But, as the Chicago Tribune remarked: "No one pays for a ticket to watch an actor sit still for half an hour," such films are destined to be sad at the box office.
However, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, and Spy have successfully adapted the original works and BBC dramas to open the way, and they are still dramas with a large audience base. In general, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has a unique and strong film style, and is faithful to the successful adaptation of the original work.
French critic Andre Bazin said that "like other arts, form and content are interdependent in film". Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy's style and approach all achieve a high degree of fit with the background and tone of its story. The style of the film is very obvious, whether it is the opening scene (you can only see the reflection of your face on the screen when you watch it on a computer), the shooting in the dark corridor, or the gray light and mist that permeates the streets of London, all of which remind the audience very clearly. Its Cold War history and gloomy intelligence work environment. Unlike the opening chapter of the novel, Jim Prideaux's life as a teacher after he failed a mission and was shot, is different. The plot begins with the boss explaining his mission, and he goes to Hungary and is shot as the beginning of all stories. Then the boss passed away, the situation changed suddenly, and the protagonist George Smiley was forced to retire. This plot, which was unintelligible even if he had not read the original and was beaten to death, coupled with the description of Smiley's lonely retirement life was enough to make many people walk out of the theater or turn it off. The player, mentioned in future discussions that the review of this film must be "another European film with a protracted rhythm, a strange atmosphere, and an unintelligible plot". I think there is a significant difference between a slow pace and a loose narrative style. The difference is whether there is a strict plan or control over the telling of the entire story. From this point of view, if it is helpful to the atmosphere of the film and the development of the story, even if the protagonist sits in a dilapidated room without saying a word and reading through the documents, it is a necessary plot. What's more, most of the adapted movies are limited by the director's desire to express all the content of the original hundreds of pages, how can it be a waste of time. In the selection of lenses and angles, the fusion of realism and formalism has also been achieved. The fixed shot recording the protagonist running alone has a very realistic feel, while the close-up of the slightly looking down when Smiley recalled the dialogue with Karla Airport and the angle of Guillam checking the records in the archives (below) both reflect the director's mentality towards the characters to a certain extent. understanding.
Like many well-crafted films, Tinker has an excellent soundtrack. The soundtrack by Alberto Iglesias casts a veil of tension and depression on many of the bland shots. Background music is the magic weapon of many suspense films, but in this one, the soundtrack not only elevates the level of horror with its tight rhythm, but also helps people imagine the twisted mentality of British and Soviet intelligence workers after the war. The arrangement of the Soviet national anthem with a chorus led by Santa Claus at the Christmas party is also considered highly symbolic (Karla's control and play with the circle).
The biggest attraction of the film is the platinum-grade British cast. This level of gathering of big British brands can only be seen in the Harry Potter series. Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch...anyone who can be dragged out can play the leading role in an Austrian film, so much so that British talk show host Jonathan Ross said on the show that he doubted Ian McKellen is also in the film. The feeling of a national treasure-level actor playing a show is that there is no urine in minutes. Among them, Smiley, played by Gary Oldman, can be said to be the backbone of the whole film. Even the director admits that without GO's joining the film, he will have to abort. GO used his powerful aura (GO used the whole body drama and age difference to make BC look like a sidekick) to bring out a protagonist who is completely inconsistent with the original depressing and frustrated image, and successfully interpret Smiley as a "mole" in the opposite circle. Smiley has long been known as an anti-hero and anti-Bond agent who is closer to reality. But fortunately, this image is also echoed by Smiley's high-spirited smile when he sits on the rounder head chair in the last scene of the film, which can be regarded as a unity in portraying the characters. Peter Guillam, played by BC, succeeded in the battle between the male two men of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Poor", and became the second character with the spirit of "Where Smiley goes, I go, Smiley says what I do". And the scene of the top five of the rounder was also robbed of the emotional entanglement between Bill and Jim, so that if you didn't look closely, you couldn't recognize who was the "tailor" and who was the "soldier"... Tarr, played by Tom Hardy, is another part of the plot. An important character, his love affair with Woman in the window confuses the whole story even more...
For characters, it takes success in many ways to go down in history; but for movies, it only takes a stroke of genius. In Tinker, this nifty pen is a Christmas party design. The scene of the Christmas party did not appear in the original book, but a miracle that came into being in the dilemma of the screenwriter and director "couldn't understand the story for 2 hours". The film does not explain the time of the Christmas party, but it is probably estimated that it should be a year before Jim's mission in Hungary failed, and the boss was still very vigorous. In this scene, the normal narrative sequence of the film is inserted three times in a flashback manner, and in line with the already progressed plot, the relationship between the characters is implicitly dissected and some foreshadowings are laid, such as the derailment of Ann (Smiley's wife) and Bill, Jim and Bill's ambiguous relationship (Bill can only be said to be a courtesan...) and Smiley's forbearance, the level of office politics. At the end of the film, it goes back to that Christmas party. The camera finally captures Jim's eyes looking at Bill after a knowing smile. Under the brisk tune of La Mer, Jim has long been aware of Bill's identity as a double agent. The camera cuts to Jim using a bullet. To save the pain of Bill's interrogation, it is even more heartbreaking to recall that Jim went to Hungary on a mission to die in desperation at the beginning of the film. In fact, this intense undercover investigation is meaningless, and several people in the chess game already know it well. The reason for supporting them towards their respective annihilation is probably the last words Bill said to Smiley, "the last fantasy of those who have no fantasy".
Hope he has a good end in that world.
Fulfilling his last fantasies, even if they were unrealistic.
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