A little while back, a friend asked me for some recommendations for great spy films. He'd seen all the Bonds and Bournes and was looking for something a little more nuanced.
I told him to see "The Lives of Others," "Burn After Reading," "Munich," and "The Conversation." And I said "Spy Game" wasn't spectacular but had some fun moments.
The topic sparked my own interest and I looked up some highly rated spy flicks that I hadn't seen yet, and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" was on every list I looked at.
I finally got around to watching it last night... and wow. I loved every second of it. Unbelievable casting and performances, gorgeous period design, tense and realistic dialogue, and a story that kept me guessing the whole time.
I've always loved Gary Oldman and respected his incredible range (how the same man can play over the top lunatics like Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, the psycho from "The Professional," and also this reserved and stately gentleman is beyond me) but this performance was simply perfection. It was the pauses, I think, that did it for me. Someone would ask a question and he would just look at them and they understood (and I understood) what he was communicating without saying a word.
The other performances were incredible too, and what a cast: Gary Oldman, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Toby Jones, and Ciarán Hinds. It was like a supergroup of top British actors.
I'm often accused by friends and family of being too critical of films and looking too closely at minor flaws, but I'm truly struggling to find any here. The cinematography was gorgeous (the scene with the plane landing in the background was a stunner), the story was absolutely gripping, and the performances were all some of the best I've ever seen from an ensemble cast that large; there was no weak link.
Am I missing something? Did I view this film through rose colored glasses? Was it really that good?!
This is the tenth track from Radiohead’s ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool. How do you feel about this song? What are some of your favorite lyrics? How would you rank it among the rest of the band’s discography? How would you rate it out of 10 (decimals allowed)?
SUGGESTED SCALE:
1-4: Not good. Regularly skip.
5: It’s okay, but I might have to be in the right mood to listen to it.
6: Slightly better than average. I won’t skip it, but I wouldn’t choose to put it on.
7: This is a good song. I enjoy it quite a bit.
8-9: Really enjoyable songs. I rank them pretty high overall.
10: Masterpiece, magnum opus, or similar terminology.
Rating Results
- Burn the Witch: 8.93/10
- Daydreaming: 9.64/10
- Decks Dark: 9.5/10
- Desert Island Disk: 7.92/10
- Ful Stop: 9/10
- Glass Eyes: 8.6/10
- Identikit: 8.62/10
- The Numbers: 8.09/10
- Present Tense: 9.39/10
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief: 8.53/10
Having watched and loved the mini series at least 6 or 7 times, and then watched and tried (but failed) to love the movie twice I would like to know if anyone who has seen both actually prefers the movie?
I love this track; could've been an outstanding closer if True Love Waits wasn't on the album.
I love the way the song slowly progresses and builds piece by piece until we get that epic orchestral climax. I live for those string arrangements; absolutely gorgeous.
What do you love about this track that you'd like to share?
I love this film. It is a great movie but I don't know if is one of the best Bond films. I love the characters, cinematography, soundtrack, and especially the story. The film is a great spy story.
I have to say that I enjoyed this movie more than Skyfall. The story in "Skyfall" is so much better compared to "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." The villains in TSSS are the best villains I have seen in a Bond film.
I also felt that this film was more realistic than Skyfall. I thought that MI6's mission in TSSS was more realistic compared to Skyfall's mission.
Overall, I liked this movie more than Skyfall.
What do you think?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has done something incredible, and that is the representation of a completely invisible unseen protagonist that is an actual chilling threat. “Karla” is the primary actor against whom Smiley works in this movie, and the chess game between them is obvious. This isn’t a review talking about the incredible writing of this movie (or well it kind of is but not directly). Instead, I want to discuss how this movie makes Karla work.
The first we hear of Karla, for those of us who have never read one of John le Carre’s novels (though I’m considering it now!), is in passing. He is a fact of life, part of the whirlwind of terminology presented to us at the beginning of the film. But, like a creeping dread, he comes up again and again. The unique presentation of this movie facilitates this perfectly. It eventually becomes obvious, entirely through choices made in the writing and acting, that this Karla is in fact the great puppetmaster, the ultimate and powerful antichrist figure who is ruining everyone’s lives from a continent away.
Then comes the reveal, a monologue in which Smiley tells us how he once met Karla. You see the restrained emotion play across Gary Oldman’s face as he realizes all over again that he let Karla know his greatest weakness (symbolized by Karla taking the lighter) while getting nothing in return. This is echoed throughout the rest of the movie as no one ever gets directly to Karla. Additionally, a unique decision was made for this scene in that, during a movie full of flashbacks, the audience’s view stays firmly on Gary Oldman’s face. Karla is not a person. Smiley can’t even remember his face, it doesn’t matter.
In the end, Karla has won. He has successfully poked holes in the British intelligence service and ruined multiple lives. And still the film does not show his face.
I always love the ways movies depict their scary antagonists, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has a really unique method that will stick with me. What do you guys think?
Just saw the premier of the if you say the word music video, did anyone else notice that the businessmen in it are oddly similar to that of the ones in the tinker tailor soldier sailor vignette? (Same weird running, similar briefcases etc.)
What was Tom Hardy's characters role in the plan at the end? I didn't understand at all. How did they know it was Colin Firth's character that was the mole? Yes he was at the house but all the others had visited the house to meet Karla.
Last week, I finished Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. My expectations were high, as it's by far John Le Carré's most well known work, and many people (especially on this sub) cite this as their favourite novel of his. Hell, even my copy of the book says that this is "his masterwork" on the cover. However, despite all this build-up, I was still sent reeling over how brilliant this book is.
First and foremost, all the characters, whether major or minor, are so vividly described to the point where I feel like I know all the ins and outs of them in only a few pages. Le Carré has a real talent for writing memorable characters that linger in the mind, and Tinker, Tailor epitomises that. My favourites include George Smiley (obviously), Jim Prideaux, Connie Sachs, and especially Roddy Martindale, who despite only appearing in less than seven pages (yes, I counted them) in a 400 page book , damn well near steals the show. One of my favourite lines in the novel, "His [Martindale's] sharp tongue explored the moist edges of his little mouth, then, like a snake, vanished between its folds", is such a beautifully grotesque image that shows off Martindale's repulsive character - that of a gossipy, bloodsucking reptile waiting to pounce. Endless examples of this layered writing are littered throughout the novel.
The plot is one of John Le Carré's most complex and layered, and definitely one of his most rewarding. There's a part in the book where Peter Guillam muses about Smiley, saying that "He [Smiley] spoke as if you followed his reasoning." I feel this line also reflects on the way Le Carré's writes his plots. He generally expects the reader to keep up with all the action. I'll admit, I was confused many times as to what direction the plot was going, but after reading over half a dozen of Le Carré's novels, I've learned to trust in his talents for storytelling and tell myself that it'll all make sense in the end. He hasn't failed me yet. Even though I already knew who the mole was (thanks to the 2011 film adaptation), I still enjoyed accompanying Smiley on his labyrinthine quest to uncover him, which says a lot about how engrossing the book is, since I usually get turned off of lots of thriller/mystery books when I know the ending.
The actual writing itself, laden with intrigue, passion, tragedy, and humour, was a joy to read. I would love to quote countless lines from the book which have hung around in my mind, but to keep this post from becoming longer th
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