Smiley's People
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Movie Reviews of Smiley's People
Movie Review: Alec Guinness reprises George Smiley in a marvelous sequel
Summary: 5 Stars
SMILEY'S PEOPLE is a slight come down after the glories of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, but this needs some explanation. The latter is in my opinion one of the three or four finest things ever produced for television, while the former is merely one of the fifty or so finest things. He is easily one of the best things ever to appear on TV; it simply fails to be as glorious as the preceding series.
Both series contain virtues that are rare in television: enormous patience in developing a complex and challenging narrative, a refusal to insult the intelligence of the viewer (instead of making every point achingly obvious, they assume we'll figure it out eventually), a willingness to be content with small moments of drama instead of epic action sequences, and acting that can compete with that of the most outstanding Shakespearean production. In every way, this is the anti-Jame Bond spy drama. Though George Smiley's nemesis Karla (played in both series by Patrick Stewart, a nonspeaking role he undertook several years before becoming famous in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) emerges as a more than adequate villain, he would be by far the least charismatic bad guy in all of the Bond corpus. Narratively, almost nothing happens in contrast to a Bond film. The series contains the results of violence, but almost all of the actual violence takes place off screen, or even prior to the narrative timeline. Like a Bond film, the series features several international locations, but there is none of the cosmopolitanism of the Bond films, and absolutely none of the glamour. Indeed, much of the series features sets that are a bit dowdy, worn, or frayed. But the greatest contrast with the Bond films comes with George Smiley himself. Unlike Bond, Smiley is old, completely lacking in physical prowess, decidedly unsexy, fat, a complete failure in his relations with women, never seen with a gun in his hand, and in contrast to Bond's sizzling verbal repartee is laconic and sphinx-like. Yet, by the end of the series, one senses that Smiley's accomplishments in unraveling the mystery confronting him and the ends to which he puts the information he discovers are utterly beyond the abilities of the comparatively clumsy Bond. On top of all else, one gets the sense that real spying bears vastly more resemblence to Smiley's undertakings than Bond's.
A number of things make this a successful series, including superb direction, an excellent yet subtle score, a superb cast of mainly stage actors (including a very young Alan Rickman as a hotel desk clerk), and a fabulous script that manages to digest into filmmable form a very complex novel. But if one has to point to one thing, it has to be Alec Guinness. Although Guinness enjoyed a long and remarkably productive career, his portrayal of George Smiley represents one of the highlights of his career. It was also probably his last truly great role. To be honest, Guinness was in many ways inappropriate for the role. In the books Smiley is often described as looking froglike, a description that hardly applies to Guinness. He is also fat, and never quite fits into his expensive if traditional clothing. But Guinness enjoys in spades the one absolutely crucial quality that Smiley is also said to possess: a melifluous, melodidic, beautiful voice. I loved listening to Guinness throughout this series, almost never for what he said so much as for how he said it.
I've never been one for whom discs turned on the special features, but I should add for those for whom such things are important that this set has relatively little in that line. On the other hand, the images are quite vivid. In fact, SMILEY'S PEOPLE looks markedly better than did the earlier presentation of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY. But all this aside, these two sets together represent absolutely essential viewing. Only only a very, very few occasions has anything better than this appeared on television, and just as rarely has television been graced with a performance as outstanding as Alec Guinness's depiction of George Smiley.
Movie Review: Superb BBC Production Of LeCarre's Masterpiece!
Summary: 5 Stars
Like the other famous best-seller turned BBC series coming from the unchallenged master of the intelligent spy thriller John LeCarre, this original teleplay is an absorbing treatise on the hidden and conflicted corners of the human heart, the many ways in which our own natures feed into and extend the darker impulse of a society bent on pursuing the secrets and treachery that ever lurks for the unsuspecting victim. Here, in the finale of LeCarre's three best-selling novels tracing the pilgrim's progress of George Smiley, the intrepid and unlikely hero of the post-industrial Western world, Alec Guiness wonderfully reprises his role as George Smiley, concluding LeCarre's marvelously convoluted narrative. Thus do we trace the continuing history of human perfidy, moral compromises, and treachery native to the world of British intelligence. In "Smiley's People", the object of Smiley's ministrations is once again thrust toward achieving final revenge against the legendary Karla, the Chief of the Soviet Covert Espionage Bureau, played masterfully in an understated fashion by Patrick Stewart. Having stuck a devastating blow against Karla previously through the ingenious employment of Jerry Westerby in the Far East, Smiley now turns to using an assassination in London of an obscure Eastern European émigré and would-be counter-revolutionary into an entry-point into Karla's domain, and as the Circus (British Intelligence) begins to unravel the many points of light this careful sifting of signs through tradecraft, they discover the one irresistible lure they need to tempt Karla out of the darkness and into their waiting clutches. Given all the murder and mayhem that Karla has visited both on the Circus in general and on George Smiley in particular, there is a number of levels of revenge operating here, and these the production faithfully mines in exploring the impulses, rational and otherwise, that propel such human urges.
