Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Written at the time of the film's release.
 
Spies Like Us
or
Eyes Wide Shut* (The Fine Art of Concealment)

I love spy movies. Growing up in the 1960's, with the advent of the James Bond films—an amalgamation of Ian Fleming's novels and the films of Alfred Hitchcock (particularly North By Northwest)—and concurrent with the 60's embrace of the "anti-hero," my perceptions of movies were warped and laser-beamed with the image of duplicity, secrecy and emotional coolness.  Spies are not nice people—it doesn't matter what kind of cars they drive—they are both untrustworthy and trustworthy, they make moral judgments (sometimes snap decisions) of who is worthy of each. Keepers of secrets, cataloguers and manipulators of weakness, spies use people as weapons, ignore collateral damage and sleep the sleep of the just knowing that the ends justify the means. Fleming's secret agent was the last vestige of the romantic spy (despite the many imitations that ensued), a double-crossroads between the old and the new—a "gentleman-spy," chivalrous, but more than willing to plunder the spoils of war, and a thug...but with exquisite taste.

But the gold standard ("finger"-less division) for the times, which embraced the Cold War** were the novels of John le Carré (French for "The Square," which reflected the author's choice of creating novels around the moral rectitude of naive and sentimental men in an amoral world) who wrote about spies as functionaries and bureaucrats, rather than super-men with toys, and the epitome of those was "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," the first novel in "The Karla Trilogy,*** which pitted two spymasters against each other in a fight to The Brandenburg Gate—the mysterious Russian, Karla, and George Smiley, an agent for British Intelligence (which le Carré dubbed "The Circus"). Smiley had appeared as a minor character in previous le Carré books, but with "Tinker..." he became the focal point, not only the best man in the service, but also its weakest link, intellectually smart as a whip, but emotionally dull as a stump.  In it, he is called upon to investigate his own former Intelligence agency, as there is suspicion that there is a "mole"—a double agent—very high up in the ranks.****  A thick book, filled with intricate detail and Dickensian characterizations with deep motivations, it was adapted (like the film, without commas in the title) in 1979 into a 7-part mini-series by the BBC and director John Irvin with Alec Guinness as Smiley, a version which was considered definitive.

When word that Peter Morgan had scripted a film version, it seemed inconceivable that such a compressed time-frame could do the novel justice.

And, incredibly, it does...even at times going the mini-series one or two better...by integrating sequences that le Carré never bothered with or thought of that throw in a lot of information in a very short space of time, the difference between a novelistic and cinematic experience: a Christmas party at the Circus, where knowing glances are exchanged between brother-spies and covert operations are, even there, in effect;***** the shooting of Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong, quite different from how we've seen him before in his villainous roles of late) on a secret mission from Control (John Hurt) to try to learn the identity of "the mole" in their ranks; a warning to Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) to "get his house in order" that leads to a painful personal decision that reflects certain issues among the suspects; and an interrogation scene that adds tragic ramifications to the story of Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), but also illuminates the cruel humor of the Russian strategist, Karla.

And the "Cold War" scenario gets even chillier given Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's handling of the film.  The men investigating and being investigated (Ciarán Hinds, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, and David Dencik) are already cold fish, but with the script and Alfredson's direction, they're almost completely cyphers, the only glimpses of a personal life are revelatory of each man's weaknesses.  Also, Alfredson's framing schemes involve as much mis-direction as direction, shooting above, over, around and through as many obstacles and distractions, frames and panes of glass, a maze of obfuscations that confuse the path to true seeing, putting us in the same position as the story's primary Truth-Seeker, George Smiley (Gary Oldman).

Early on, Smiley visits an oculist to get a new pair of huge owl-like glasses to see more clearly before embarking on his secret mission for the government. Those glasses also provide another barrier to his eyes, the window to his soul. Oldman's performance is brilliant, deceptively simple—but that's not the point.  One is struck, perpetually, throughout the film, of how much Oldman conveys with the simplest—and smallest—of movements. It is to the actor's credit (and Alfredson's) that so much of the actor's performance is seen from behind, his face unseen, but it matters not; George Smiley is not given to overt actions, but covert ones, minor moves of chess-pieces that mark the battles in intellectual wars.  His brevity and economy in everything—that weighs so heavily on his personal life and makes him vulnerable, comes to the fore here, making this odd performance a perfect encapsulation of the role and is a further refinement and definition of the character of le Carré's greatest creation—George Smiley—betraying nothing, always betrayed.

