Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [Blu-ray]

Life's such a puzzle to you, isn't it?
Don't blink. Don't leave the room to attend to business with the television running. Hit the pause button. This is advice for those unfamiliar with the plot of John le Carré's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY. There is a heck of a lot going on here, a basketful of characters and three major subplots introduced in the first two episodes of this six-episode mini-series.

TINKER, TAILOR is a sinuous story of a mole in high places in the British Secret Service, also known as the Circus to insiders. Called out of retirement, a rather premature retirement, we learn, George Smiley (Alec Guinness) is called on to uncover the British official selling secrets to the Soviet enemies.

In the interesting 2002 30-minute interview on disk one writer le Carré tells us that after the initially reluctant Guinness signed on everyone wanted to work on the project, and this mini-series is studded with great actors. Fortunately so, too, because this movie takes place...

Slow, methodical, but relentless
The opening shot sets the tone of the entire six hours. We see a dingy meeting room in an old London office building. The radiators are indiscretely visible, the paint is peeling off the walls, the lone cabinet looks creaky. Through the windows we see it's a cold grey day. A man sits at the table smoking a cigarette; he is soon joined by a second who sits diagonally opposite him. A third man arrives with a tea cup, saucer over the cup to keep the contents from splashing. A fourth man smoking a pipe arrives, sits at the head of the table sets down a folder and opens. The scene has lasted a minute, it was silent, no music was heard, though the first man coughed once or twice. The last man then says "We are ready to begin" and low horns begin sounding the theme music. This is director John Irvin's idea of a quick scene!

Later scenes move much more methodically, and involve long conversations about the plot, but that are framed beginning and end with chit-chat about the wife...

A masterful production of a Cold War classic
As far as the spy genre goes, the Cold War was the good ole days. Previous generations of spy thrillers from authors like Eric Ambler focused on the nefarious undertaking of spies from various Balkan countries and other corners of Europe, but with the onset of the nonshooting war between the West and the Soviet Union, the spy genre reached its zenith. Just before the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the ending of the Cold War, John LeCarre managed to perfect the spy novel in a series of great works. Two of these novels were brought together to produce two amazing television masterpieces: TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE. Smiley is the polar opposite of James Bond. Physically unattractive, elderly, unathletic, a cuckold many times over, not a master gunman, George Smiley nonetheless emerges as the quintessential master spy, with a razor sharp mind, always keeping his own counsel, and dissecting every situation with impeccable logic.

The success of the...

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