It's difficult to write a detailed review of this terrific film without giving away too much of the story. However, I did enjoy one sophisticated twist in the plot which I didn't remember from the original versions. 'Karla', the Russian spymaster, is feeding MI6 with what appears to be red hot intelligence but which is, in fact, totally dud. He is doing this in the certain knowledge that sooner or later MI6 will use their possession of this as a bargaining chip to gain full access to American intelligence on the Russians, at which point, 'Karla's mole inside 'the circus' will be able to tell 'Karla' what the Americans know about his organisation. Nothing could better describe the poverty-stricken, second-rate staus of MI6 in the 1970s, desperate to regain a reputation lost after the Blake and Philby defections, and eager to relive wartime glories. It stands as a metaphor for the country they serve.
I was also amused at one or two incidents which throw up the stark contrast between then and now. In the film, the top men of MI6 are treated by ministers as 'not quite gentlemen', only ever to be met with in surreptitious circumstances and that as infrequently as possible. How unlike the way Blair kept the MI6 top dogs close by him in No. 10 during the run-up to the Iraq war, tossing them the occasional bone to show his gratitude for intelligence briefings that were, shall we say, 'helpful'. And how they preened in the unexpected sunlight and eagerly accepted their knighthoods afterwards! Also, I had a wry smile at a scene in which a minister complains bitterly over the price of running a grotty 'safe house' somewhere in the outer reaches of the metropolis. How unlike today, where they would insist that it was in the middle of Mayfair because only the best would do and bugger the expense!
My God, John le Carré is a bitter, sad man and one senses the wreckage of shattered illusions and ideals around him. Even so, despite his tears of disappointment his vision remains clear and focused. His book/TV series/film is more than just a deliciously convoluted spy yarn, it is a slice of post-WWII social history.
PS: We are having a nice dollop of global warming today, so I'm off to the beach to drive the young women of Dorset mad with lust for my sun-kissed body - sorry, didn't quite catch that. Anyway, back later this afternoon.
Cough, choke, ha!
Posted by: Andra | Thursday, 29 September 2011 at 00:58
Sorry, Andra, did you wish to say something? Or did your imagination just rev up into overdrive?
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 29 September 2011 at 09:00