TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

Good price

I saw this miniseries when if was first broadcast in 1980, hard on the heels of Alec Guinness' memorable role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars IV. I have placed it among my favorite BBC series, along with "I, Claudius" and "Brideshead Revisited". I decided to take a look back at it in preparation for reviewing the new version starring Gary Oldman as George Smiley. I will defer my opinion on that until I've watched it twice.The cast for this version must have employed virtually half of the better English character actors. There are 41 feature cast members, ten of which I recognize immediately, such as Ian Richardson, Ian Bannen, Alexander Knox, Joss Ackland, Sian Phillips, and Patrick Steward, whose dialogue consists of a single word. I read the book and I don't remember it well now, but I recall in 1979 that it followed the book quite closely. Like the earlier "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", it is gritty and no nonsense. Not a single trace of James Bond tomfoolery. Even better, it was filmed when the Cold War was still very real, and Russian spooks were a very, very real fear. What makes it even more genuine sounding (albeit annoying since it is unexplained) is that it uses a jargon (which may or may not be real MI-6 patter)such as lamp-lighters (internal security) and scalp hunters (specialists in "wet work").Guinness as George Smiley is virtually perfect (and all other roles are played to a tee). It appears he may have been aged a bit with make-up from his Obi-Wan appearance. He appears in one flashback scene perhaps 20 years before, and it seemed easy to make him look younger. Even the small roles are limned with perfection, such as Beryl Reid as Connie Sachs, the retired Circus head of research, with arthritic hands, who is now an Oxford tutor. Steward's performance as the chief heavy, Carla, may be one of the best things I have seen him do (I am not a fan of his.) It was based entirely on body English responding (or not responding) to George Smiley's interrogations. I did not even recognize him, as he had some hair, and his face was in shadow (unlike his great role as Sejanus in "I, Claudius"). Possibly the best other main performances were Ian Richardson as Bill Haydon and Ian Bannen as Jim Prideaux. I have never seen Richardson in a Shakespearean play, but he was marvelous in the BBC series "House of Cards" and in the film "Brazil." Ian Bannan seemed to be a staple in British spy thrillers such as "the Mackintosh Man" starring Paul Newman.The American version was rearranged from the seven part British version to put things in a sequence which better agreed with the book. Unlike virtually most other spy flicks, the realism simply crackles with verisimilitude. One can chuckle about Sherlock Holmes never carrying a pistol. No such bravado here, as even Smiley pulls out his Glock when the final scene comes, and he is constantly on the lookout for people tailing him.I do sense that Gary Oldman may have taken some lessons on playing George Smiley from Guinness' performance here. If you were not fond of the remake, come back and try the original.

