Trebor's were better than Polos. I'll fight anyone who disagrees. And yes, I do realise they spell Robert backwards.
I like spy films, but the James Bond franchise does little for me. I like films based off true events or something within the realm of realistic fiction. The ones I’ve mentioned in my title mostly have to do with spies/history/war. I like thrillers, but not so much horror— although I did enjoy the films The Devil’s Backbone and Under the Shadow. Some other films I’ve liked are:
Argo, Drive, Thief, Heat, Bridge of Spies, and Sicario.
I’m not much into American films about war (although I know there are some good ones), films like Salt and Red Sparrow weren’t appealing to me, and while I can appreciate the Bourne series, it just doesn’t seem to scratch that itch I have. Based off the ones I’ve enjoyed, what else do you think I would like?
I’m rewatching The Bourne Supremacy and forgot how much I enjoyed it.
Any other films with a similar vibe, thrilling and a bit more real than standard Hollywood fare.
Tinker Tailor has so much going for it. Here are some of the standouts to me:
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A truly unique tone and visual style. Half the fun of this film is it's classy yet eerily quiet tone. The cinematography is excellent (the DP is Hoyte Van Hoytema, who you all will know from Interstellar and Dunkirk). The music is subtle but perfectly fitting. Even the performances add to this mood of quiet intrigue and deception. I don't think I have ever seen a movie quite like it.
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Subtle acting. Gary Oldman is a treasure. I'm thrilled he was nominated for this role as he is truly giving a very difficult performance. His character holds the weight of world on his back throughout the film, yet he must always remain his composure. Tom Hardy and Mark Strong are also standouts to me, though this cast is absolutely stacked: Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Ciaran Hinds, Stephen Graham.
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A great central mystery. The driving force of this film is so simple yet brilliant. There is a spy at the highest level of MI6 and it is up to George Smiley (Oldman) to find out who it is. The film has an admittedly slow pace and it doesn't hold your hand through any of it. This is a film that requires your attention. However, despite the intricate path Smiley takes to find out who the mole is, one can always follow the film's logic by returning to this brilliantly simple central premise.
Tomas Alfredson's direction is immaculate. Before this, he directed Let the Right One In (also great), and though these films seemingly have nothing in common, I think they both do an excellent job at striking a unique tone of eery intrigue. In both films, the plot moves rather slowly, yet you can't look away despite their slow pace. A very cool magic trick if you ask me! I am curious to know if anyone else likes this movie as much as I do, because I think it is often overlooked when talking about the best films of the past decade.
Edit: When I say it is underrated, I mean that I wish more people talked about it. It did get three Oscar noms (though I believe it deserved a Best Picture nom, especially considering the movies it was up against), and I wish it turned up on more of these "Best of the Decade" lists that were coming out a few months ago.
I watched it at release and I really enjoyed it, but there was a lot going on so I didn't remember much, so jump forward 8ish years later and I decide to read the book and I really loved the book. It was a little hard to read at first and really don't grip it until about 2/3rds of the way through, but that seems to be common for a first time read.
So back to the movie, I probably felt the same way the first time watching it, lot of names, not nearly as many as the book, but different operations and code names so Im sure I had a tough time keeping track of it.
I do find this to be a perfect casting. Smiley (Oldman) was a great cast, though I think he was supposed to be heavier in the books, but he still looks the part of the anti-James Bond. Oldhman and Mark Strong's (Jim Prideaux) actors are the only two I remembered so I mostly pictured their characters as them.
But everyone else was dead on, Firth as Bill Haydon, , Benedict C as Peter Guillam, John Hurt as Control, and Tom Hardy as Ricki Tarr are all pretty much how I pictured them. I remembered none of them being in the movie
The only two that threw me for a loop were David Dencik as Toby Esterhase and Toby Jones as Percy Alleline, as I pictured someone looking like them, but in reverse roles
I think the movie made some good changes, namely seeing what happened to Jim at the start and changing how it happened. (If you're curious, in the book, it's the same idea, but he's ambushed approaching a meeting house). It also dropped a lot of code words, Jim has a few different names he's known as in the book (old covers), and I think that was a good choice for a movie. I don't feel like there was enough focus on Smiley's marriage issues with Ann, but somethings had to be cut.
I know there is a BBC series that I do hope to check out at some point.
Anyone else love this movie? Any other movies (or shows) that I might like that feel like this? (I have watched The Night Manager and I enjoyed it)
A series would be good too. Looking for something that takes intelligence seriously rather than James Bond. Thanks
I do understand the film is based on a novel written in 1974, but as I have not read it my question only involves the film adaptation from 2011.
I do film screening events and a client just asked me for a list of films that fit to this brief...
Hello! You might be able to tell from the title that I've been reading a lot of John le Carre books lately. The two films I mentioned in the title are probably my favourites in the spy genre. I love that they seem to have a more cerebral/intellectual perspective as opposed to the run-and-gun style a lot of other espionage movies. I also like that they seem to be a bit more grounded in reality (i.e. seem more plausible as something that real intelligence personnel might have to deal with). I've heard that there are a couple of great TV specials based on le Carre's work that I plan to check out, does anyone have any suggestions for other films specifically?
Thanks
I really like this film and was simply wondering if any of you might know of films with a similar plot? I prefer the cold war setting, but it's not a must.
Cheers
I love everything about this movie. The smoke-filled rooms, the dusty-grey atmosphere, the unhurried pace, old fashioned technology etc. What are other movies that have this type of mood and atmosphere? (They don’t have to be spy movies.)
I watched this beautiful movie a few months ago and enjoyed it very much. I rewatched it last week. One of the things that is so refreshing and enjoyable about this movie is that it’s a spy movie but it doesn’t focus on action, chase, heist, … which is rare. Do you know any other spy movies that you think are that good?
Not looking for action-heavy movies like Bourne trilogy.
Where the premise is based on cold war era and slow paced.
This may be a silly post to native English speakers but since English is my second language, I have a doubt regarding a piece of dialogue from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Bill Hayden spoke the following sentence: "Style, appalling. Patently a fabrication from beginning to end. Just could be the real thing."
What I don't understand is that Hayden had just declared the document to be a fake. Then how can he say that the document "just could be the real thing"? Isn't he contradicting himself?
The book in itself is about British intelligence service and its struggle to deal with the leakage of information.
Applying RP lens, you can see how men struggle to deal with (at the time) modern problems. The head of the operations has his wife sleeping around with his colleagues just because he is busy and unavailable. It’s a sweet read. Tons of stories about honey traps and exploitation of a man’s emotions/weaknesses.
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