The cast of characters and the supporting cast are marvelous in revealing the onion skin as it continually peels away in this intelligent, taut tale. The plot, as usual, is ingenious, intricate, and horrific in its human toll, played out against a landscape of the far-flung persons and places across the European landscape, from London to Berne to Deep inside the former Soviet Union. Once again we are whisked away on a cautious yet beautifully choreographed adventure into the heart of darkness of ourselves, and we shouldn't be surprised to find some scar tissue and broken bones as we descend deeper into the tortuous caverns we keep hidden in our subconscious realms.
LeCarre is nothing if not a superb chronicler of the ways in which our own natures become a battle ground for the struggle between good and evil, the good we can be for others, and the evil we do to them and ourselves by subscribing to ideologies, almost any ideology, that finally forces us to choose between our values and our duty. This is a marvelous video production, eminently faithful to the text from which it springs, a stunning example of the sophistication, complexity, and sheer intelligence of sensitive film-making and astonishing in its depiction of the subterranean world of international espionage. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Top rate LeCarre from the BBC . . . but beware
Summary: 5 Stars
`Smiley's People' wrapped up the three John LeCarre Cold War novels concerning George Smiley, the lumpy, unprepossessing but brilliant British spymaster who plays a deadly game with his Russian nemesis, Karla, in the dark world of East/West espionage. As played marvelously by Alec Guinness in this filmed version from the BBC, no matter how bland his character attempts to be he is always the center of attraction, though surrounded by great, mostly British character actors, among others Bernard Hepton as the shady, pseudo-sophisticated Toby Esterhase; Anthony Bates offering a somewhat more vulnerable version of his trademark supercilious performance as Smiley's former superior; Eileen Atkins as the doughty émigré mother of a long lost daughter who Karla has picked for his own daughter's new persona; Michael Lonsdale as one of Karla's bumbling Russian agents-in-place; and Barry Foster, in a delightful comic turn as the new head of the British `Circus' which has brought back the retired Smiley for one more foray out into `the cold.' Michael Byrne competently takes over the role of Smiley's protégé Peter Guillam from Michael Jayston (marginally better) in `Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.' Although based on a dubious premise - Karla is looking for a covering `legend' for his daughter, a schizophrenic, whom he desires to be treated in the West rather than in Russia - once accepted the film slowly but powerfully builds to the final confrontation between the two long time adversaries.
Though Karla himself is played by the accomplished actor Patrick Stewart, make no mistake about it: if he hadn't gone on to stardom on American TV as Star Trek's Captain Picard, his effective but non-speaking mini-role would hardly have been noted. The DVD, typical of many BBC releases from film rather than video is disappointingly grainy, though the sound is adequate. But buyer beware: for some reason the BBC for their American market has released the cut, PBS version, which is minus several excellent scenes. At the end of the Foster turn, for example, when he suggests to Smiley that they now retire to the rooftop garden for further discussion (during which he avows, in a display of typical Le Carre cynicism, that if the Karla operation is blown the Circus will disavow both it and Smiley), the next scene instead opens the following day with the operation already begun. Also missing is a delicious later scene when Hepton in his inimitable fashion `persuades' the overbearing Lonsdale that the latter's sudden attempt to hold the operation ransom is misguided at best. Why the BBC chose to do this is a mystery, since I was able some years ago to obtain a tape copy of `People' from an original BBC master, and there should have been no reason why they didn't use such a master for this release.
Nevertheless the movie is still highly recommended; now if only the BBC would finally release that other masterpiece of English spycraft, Len Deighton's `Game, Set and Match' starring the splendid Ian Holm, our libraries of these more intelligent forays into the underworld of Cold War espionage would be just about complete!