While I have wanted to buy this for several years, like many people it took the recent Gary Oldman remake film of the same name to get me to finally pull the trigger. (Update, this review is for the non Bluray edition)The result has been a mixed bag. While I have intensely enjoyed it in many respects, and rushed through all six episodes in a week, there were also several glaring issues. For all of its problems I still recommend it, but for some people they definitely will be disappointed.Starting with the good, the acting is top notch. Alec Guinness is great (make no mistake, he is the star), as is most of the supporting cast (and there are a lot of them to keep track of!). This includes a small role by a very young looking Patrick Stewart well before Star Trek fame, as well as I believe one of actors that played Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter. Most of the others are people I did not recognize, but were likely well known and accomplished actors in England 30 years ago.The cold war era espionage plot regarding double-agents and internal power struggles is not really groundbreaking in any way, yet done well enough here that it doesn't need to try to be anything more than it is. Despite the basic nature of the premise, there are plenty of moving parts to complicate it and keep things interesting. With a total running time around 300 minutes, don't expect anything to get wrapped up quickly.This is a series that will require patience, and if you miss something (which can be easy to do, as plot threads can be spread out and move slowly) you'll find yourself reaching for the rewind button often unless you read a little bit of the "baseball program" of character descriptions and jargon that come in a small DVD insert. It contains some very minor spoilers, but for those who have not read the book they may want to take a peek if they begin to get lost as the show progresses.That leads to a major problem, the production. You'll also be hitting the rewind button alot because it is frequently hard to understand what the characters are saying. Part of this is because many people in the U.S. do find some british accents hard to follow. But it is more than that, as voice volumes are maddenly uneven and the sound mixing is horrible. Particularly in scenes where the characters are far away from the camera, you'll find yourself wishing you had one of those high-end radar dish looking listening devices so you can understand what is being said without frequent rewinds/volume changes. The picture quality itself is also subpar, and it looks like very little effort has been made to clean it up. I'm OK with this, but I know it might drive some other people crazy. The other problem I had, the aspect ratio is supposed to be for regular TVs. For some reason my wide screen kept trying to stretch the picture, and no matter how I fiddled with settings I could not change it. As a consequence, everything looked a little distorted. I've watched hundreds of movies on this TV and have never before had that issue.The other problem with the series is the adaptation. I have to say that only somewhat qualified as I have never read the book, but based on many of the scenes I am making a guess that this series might be suffering from trying to follow the book too closely. Completists may like this, and I'm sure if it was not true to the book there would have been many complaints at the time. For those of us watching it 30 years after the fact who never read the book it's an entirely different matter. I'm in no way suggesting that they should have done it differently, but if you were to treat the series as a stand alone project there are doubtless many cases where some scenes should have been cut, others expanded, etc. Again, this is a partial guess on my part, and there are so many things going on that there would be some crucial elements needing to be worked in under different guises. Regardless, the series does have some slow parts that IMHO could have been done better without changing the core atmosphere.Returning to the good and summing things up, the real question is whether or not people should wait for a deluxe treatment, "Criterion Like" edition to be put out (example of top notch, cleaned up older movie here:  Orpheus (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray ]), or whether you should buy this one now. **** UPDATE - a bluray edition is supposed to be out April 24, 2012 **** Regardless, if you need a lot of car chases and gun-play in order to get your espionage fix, DON'T get this series. If you like excellent acting, complicated plots, and watching frumpy old chain smoking men making life and death decisions for the rest of the world behind the scenes then this is for you. There are no "death rays" or girls shaking martinis, but haven't we all seen enough of that already?If you already own it and are looking for something similar, check out the graphic novel Queen & Country  Queen & Country: The Definitive Edition, Vol. 1

Great movie. Wonderfully done.

Unarguably this is top class entertainment from 1979, seven episodes of involved intriguing drama shot in a dark, pedantic style that sits comfortably with the genre of most of John Le Carre's novels.In 1979 I was younger, had two young kids, struggled with a crippling mortgage and had a full-time job and worked as a waiter part-time in the evenings. When I sat in front of a small or a big screen I wanted to be entertained by something sparkling, or at least with some escapism----TTSS just didn't fit the bill for me at that time.I have great admiration for younger viewers who might have the patience and wide ranging tastes that can allow them to enjoy this series because it is in parts both dour and ponderous compared to some of the great series available.In its favour over the Gary Oldman film the various plot threads are fully explored in each of the episodes which stretch to 45 minutes or so--- there is depth to the Czech debacle, the attempt to turn the female Russian agent, Irena, Control's descent into erratic leadership, and so on.The Oldman film could only touch on these developments for a few minutes which is why I felt that film lacked depth especially with such an array of fine actors at hand.But, boy, this is still hard to follow and work out even at the slow pace of the series and therein may lie the problem for todays audience.It is very, very wordy and often I was listening to what seemed to be the musings of a great actor let loose in front of a microphone.Aside from the meandering pace of the plot and script the acting is superb. Masterful performances from Sir Alec of course and Hywel Bennett and Ian Bannen. Cameos by Beryl Reid and Joss Ackland were effortless, worthy and outstanding.Thankfully episode 7 gave us a satisfying conclusion to the revelation and identity of 'the mole' : in a debrief rather than an interrogation 'the mole' unloads all, which was the most integral part of the series in my view and will allow me to rewatch the Oldman film more comfortably.Key to watching this and enjoying it is concentration. Like me it might be useful to jot down the names of the key players (and the actors who play them) to follow the 5 hours plus of this series.English subtitles for the hearing impaired, 315 minutes duration. A Collectors Piece undoubtedly.

