinker, Tailor", but I cannot imagine a Le Carré book boring me much. "Smiley's People" I did both book and TV series: The book was not much and the series were mediocre - by the standards set by "Tinker, Tailor" that is.

"Smiley's People" is a sequel; a closure for the Service and Le Carré. But it doesn't have the tension, the high stakes and the major themes of betrayal (of one's friends, lovers, country) in it. It's just the struggle of the head of one intelligence service against the head of the opposite service; I was entertained alright, and very much so, but not moved as much as with "Tinker, Tailor".

Besides: It's fantasy (while "Tinker, Tailor" was inspired by and based on various real life stories, that were given a master's treatment of fiction). Nothing like that happened in real life. In real life, as "Tinker, Tailor" insinuated, the Soviets kicked our butt .. as far as human intelligence was concerned [1].

But Le Carré needed to have closure. He also gets to expand on a very important (and, currently, relevant) point: That To defeat a lawless enemy by lawless means, is a bitter victory (perhaps a defeat even).. The "Tinker, Tailor" DVD contains, as I said, a feature about Le Carré, where this aspect of the story is presented. Alec Guinness' Smiley scores one over Patrick Stewart's Carla but with a Carla method, i.e. by taking advantage of the opponent's human side/frailty. Is that really a victory for humane, moralising Smiley? And when Carla proves to himself that human nature can rise above petty ideology, doesn't he lose too? In a sense, they both lose.

It goes without saying that script, direction, settings, and acting [2] are superb, absolutely superb, once again. BBC at its finest.

Mickey Brausch


[1] : I'm not referring, of course, to defectors. There, the West won overwhelmingly. But about human spies buried in the West and reporting to the East. We had nothing during the cold War like what the Soviets had on us. We were relying more on technology.

[2] : Patrick Stewart speaks.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
I liked both mini-series mentioned previously but they can't really true justice to the books. Le Carre is easily one of my favourites authors (sorry to disagree here whiskytown [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ). What I find absolutely fascinating is Le Carre abilities to enter/show the psychological layers of the protagonists which even to them are only fragmentarily accessible as it is with most lies/cover/deceptions (of which there are plenty) in everyone's life. It is like a self slow discovery of own's own psyche. I have read all of his books, some a number of times. I buy the book as soonas they come out in hardback. I always have been dissapointed by the cinematographic renditions. I think they never do convey the subtleties of the mind mechanisms Le Carre so craftily (pun intended) explores.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Tinker-Tailor series is a masterpiece I've read twice long ago along with most of LeCarre's other novels. I like the fact that LeCarre's George Smiley isn't the handsome super-hero type one might find in a Robert Ludlem novel. Smiley's victories are small victories that would go unnoticed in the outside world.

The middle book (The Honorable Schoolboy) was the only one of the three that wasn't made into a BBC mini-series. What struck me about that book was how LeCarre managed to make George Smiley's bureaucratic infighting regarding getting funding and approval for his sting operation absolutely fascinating over about 100 pages.

The two Smiley BBC mini-series starring Alex Guiness as George Smiley were very good IMO, but it helped that I read the books first. I'd rate the movie Constant Gardener as excellent, and "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" was a good movie that unfortunately had to be compared to an absolutely fantastic book.

~ Rick