* The origin of the phrase "Eyes Wide Shut," the title of Stanley Kubrick's last film, originates as a colorful turn of phrase in le Carré's original novel "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (Kubrick and David Cornwell— le Carré's real name—were good friends, although Kubrick never enticed him to work on a script with him). It's the scene where Connie Sachs is explaining what happened to the Russian double-agent Polyakov and how he was seduced by a "honey trap" (le Carré spy-code for a female counter-agent) and how Polyakov, against his better judgement, walked in with "his eyes wide shut." That turn of phrase is not in the movie, probably BECAUSE of the association with the Kubrick film.

** When detente eased the tensions between the West and East, le Carré presciently set his rifle-sights on the next enemies of the state—capitalists and industrialists who pledged allegiance to the almighty dollar rather than to any flag or deity.  Supposedly, trade partners don't war against each other (hence, the genesis of the EU and NAFTA), but has the damage those entities wrought on the world economy really been beneficial?  Is anyone winning, when we all go down together?

*** The others in the series are "The Honourable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People."

**** This parallels the true life upheaval MI-6 went through in the 1950's, with the Cambridge Five scandal.

***** One inspired touch is The Circus Crowd singing along with an old song that I only thought I remembered—the title tune from a long-forgotten Bond knock-off (sung by Sammy Davis, Jr.) called The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World, which nicely plays in with British Intelligence's subordinate view of themselves as "also-ran's" to their American "Cousins" in the CIA. 

Don't Make a Scene: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

The Story:  This week, George Smiley from 2011's extraordinary adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. TTSS had the ghost of the multi-hour mini-series starring Alec Guinness (directed by John Irvin) to contend with.  When it was announced that Peter Morgan had done a draft for a new movie version of Tinker..., there were already raised eyebrows—John Le Carré's thick, intricate, character-driven book is immense and covers a lot of ground, internationally and over time. How could one cram all that into a single two to three hour film?

Director Tomas Alfredson managed to do it, and with scriptwriters Peter Straughan and the late Bridget O'Connor even managed to touch the highlights while adding a quiet depth to the characters, mostly without dialogue, and with a different style than mini-series and book.

Take this scene. In the book, it's a description over dinner; the miniseries does it in flashback. Not here. The dialogue is mostly the same.  But the location and the way it's told is different. The setting is Smiley's HQ for his investigation into double-agent treachery in Britain's secret service; the scene between Smiley and his "player on the other side," Karla, is described and mimed for the benefit of Peter Guillam, solely as a drunken reverie overlain with regret by Smiley. It's haunting, peculiar and is much more effective than the earlier presentation. There, Karla is very real, played silently and cynically by Patrick Stewart (before his career hit warp-speed) and is a fairly powerful presence, still with an air of inscrutability—an unknown quantity.

But in the film version, he's an empty chair, a memory, unseen (as he is throughout the film, his only sign of presence being the lighter that Smiley obsesses over, here—Karla's trophy from their earlier encounter that provides inside information for his plot to infiltrate "The Circus"). Unknowable, not even distinctive enough to remember (although one suspects Smiley may be obfuscating), he is a phantom, much more powerful in the not-knowing...and in his influence.

The Set-Up: Asked by the Home Secretary to look into the matter of a "mole" (a double agent) high up in the ranks of "The Circus" (code name for British Intelligence), George Smiley (Gary Oldman), former No. 2 man under "Control" (John Hurt) is leading an investigation for the traitor in the ranks. His "inside" man is Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), who has just risked exposure stealing documents from the Circus records room.  Under suspicion from "The Gang of Four" heading the Circus (Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, David Dencik), Guillam begins to suspect that their chief source for information, Ricky Tarr (Thomas Hardy) might be lying to them. Smiley, sensing Guillam's doubts, fills him in on some background that might prove useful—and painful—to Guillam in the near-future.

Action!

150 INT. HOTEL ISLAY - SMILEY’S ROOM - NIGHT 150

The two men are finishing off a bottle of Scotch. Unusually, Smiley is drunk - a result of the alcohol and the lack of sleep.

Guillam lies on one of the single beds, staring at the PHOTOGRAPHS of the four suspects Smiley has pinned on his chessmen.

PETER GUILLAM I’m sorry.

SMILEY What for?

PETER GUILLAM I wanted to believe Tarr was lying. (Beat) All this time, thinking I’m fighting a war. It’s a sham. Karla won years ago and we didn’t even know it.

