Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979)

So much average

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A powerful honorable cat-and-mouse game of gentlemen entrenched in obscure offices and safe houses, stenching with cigarette and drinks, papers all around revealing codes, numbers and all sorts of information; not much action going around but those spies, informers and intelligent people know that when the danger comes it's better to find a way out of it. John Le Carré's anti-James Bond character the taciturn yet brilliant George Smiley was presented to readers in several novels, including "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and the Karla trilogy, which consists of Smiley's greatest efforts, in order "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "The Honourable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People". To audiences, he was introduced with great detail in this BBC miniseries with Sir Alec Guinness as Smiley, providing a multi-layered performance that truly captures the essence of this realistic poor man's secret agent. John Irvin's seven part miniseries is a towering effort of all sources, highly commendable and worthy of praise...but it's appeal is slightly lost on me. Reason: Tomas Alfredson's masterpiece released in 2011 with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy was simply mesmerizing and a true work of art that actually made me feel as part of that complex web of lies, countless characters and their complicated means. That film used the original source, maintained what was fundamental in it and drastically altered some plot points, schemes, abused of puzzling flashbacks that angered a great deal of people - there in the theater I had a minor yet bothering headache which started in the middle of the film but when all the answers were starting to come, it faded away like magic - but I absolutely loved it! It's like a magnificent chess game. Alfredson's cast and his choices for art-direction, cinematography, everything fit perfectly the film and his team of writers managed to condense everything in two hours, which is more amazing, and thanks to the mode he visualized this Cold War world, I started to read Karla trilogy with different (better) eyes. Above all, Oldman captured with exact measure the personality of Smiley: calm, always in control of the situation and always aware of what the enemy might do next. A bright intelligence, great worker for the British intelligence but whose life at home isn't completely sorted out, always having to deal with the infidelities of adored wife Ann. An enigmatic character and a challengeable role for an actor since Smiley is a man who holds back every emotion, and Oldman had to use a lot of nuances to express feelings and thoughts without let them completely visible. But the actor acknowledges: Guinness was his inspiration while playing the role.As for the miniseries, Guinness does a tremendous job and once again he disappears into a role with full commitment and passion. It's not an easy job to hold yourself back when all you want to do it's to react to what other people do or ask you to do. But I enjoyed his George Smiley, it felt real and quite close to the one we imagine from the books. In fact, the great advantage this film has over Alfredson's work is the fact that they covered the book in very faithful ways (obviously BBC had the time for it, 7 hours!), including verbatim from Le Carré's novel, descriptions and sequences, providing minor altering (they don't focus on much Peter Guillam is a ladies man - good point - but they made the special relationship between Prideaux and Haydon in innuendo terms that don't explain much for those who haven't read the book or seen the 2011 film). In terms of the challenges faced by a writer transforming a complex and detailed book into a film/miniseries "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is a bright case for study. Le Carré isn't totally cinematic ("The Honourable Schoolboy" is his most filmic yet it's the one that never gets made into films because it's long, covers a great deal of important plot points in several locations. Now with the success of "The Night Manager" I seriously hope that Netflix, Amazon or HBO can make a miniseries of it...if possible with Gary Oldman as lead) but he offers alternatives and gripping stories that can be adapted for the screen, always with great chances to make it more palatable. However, BBC while making this project very close to the original source made it something wordy, heavily dramatic and at times exhausting to follow - I watched this in full with some breaks and not an episode per day; and with this lack of rhythm that makes it seen you're seeing a staged version of a novel instead of a film experience, the series lost in tension, in thrills and Le Carré is a creative genius source for those. Impossible not to compare it with book and another film but judging by itself it's a well made, well produced and well acted film. The epic proportions for such project is something that must be required when it comes to adapt Smiley's novels. I enjoyed positively the acting and the script in some moments (there's plenty of humor in it) but I don't think Mr. Irvin made a good use of locations, art-direction to reflect the 1970's, it's all painfully claustrophobic at times and very tiring. The final result avenges (but I still think people overestimate its quality. Sure, BBC never made anything like it back in the day but now it's common standard though with not the same precision in following an original material). I'm willing to give it a try with Guinness and BBC again with "Smiley's People". This time there'll be no other picture to compare (unless if Alfredson goes faster and release it now, and I'm still waiting for his return to his acclaimed film). 7/10

