there were no clues really out there for us to figure out who the spy was. it could have been anyone.
https://youtu.be/93sGUFpVxFI
Well, *beep* the today's standards.
Plus, the affair with Smiley's wife was a kind of a clue (it was even mentioned in their final face-off)
"not that exciting by todays standards, there were no clues really out there for us to figure out who the spy was. it could have been anyone.
The tenor of this movie is to be found in the Secure Room, the scene where Control is apoplectic about the ludicrous nature of Witchcraft. Excitement! A fabulous new high Kremlin source! Excitement! Topical and highly-sought-after information of any kind dropped into their laps at just the right moments! Excitement! A highly placed source that must be protected assiduously! Hot dog, boys, we got us a great one this time!
Neither Control nor Smiley are taken in by the miraculous Deux ex Machina that is Witchcraft. Control had preached and trained that good intelligence is slow, careful, painstaking and a gradual build up over years and decades. The rare bushel basket trove of priceless goodies must be considered with utmost suspicion until it absolutely can be proven genuine. Alaline and his mob were unwilling to put the stuff to the hard test.
So, excitement is a shortcut fraught with risk and danger, being sucked in by a carefully laid trap but blinded to it by the lust for gold. Engrossing is the careful development of a clear picture over time. This is epitomized by this film and your comment. Good for you!
No, not many clues. But on reflection, Haydon is the only one of the bunch that you could see 'willingly' become a Russian agent. An aristocratic, free spirit, daring type that wants to 'make his mark'. While the others are all company men that wouldn't even contemplate the thought.
shareI agree. John le Carre's Night Manager was made into a drama series with contemporary issues like arms dealers, but my feeling was that it was awkward. I prefer le Carre to stick with the bygone days. The time period covered in TTSP is perfect. Any period after that is awkward, like the Tailor of Panama. You watch TTSP not to look for excitement or entertainment, but to taste the old British culture where gentlemen carried umbrellas and drank tea.
shareThe clues were all there, you just missed them, like so many of the characters in this story. Alleline, Bland, and Esterhase were all broadly and publicly disenchanted with the Circus, willing to form their own little clique against Control and his own band of Merry Men. It could NEVER have been one of these. Haydon, on the other hand, with his easy, conciliatory charm, everybody's best friend and fixer (including of Esterhase, whom he constantly insults and belittles), polymath, polyglot, and as we come to know, polysexual; a man for all seasons, and reasons; in other words, highly suspicious. Only Jim Prideaux had the background to see the game Haydon was playing: the same game played in college, played on himself. As Smiley observes, Jim knew all along. As for your headline, well, if you had no idea what was going on, then I don't imagine your confusion would have been terribly exciting. Then, again, this is no James Bond / Vin Diesel fantasy world. This is the real thing: a dreary, dull, wretched little world played by bored, upper-middle-class twits; as Alec Leamas said, 'a bunch of seedy squalid bastards like me, little men, drunkards, queers, henpecked husbands, civil servants playing "Cowboys and Indians" to brighten their rotten little lives'. If you have no taste for this world, that of reality, best thing to stick to the other.
shareSpoiler:
In the BBC version, they mess with viewer by giving a huge hint about who the turncoat is. Look at the fellows gathering around the table, in their same office attire of the day.
Then straggling in after everyone is assembled is Haydon, in his snazzy sports coat, irreverently kicking the door shut with his foot, balancing the tea cup with the saucer on top to stop spillage, then he just plops himself down.
He is the oddball, the rebel, the horse of a different color. Literally in a sportcoat that scandalously bucks the trend.
The first time I saw it, I thought oh he's the oddball, are they signalling us with the hint to keep in mind throughout that he's the mole?
Then, had to discount it. It seemed so obvious, I did not think a show that complex would be playing that kind of obvious reveal in the first scene. So, it lets the self-doubters get egg on their faces at the end, ha!
Today’s standards would have Tinker, Tailor, Soldier and Spy being 4 superheroes with magical powers, CGI’d to the max and a plot as thin as a wet wafer.
shareAll of this. It was refreshing back in 2011 to see a grown-up drama, one that dared to take its time to tell a complex but involving story, become a major hit. By that time such films seemed like a thing of the distant past.
shareCan’t believe this is 12 years old already. Such a great film, alas the kind that would never get made now.
The weirdest thing is how the director’s career has effectively dissolved.
I thought this movie was pretty mediocre when it came out, as were a lot of movies that year. Movies started to suck around 2008.
share