written by Kirk Baird
Alec Guinness’ towering performance
cast such a large shadow over the fictional character of George Smiley in the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy mini-series,
that Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy
novelist John le Carré could hear Guinness speaking as the character in his
head while he was writing a sequel to the book. It’s one of the major reasons
le Carré quit writing the novels.
The British writer offers these
confessions in a half-hour interview included as part of the new Blu-ray
release of the 1979 BBC production. There’s also a new half-hour interview with
the series’ director, John Irvin. While those features are nice ‑‑ though
rather sparse compared to some Blu-ray sets ‑‑ it’s the main attraction that
makes this two-disc package worthwhile.
If you were in a crowded room and
suddenly felt compelled to yell, “Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is the greatest spy
show ever made!” as a quote from NPR’s Fresh
Air declares on the cover of this Blu-ray case, there would be little to no
disagreement. Brilliant, tense, full of twists, and filled top-to-bottom with damn
fine acting, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
is the spy movie by which all films in the genre are — or at least, should be —
judged.
It’s everything today’s spy films aren’t:
high IQ, patiently paced, and with almost all the action on screen occurring in
the head of its lead character, Smiley. A former master spy with the British
Secret Intelligence Service (known to those in the organization as the
“Circus”), Smiley was forced into retirement with an organizational regime
change. But with the discovery that there’s a high-level double agent in the
Circus, Smiley is the only one smart enough, determined enough, steely enough,
and trustworthy enough to unearth the Soviet mole.
Guinness is perfection personified
in the role; like le Carré, it’s impossible not to think of the actor as
Smiley, though Gary Oldman’s Oscar-nominated performance in last year’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy comes close to
breaking that association. But there’s weary wisdom in the eyes of the older
Guinness, who was 65 when Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy was released, that age make-up cannot replicate for the younger
Oldman, who was 53 when the film was released. Life experience is what the
character of Smiley is about; he’s an older, wiser, thinking man’s Bond or
Jason Bourne, scarred by past failures and regrets, including living with the
reminder of his adulterous wife. (To a fellow agent, no less.) But he is almost
without peer in the world of espionage, save his Soviet counterpart Karla
(played by a younger, balding Patrick Stewart).
Guinness’ Smiley is such a rich,
developed character, that it’s difficult to let him go after the six hour-long
episodes. Fortunately, he returned in the acclaimed 1982 mini-series Smiley’s People.
For those who felt the pacing of the
two-hour Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
movie was too slow, then don’t bother with this series, which offers half-hour Lost-like flashbacks to flesh out
characters and a windy plot that begs repeat viewings to fully grasp. But
anyone looking for a mentally engaging and witty spy thriller should find this
worthy of his or her time.
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