Quite possibly the greatest television drama of them all. There are no pyrotechnics or snappy dialogue. If you are watching for either, you will be disappointed. This is a very slow burning, gripping game of chess that enthrals from the start. Subtle and nuanced, with a plot that grabs you by the brain and never lets go. ALL of the performances are top notch, with Alec Guinness giving a superb performance as Smiley (the most unlikely hero of them all) and Beryl Reid, Ian Richardson, Hywel Bennett, Michael Jayston, and Alexander Knox also magnificent. Special mention must go to Ian Bannen as the haunted, patriotic Jim Prideaux who acts his socks off while his character loses so much as the plot unfolds. Nothing short of a masterpiece.

I knew about the British all star cast film, starring Gary Oldman, but I knew before I was going watch that I had to see the original and renowned TV miniseries, also with some very good names in the cast, based on the novel by John le Carré. Basically George Smiley (BAFTA winning Sir Alec Guinness), deputy head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, has spent a year in retirement following failed Czechoslovakia spy mission "Operation Testify", but is forced out when veteran British agent Jim Prideaux (Ian Bannen) has identified from a Czech general that a deep-cover Soviet spy has been planted in British Secret Intelligence Service organisation Circus, named because of its headquarters at Cambridge Circus in London. British chief spymaster Control (Alexander Knox) was disgraced, but his obsession with the Soviet mole has leaked to the British who believe that a mole working for "Moscow Centre" is passing highly classified information code-named "Operation Witchcraft". British agent Ricki Tarr (EastEnders' Hywel Bennett) revives the fear of a mole with evidence backing up Control's theory, and a list of suspects is narrowed down to four men - Roy Bland (Terence Rigby), nicknamed "Soldier", Toby Esterhase (Bernard Hepton), nicknamed "Poorman", Bill Haydon (Ian Richardson), nicknamed "Tailor", and Percy Alleline (Michael Jayston), nicknamed "Sailor". Under the instruction of civil servant Sir Oliver Lacon (Anthony Bate), Smiley secretly investigates the events surrounding Operation Testify, and uses it to help him identify the mole, whom he nicknames "Gerald", still-serving protégé Guillam helps him, and slowly he uncovers an ingenious plot, involving betrayal of country, of the service, and of friendship. Also starring George Sewell as Mendel, Alec Sabin as Fawn, Duncan Jones as Roach, Daniel Beecher as Spikely, John Wells as Headmaster, Frank Compton as Bryant, A Clockwork Orange's Warren Clarke as Alwyn, Worzel Gummidge's Thorley Walters as Tufty Thessinger, John Standing as Sam Collins, BAFA nominated Beryl Reid as Connie Sachs, Sir Patrick Stewart as Karla and Siân Phillips as Ann Smiley. Guinness is fantastic as the polite and silently clever British Intelligence officer following the clues to expose the guilty man, the supporting cast members are also great as they are put in the frame during the investigation to find the mole, I admit I did not understand all the political dialogue and some things going on, but I did not quit on it and it is a well put together piece of work, and the opening credits with the Russian dolls and end credit music were also highlights in each episode, a most interesting drama series. It won the BAFTA for Best Film Cameraman for Tony Pierce-Roberts, and it was nominated for Best Drama Series/Serial, Best Design, Best Costume Design, Best Graphics, Best Film Sound and Film Editor, and it was nominated the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series. Very good!

I've read the book three times, so when I found the DVD pack at the public library, I just had to try it. I wasn't disappointed, although I wished for a little more inspiration, a bit more risk-taking on the part of the writers and director. The dialogue you read in the book finds its way almost invariably into the film, so there is a certain feeling of deja-vu.Alec Guinness fits the part of Smiley very well, but he makes hardly any impression on me. His performance may be called clinical. Michael Jayston as Guillam is nervy and sometimes angry; he convinces me he is a dedicated agent. Bernard Hepton as the foppish Esterhase has some wonderful scenes. Alexander Knox gives a moving portrayal of Control, a man who has kept on doing his job long after he should have been pensioned off. The best work is done by Michael Aldridge; his Alleline is so pompous and tiresome you wonder why nobody has beaten his head in with a poker.