A powerful honorable cat-and-mouse game of gentlemen entrenched in obscure offices and safe houses, stenching with cigarette and drinks, papers all around revealing codes, numbers and all sorts of information; not much action going around but those spies, informers and intelligent people know that when the danger comes it's better to find a way out of it. John Le Carré's anti-James Bond character the taciturn yet brilliant George Smiley was presented to readers in several novels, including "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" and the Karla trilogy, which consists of Smiley's greatest efforts, in order "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "The Honourable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People". To audiences, he was introduced with great detail in this BBC miniseries with Sir Alec Guinness as Smiley, providing a multi-layered performance that truly captures the essence of this realistic poor man's secret agent. John Irvin's seven part miniseries is a towering effort of all sources, highly commendable and worthy of praise...but it's appeal is slightly lost on me. Reason: Tomas Alfredson's masterpiece released in 2011 with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy was simply mesmerizing and a true work of art that actually made me feel as part of that complex web of lies, countless characters and their complicated means.
That film used the original source, maintained what was fundamental in it and drastically altered some plot points, schemes, abused of puzzling flashbacks that angered a great deal of people - there in the theater I had a minor yet bothering headache which started in the middle of the film but when all the answers were starting to come, it faded away like magic - but I absolutely loved it! It's like a magnificent chess game. Alfredson's cast and his choices for art-direction, cinematography, everything fit perfectly the film and his team of writers managed to condense everything in two hours, which is more amazing, and thanks to the mode he visualized this Cold War world, I started to read Karla trilogy with different (better) eyes. Above all, Oldman captured with exact measure the personality of Smiley: calm, always in control of the situation and always aware of what the enemy might do next. A bright intelligence, great worker for the British intelligence but whose life at home isn't completely sorted out, always having to deal with the infidelities of adored wife Ann. An enigmatic character and a challengeable role for an actor since Smiley is a man who holds back every emotion, and Oldman had to use a lot of nuances to express feelings and thoughts without let them completely visible. But the actor acknowledges: Guinness was his inspiration while playing the role.
As for the miniseries, Guinness does a tremendous job and once again he disappears into a role with full commitment and passion. It's not an easy job to hold yourself back when all you want to do it's to react to what other people do or ask you to do. But I enjoyed his George Smiley, it felt real and quite close to the one we imagine from the books. In fact, the great advantage this film has over Alfredson's work is the fact that they covered the book in very faithful ways (obviously BBC had the time for it, 7 hours!), including verbatim from Le Carré's novel, descriptions and sequences, providing minor altering (they don't focus on much Peter Guillam is a ladies man - good point - but they made the special relationship between Prideaux and Haydon in innuendo terms that don't explain much for those who haven't read the book or seen the 2011 film).
In terms of the challenges faced by a writer transforming a complex and detailed book into a film/miniseries "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is a bright case for study. Le Carré isn't totally cinematic ("The Honourable Schoolboy" is his most filmic yet it's the one that never gets made into films because it's long, covers a great deal of important plot points in several locations. Now with the success of "The Night Manager" I seriously hope that Netflix, Amazon or HBO can make a miniseries of it...if possible with Gary Oldman as lead) but he offers alternatives and gripping stories that can be adapted for the screen, always with great chances to make it more palatable. However, BBC while making this project very close to the original source made it something wordy, heavily dramatic and at times exhausting to follow - I watched this in full with some breaks and not an episode per day; and with this lack of rhythm that makes it seen you're seeing a staged version of a novel instead of a film experience, the series lost in tension, in thrills and Le Carré is a creative genius source for those.
Impossible not to compare it with book and another film but judging by itself it's a well made, well produced and well acted film. The epic proportions for such project is something that must be required when it comes to adapt Smiley's novels. I enjoyed positively the acting and the script in some moments (there's plenty of humor in it) but I don't think Mr. Irvin made a good use of locations, art-direction to reflect the 1970's, it's all painfully claustrophobic at times and very tiring. The final result avenges (but I still think people overestimate its quality. Sure, BBC never made anything like it back in the day but now it's common standard though with not the same precision in following an original material). I'm willing to give it a try with Guinness and BBC again with "Smiley's People". This time there'll be no other picture to compare (unless if Alfredson goes faster and release it now, and I'm still waiting for his return to his acclaimed film). 7/10
That film used the original source, maintained what was fundamental in it and drastically altered some plot points, schemes, abused of puzzling flashbacks that angered a great deal of people - there in the theater I had a minor yet bothering headache which started in the middle of the film but when all the answers were starting to come, it faded away like magic - but I absolutely loved it! It's like a magnificent chess game. Alfredson's cast and his choices for art-direction, cinematography, everything fit perfectly the film and his team of writers managed to condense everything in two hours, which is more amazing, and thanks to the mode he visualized this Cold War world, I started to read Karla trilogy with different (better) eyes. Above all, Oldman captured with exact measure the personality of Smiley: calm, always in control of the situation and always aware of what the enemy might do next. A bright intelligence, great worker for the British intelligence but whose life at home isn't completely sorted out, always having to deal with the infidelities of adored wife Ann. An enigmatic character and a challengeable role for an actor since Smiley is a man who holds back every emotion, and Oldman had to use a lot of nuances to express feelings and thoughts without let them completely visible. But the actor acknowledges: Guinness was his inspiration while playing the role.
As for the miniseries, Guinness does a tremendous job and once again he disappears into a role with full commitment and passion. It's not an easy job to hold yourself back when all you want to do it's to react to what other people do or ask you to do. But I enjoyed his George Smiley, it felt real and quite close to the one we imagine from the books. In fact, the great advantage this film has over Alfredson's work is the fact that they covered the book in very faithful ways (obviously BBC had the time for it, 7 hours!), including verbatim from Le Carré's novel, descriptions and sequences, providing minor altering (they don't focus on much Peter Guillam is a ladies man - good point - but they made the special relationship between Prideaux and Haydon in innuendo terms that don't explain much for those who haven't read the book or seen the 2011 film).
In terms of the challenges faced by a writer transforming a complex and detailed book into a film/miniseries "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is a bright case for study. Le Carré isn't totally cinematic ("The Honourable Schoolboy" is his most filmic yet it's the one that never gets made into films because it's long, covers a great deal of important plot points in several locations. Now with the success of "The Night Manager" I seriously hope that Netflix, Amazon or HBO can make a miniseries of it...if possible with Gary Oldman as lead) but he offers alternatives and gripping stories that can be adapted for the screen, always with great chances to make it more palatable. However, BBC while making this project very close to the original source made it something wordy, heavily dramatic and at times exhausting to follow - I watched this in full with some breaks and not an episode per day; and with this lack of rhythm that makes it seen you're seeing a staged version of a novel instead of a film experience, the series lost in tension, in thrills and Le Carré is a creative genius source for those.
Impossible not to compare it with book and another film but judging by itself it's a well made, well produced and well acted film. The epic proportions for such project is something that must be required when it comes to adapt Smiley's novels. I enjoyed positively the acting and the script in some moments (there's plenty of humor in it) but I don't think Mr. Irvin made a good use of locations, art-direction to reflect the 1970's, it's all painfully claustrophobic at times and very tiring. The final result avenges (but I still think people overestimate its quality. Sure, BBC never made anything like it back in the day but now it's common standard though with not the same precision in following an original material). I'm willing to give it a try with Guinness and BBC again with "Smiley's People". This time there'll be no other picture to compare (unless if Alfredson goes faster and release it now, and I'm still waiting for his return to his acclaimed film). 7/10