Movie Review: There's So Much Here, It Would Be Churlish to Complain
Summary: 5 Stars
"Smiley's People," a six-hour, six episode television series by the British Broadcasting Company, was directed by Simon Langton; and adapted for the screen by John Hopkins, and the author of the book of the same title on which it is based, British spymeister John LeCarre. Upon the television series' 1982 release, it was nominated for an Emmy, and many other awards, several of which, including the Emmy, it won. The LeCarre book on which it is based is the last of the highly-lauded British cold war trilogy, dealing with the struggle of English spy George Smiley, and his Russian nemesis, Karla.
The plot opens as Smiley, once again out of power in the British secret service, called the circus by LeCarre, gets wind of Karla's acting in a possibly irregular manner. Smiley, with his lifetime of experience in the spy trade, immediately realizes that further investigation and maneuvering by the British may just result in great strategic victory. The LeCarre book on which this serial is based is another of the author's greatest hits. It boasts a complex, yet crystal clear plot, a wide variety of deeply drawn characters, witty writing and dialogue, and a solid footing in its author's spycraft experience. Mind you, both book and tv series are slower, more interior, and more intellectual than American treatments of the subject matter might be. But if you can get past the absence of car chases, you should agree that the BBC, in this effort, preserved the book's outstanding plot and dialogue, and gave it its then typical no-expense spared mounting. It boasts location shots, cars, and extras galore; great star acting in the many principal roles.
Alec Guinness, reprising his role as Smiley from "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," the BBC's previous all-star serialization of the author's engrossing novel of the same name, first of the Smiley-Karla trilogy, must be considered first among equals. He gives Smiley a matchless solidity, and a transparent inner life. But for a change, the women here have fully-realized parts as well, and do more than honorably by them. Beryl Reid reprises her role as Connie Sachs from the first series. We finally meet Smiley's everlastingly unfaithful, treacherous and beautiful wife, as played by Sian Philips. Eileen Atkins is memorable as Mme. Ostrakova, with whom the action begins in Paris. Finally, Rosalie Crutchley acquits herself well as a nun, Mother Felicity.
The male actors are also a mixture of reprises, and new to the parts. In addition to Guinness, Patrick Stewart revisits his role as the powerfully silent Karla. Bernard Hepton is Toby Esterhase; Anthony Bate, Oliver Lacon. They're joined by Barry Foster, fresh from success as the cheerful cockney killer in Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy,"playing the unctuous Saul Enderby;and, as assorted Russians, Curd Jurgens, Michel Lonsdale,and Michael Gough.
There may, marginally, be fewer interesting characters, and a less compelling plot--after all, everyone loves a whodunit-- in "Smiley's People" than in "Tinker Tailor." But there's so much great stuff here, it would be churlish to complain.
Movie Review: A Spy in Winter....
Summary: 5 Stars
The BBC's superb dramatization of "Smiley's People", based on John Le Carre's novel of the same name, is a companion piece to the earlier "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" in which retired British spy George Smiley was recalled to the Secret Service to smoke out a Soviet mole.
In "Smiley's People", Vladimir, an aging Estonian expatriate and former British spy, makes contact with the British Secret Service on a matter of importance relating to "The Sandman", a code name for Karla, head of Soviet espionage operations against Britain. Unfortunately, Vladimir is murdered on the way to his rendezvous with a young agent handler. George Smiley (played with world weary patience in a spot-on performance by Alec Guinness) is again summoned from retirement, this time to clean up the mess. Smiley reluctantly agrees on the basis of an ancient friendship with Vladimir. His investigation slowly unravels a string of clues pointing to Karla.
Senior civil servant Lacon (Anthony Bate in a reprise of his role in Tinker) authorizes an off-the-books operation to follow up on the clues. Smiley recruits assistance from other retired Secret Service personnel and enters a dangerous game, in which Karla appears willing to kill to protect an ancient secret. The game will lead Smiley from London to Germany to Switzerland and back to Germany as he retraces what is in effect his own history in deciphering Karla's secret. A final confrontation will be the end of a life-long struggle between Smiley and Karla.
"Smiley's People" has a slow developing plot, only gradually revealing the dimensions of the story and the implications of Karla's secret. Much of the early episodes of the series are taken up by Smiley's solitary visits to old contacts and former agents, most of whom are not happy to see him. Smiley's low-key but ruthless pursuit becomes the connecting thread in a series of vignettes, nearly the last of which involves a snatch operation and interrogation of a key witness to Karla's secret.
This atmospheric series is very highly recommended as superb entertainment, especially for fans of John Le Carre and of the spy genre.