Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

As evidenced below, I was overjoyed to finally see the cinematic version of TTSS. Most of my love for this film was initially placed in loving Gary Oldman and roughly anything he does, but in order to show my fealty, I decided to read the book and get a sense of this new chapter in my relationship with Gary Oldman.* Now, it should be mentioned that I still love Gary Oldman, but there was something iconoclastic for me in the book that I just had not anticipated and my love was reshaped.

My new love is for the uncanny narrative tension that can only be created by the sheer, unadulterated boredom of the life of great spies. Before I go on, I fear I may give some minor details of the film/book away so I say unto you: here there may be spoiler alerts. The success of the book is its almost epistolary nature. Smiley gathers all of his intelligence through the most mundane and boring means, and what we learn about Smiley and espionage in general is that you just have to listen and connect plot points of people's stories. I've given some serious thought to telling people that this book has no plot beyond George Smiley listening to people and arresting some guy at the end. All of the action happens in exposition, and after six or seven of Smiley's chit chats, you just stop caring about the Cold War and the battle for ideological dominance. What really matters is that Smiley is a sad and sort of pathetic man, but a brilliant spy.

When I finished the book, I started storyboarding the movie in my mind, and I was glad that the film listened to my imagination. The colors are almost completely washed out, Smiley rarely ever talks, and most of the film is just a study of people's faces as they tell stories that are seemingly unrelated. I was bored to sheer joy.

Actually, I don't think the film is remotely boring, but the slow pace of the film and the completely anticlimactic and brilliantly executed end will make people scratch their heads in wonder. After all, aren't spies more like James Bond or Ethan Hunt? Aren't they the peak of physical performance and aren't they the world's greatest lovers? Can't they overcome the most difficult odds through sheer will power and brute force? According to LeCarre, no, spies pay attention when people talk and talk and talk, drink and get drunk, and have trouble swimming anything more than a few laps. To borrow from another movie, these are spies like me.


*The first chapter was Oldman's portrayal of the crooked Stansfield. Then I watched True Romance, Dracula, Sid and Nancy, Immortal Beloved, The Fifth Element (about 100 times just to hear him pronounce, "Jean-Baptiste Immanuel Zorg."), and Romeo Is Bleeding. I like to think of the Harry Potter films and the Christopher Nolan Batmans as the relationship of people who argue over the price of sandwiches.