Intelligence for the intelligent"It was an aesthetic choice as much as a moral one. The West has become so ugly." The defector's rationale
Grab a Beefeaters, put on the fire, and get ready for a Cold War spy tale chill and dense with just enough information to keep you interested but not enough to figure out who's the defector until the very end: "There's a mole, right at the top of the Circus. And he's been there for years."
If you get your kicks out of Bond or Bourne, then be prepared for the less athletic, unsexy world of real espionage as George Smiley (Gary Oldman) returns from retirement in British intelligence, or the "Circus" as it's called, to find the Russian defector in its highest ranks.
You're right there in the early '70's, not computer driven and considerably less frenetic than intelligence work depicted in cinema today. But that grey cinematography and drab operatives may come closer to the minimalist reality of plodding intelligence work than the gadgets and gymnastics of contemporary cinema's takes on spies: "For twenty-five years we've been the only thing standing between Moscow and the Third World War!" Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds)
Based on the John le Carr? novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an engaging film about intelligence for intellectuals?slow, serious, and more like chess between Holmes and Moriarity than banter between Bond and Goldfinger. Certainly don't expect a Bond babe like Pussy Galore. Oh, there's blood alright but at a British reserve amount yet always a reasonable circumstance from the first shooting in a caf? to a final rifle shot.
It's more like a fox hunt where the trappings and the talk eclipse the final take of animal and movie. It's mood and intellect, not to American taste, Old Chap.
"It's the oldest question of all, George. Who can spy on the spies?" Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney)
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain He is also a film critic for Fox 28. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com