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Originally Posted by WoodsGOAT
I thought the ending was full of the usual movie clichés. First few episodes were great then it sort of slid off a cliff a bit. Not terrible as a whole but something to watch once perhaps, 6.5/10.
I've read nearly all that Le Carré has published, and after the first few good ones, I found myself usually being disappointed by the endings, mostly because nearly all were variations of the same ending. The path to the ending was almost always interesting though.
I've enjoyed the first three episodes.
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Originally Posted by WoodsGOAT
For anyone in the mood for a great spy TV series check out Le Carre's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", and the follow up "Smiley's People". The cleverest TV there has ever been. I think they can be found on You Tube. I rate them as the greatest TV series ever made.
I agree about the quality of "Tinker Tailor...". It is a work of art dressed up as a spy whodunit. Viewers coming new to the production might find the look and technical side dated - but it was made nearly 40 years ago. The script and acting stand up though.
Le Carré himself seems to agree. In
a recent column in the Guardian promoting "The Night Manager" and describing his experiences as an author having his work adapted to film and TV, (you might prefer to wait until you've seen the whole series to read the column - there's a couple of slightly spoilerish comments about the ending) Le Carré says
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So what movies from my work, if any, do I remember with pleasure, even pride?
The good news is, bad movies get forgotten in a day;...
Pleasure? Pride? In the case of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, yes to the pride, no to the pleasure. My brief passage with the troubled, brilliantly talented Richard Burton left behind a sadness that was accentuated by his early death. ...
The movies I like best to remember – crass as it may seem – are those that were the happiest in the making. Not laughter all the way: not that kind of happiness at all. But movies where director, cast and crew came genuinely to relish what they were making; where the inevitable squabbles and rivalries gave way to a larger, shared purpose.
The first – and chief – of these remains for ever the BBC’s production of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, with Alec Guinness in the lead, which gathered a near-mystical groundswell as the seven-month shoot ran on. When it was done, the makers showed the whole piece to an invited audience at Bafta – four episodes before lunch, three afterwards. If anyone had put a bomb under the building, we’d have lost half the top brass of British Intelligence. And they loved it. So did I. Even Alec – eternally hard to please where his own work was concerned – loved it.
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Originally Posted by WoodsGOAT
The 2011 Tinker Tailor film with Gary Oldman/Tom Hardy is really good too, the series is only better because it has more time to work with.
I found the movie disappointing in comparison, though still better than the average Hollywood production. While the complexity of the plot benefits from the extra time afforded by the miniseries format, another reason for the miniseries' superiority was the characterization of Smiley - the anti-Bond - by Sir Alec Guinness.
I have wondered whether Le Carré (who was an MI5 officer at the time he started his writing career, and later joined MI6) concocted Smiley as a deliberate riposte to James Bond. (During WW II, Ian Fleming served in the Royal Navy as personal assistant and deputy to the Director of Naval Intelligence). Smiley is everything that Jame Bond is not. He's dowdy, taken advantage of by women and tailors, a man of books, not action. His wife describes him as "breathtakingly ordinary". As a result, much less a comic-book character, and more like many actual intelligence officers.
I haven't seen the "Smiley's People" miniseries. Must look for it. I do remember thinking that "Smiley's People" was the weakest of the Karla trilogy of books despite (or maybe because of) the payoff of the more conventional ending. "The Honourable Schoolboy" was between the other two volumes in quality as well as order.
Le Carré's classic "The Spy who Came in From the Cold" was made into a pretty good movie starring Richard Burton (four BAFTA awards including best picture and best actor, the Golden Laurel, and an Oscar nomination). In addition to "The Spy...", "Tinker Tailor..." and "Smiley's People", about a dozen other of Le Carré's books have been made into movies and/or TV miniseries. Not a bad record.
And an Easter Egg: John Le Carré play a bit part in "The Night Manager", credited under his real name, David Cornwell.
Last edited by DoTheMath; 05-10-2016 at 02:13 PM.