Smiley watches Guillam, estimating how badly all of this is affecting him.

SMILEY (Beat) I met him once. Karla.

SMILEY   Karla.  In fifty-five. 

SMILEY   Moscow Centre was in pieces. Purge after purge. 

SMILEY   Half their Agents were jumping ship and I travelled around signing them up. 

SMILEY   Hundreds of them.

Guillam raises himself up on an elbow, listening.

SMILEY (CONT’D) One of them was calling himself Gerstmann. 

SMILEY He was on his way back to Russia, and we were pretty sure he was going to be executed. 

SMILEY Plane had a twenty-four lay over at Delhi, and that’s how long I had to convince him to come over to us instead of going home to die.
Smiley stares at the room around, projecting his memory of the Delhi cell onto their present surroundings.

SMILEY (CONT’D) Little room...I’m sitting here...he’s sitting there...

He points to an EMPTY CHAIR in front of him.

SMILEY (CONT’D) The Americans have had him tortured.

He holds up his right hand.

SMILEY (CONT’D) No fingernails.

SMILEY It’s incredibly hot. I’m very tired and all I want to do is get this over with and get back home.

SMILEY Things weren’t going well with Ann.

Guillam flinches a little, but Smiley doesn’t notice, lost now in the past.

SMILEY (CONT’D) I give him the usual pitch... Come to the West and we can give you a comfortable life. After questioning. Or you can catch your plane and fly home and be shot, like Bykov, Shur, Muranov...

He stares at the CHAIR as if expecting an answer, and slightly drunkenly Guillam finds himself turning to the CHAIR for a response.

PETER GUILLAM (Beat) What did he say?

Smiley doesn’t answer - STARES AT THE CHAIR - the silence stretching - it’s all becoming a little surreal.

SMILEY (To the chair) Think of your wife. 

SMILEY You have a wife, don’t you? 

SMILEY I brought you some cigarettes, by the way.

He mimes placing cigarettes on an invisible table, between him and the chair.

SMILEY (CONT’D) Use my lighter.

He mimes placing the lighter beside the cigarettes.

SMILEY (CONT’D) “We could arrange for her to join you, we have a lot of stock to trade. If you go back, she’ll be ostracised. Think of her. Think about how much she...”

He breaks off in sudden impatience with himself.

SMILEY (CONT’D) Kept harping on about the damn wife! 

SMILEY Telling him more about me, than... 

SMILEY Should have walked out, of course, but for some reason...it seemed important to save this one. (Beat) So I go on. 
“Know you’re a chain-smoker, help yourself,” 

SMILEY “We’re not so very...

SMILEY ...different you and I..”

He makes a vague “Etcetera” gesture, stares at...THE EMPTY CHAIR... something unsettling about it, as if somehow it is acquiring the GHOSTLY PRESENCE OF KARLA.

SMILEY (CONT’D)(To the chair) Look, we’ve both spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in one another’s systems. 

SMILEY Don’t you think it’s time to recognise there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?

Silence. Smiley sits back, dropping the game.

SMILEY (CONT’D) Never said a word. 

SMILEY Not one word. 

SMILEY Next morning he got back on his plane, 

SMILEY ...gave the pack of cigarettes back to me, untouched - 

SMILEY ...this was a chain-smoker, 

SMILEY ...mind - and flew off to what he presumed would be his death. 

SMILEY He kept my lighter. 

SMILEY It was a gift - “To George, from Ann. 

SMILEY ..All my love.”

Guillam is still staring at the chair, a little awe-struck.

PETER GUILLAM That was Karla? 

PETER GUILLAM And he flew back to die rather than give in?

SMILEY Yes. (Beat) And that’s how I know he can be beaten. 

SMILEY Because he’s a fanatic. 

SMILEY And the fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt.

PETER GUILLAM What did he look like?

SMILEY That’s the thing. (Beat) I can’t remember.

He stands up, crosses to the window, embarrassed by what he has to say next.

SMILEY (CONT’D) After today, Peter... 

SMILEY ...you have to assume they’re watching you. 

SMILEY If there’s anything you need tidied up... 

 SMILEY ...now’s the time.

Guillam stares at him, realising what he’s talking about.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Words by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan (and Peter Morgan and John Le Carré)

Pictures by Hoyte Van Hoytema and Tomas Alfredson

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is available on DVD from Universal Home Video.

The same meeting from the BBC mini-series
Karla (a "Pre-card" Patrick Stewart) and Smiley (Alec Guinness)