This adaption of John Le Carre's novel dates from 1979 and stars the great Alec Guinness in the role of George Smiley. It is a TV mini-series which was originally broadcast in seven parts, each 45 mins long. As you might expect with an adaption that runs over more than five hours in total, the action is rather slow. The script is excellent and the cast including many greats of British stage and screen acting do it full justice. Alec Guinness is expectedly wonderful in the lead, making this worth watching even only for his performance.Now here is the thing. I remember this mini-series from when it was first broadcast nearly 40 years ago and while I enjoyed seeing it once again, I must confess that I found it just a little too long and that I personally prefer the more recent all-star big screen adaption with Gary Oldman in the lead. Still, I'm happy to own the DVD set. Picture and sound are perfectly adequate for a TV producton from the time, the aspect ratio is, naturally, 4 : 3. English subtitles are available for those who may need them. By way of bonus material there is the (edited) and rather interesting documentary about spies in fact and fiction "The Secret Centre", in which John Le Carré discusses his life as a secret agent and writer.

Alec Guinness gives a masterful performance as George Smiley in this BBC adaptation of John Le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. British acting has such strength in depth that Guinness is ably supported throughout by a strong cast. A drawback of this 2 DVD set was that the English subtitles on the second DVD couldn't be turned off. It didn't really spoil our enjoyment, but I would hope that other viewers don't encounter the same problem. The Gary Oldman film on the same subject compares favourably with this series. Any Le Carré fan, or fan of good spy movies, will want both.

This is an Adaptation of John le Carre's novel, of the same name. George Smiley is brought out of retirement to search for the mole, in British counter intelligence (MI6), code named Gerald, who is sitting at the heart of the Circus - he sets out for Oxford to visit an invaluable friend. However, British counter intelligence believe that they have a mole (double agent) working for them in "Moscow Centre" (KGB) passing them highly classified information code-named "Operation Witchcraft" - but who is really performing the "Witchcraft" here?This is a TV mini-series, which can stand beside the best of cinematic films, a series that does not seem dated. With a narrative that is rich; where the performances are top notch, with a theme of betrayal, the ultimate betrayal - of country, of the service and of friendship. The technical quality only limited seemingly by the technical limits of the day and the needs for the "small screen". Each episode is approximately 50 minutes, with a total of seven episodes. Unfortunately the U.S edition, was a very much-edited down edition. This is an excellent espionage series, sans CGI and "James Bond gadgets," which is highly recommended

Here we have one of the greatest spy stories ever told, brought to glorious life by the BBC. Never having read the book I can't comment on how closely this follows it, but I can attest that this is a fantastic piece of television.Alec Guinness stars as George Smiley, a retired spy brought back into service to track down a top level mole in the British secret service. Guinness is superb, he bumbles around in a manner that hides a razor sharp brain and an ability to be ruthless and commanding. Guinness' portrayal is so good that you really believe all the facets of the character. The rest of the cast are equally as good.This is no James Bond gadgetry and explosions spy story. We have a tale of wonderful complexity, as Smiley rakes over old missions and carefully seeks out the evidence and weaves his case. It's slow paced, but totally adsorbing. And boy, do you have to work hard to keep up with the plot! The investigation is painstaking, almost forensic, as Smiley follows the trail that will lead to the traitor. Minor details in one episode prove to be crucial later on, and seemingly unimportant interludes become pivotal.Spread over seven episodes, this never drags. The atmosphere is one of cagey paranoia, just who can Smiley trust? It is the intense atmosphere, along with the involving plot that keeps this interesting. Right up until the finale where the traitor is finally unmasked, and we can all breathe again.This a superb production from the BBC, of a type that you can't see them making today. It is totally plot and character driven, and the finest actors have been used to bring it alive. The production values are very high throughout, with some great photography, and not a wobbly set in sight. A nice, gentle, literate and captivating few hours of television.The series is presented across two discs, with a short documentary as the only extra. The sound is mono, and the series is presented in the original 4:3 aspect ratio with the picture as good as quality as you can expect for the era.A nice presentation of a classic series. Recommended for all fans of quality, literate drama.