Action and Political Context at the Movies: Tinker, Tailor, Gods, Men
In many, perhaps most, respects, the last two movies I’ve seen could not be more different. Over Christmas, I saw Of Gods and Men, the story of the French Trappist monks abducted from the Tibhirine monastery in Algeria in the mid 1990′s–they were later beheaded. Over the weekend, I saw Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy- the new movie set in the height of the Cold War about a Russian mole at the top of the English espionage organization. It was based on the John Le Carre novel by the same name.
What struck me about both films was the lack of importance of social, political, and historical context to understanding the film. Yes, Of Gods and Men deals with the religious tensions of Algeria–but the reason why the monks were there, and their relationship with the village, and even the political machinations in which they became trapped was never really fully explained. You don’t come out of this movie with a better understanding of Christianity in Algeria, or the various Muslim factions vying for power. The movie is about the life inside the monastery–you could have set the same thing in Mexico (with contending drug gangs) or anywhere else. The political battle creating the problem really didn’t matter to the unfolding of the movie. The themes are courage, fidelity, and loyalty –in the face of great danger. The source of the danger is really of secondary importance.
The same thing holds true, I think, of Tinker, Tailor. It’s impossible to read LeCarre’s novel and not get a textured sense of the political and historical context–the very particular battle between two different ways of organizing political and social life that was going on between the West and the Soviets. But you can watch the movie without knowing any more than that the Russians are the bad guys and the English are the good guys. Furthermore, any other bad guys and good guys would do. Because the heart of the film is the relationship among the English spies themselves–what counts as loyalty, what counts as betrayal, what counts as fidelity to your job even in situations of danger and disgrace. You could change the clothes, change the villain, and set the movie in the contemporary time, no problem.
Loyalty to one’s commitments is a big theme in both movies. I wonder if we’re seeing a trend. The contemporary world, and its political currents are so baffling, our bonds of community are so tenuous, we are trying to figure out what integrity and loyalty means–by examining cases that superficially seem very distant, but in fact can be detached from their setting and mapped into the contemporary world quite easily.
Cathy ===]
I haven’t seen the two new movies, but I read the LeCarre’ book and saw the Alec Guinness Masterpiece Theatre adaptation. Both were convincing presentations not only of the narrative but the global context of the narrative. But in earlier times we had the advantage of (probably) having read some of LeCarre’s earlier Smilie novels which helped to give Tinker, Tailor a wide context. Not to mention that the Masterpiece series was 5 or 6 episodes, not just the length of one movie. And, of course, many of us LeCarre’ readers remembered WW II only too well. So no wonder the book and that adaptation were extremely highly regarded.
Of course, I think Tinker, Taylor is a very fine novel by any standards. Given the novel’s complexity, I don’t see how one short movie could possibly do if justice.
I’d urge everyone interested in Tinker Tailor to get the 80″s PBS version with Alec Guiness’s richly textured performance and a far better treatmen tof Le Carre.
Loyalty is just one issue as well as marital fidelity and the manipulation of people(just treated as expedients) to obtain power and rule.
Cathy:
Hello there. You’re right about Tinker, Tailor, which is well-nigh unintelligible without prior knowledge — I know, because everyone who went with me was baffled by much of it. The previous poster is correct that the old Alec Guiness series (six one hour segments, I believe) is vastly superior and takes enough time to spin out its tale that the context gets adequate treatment.
I think you’re a little severe on Gods and Men, though. Yes, the film could have done more to provide context. But I don’t think it’s asking too much of viewers to be aware of France’s colonial historyin Algeria, of the horrors of the war in the fifties, and of recent dangers from Islamist radicals.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your points. And I am now going to put Tinker Tailer (AG version) on my Netflix, if it’s available.
I don’t mean to be severe about Gods and Men–it wasn’t meant to be so much of a criticism as an observation. It was just striking to me that the heart of the movie did not depend upon the political and social context; you could set the plot in Mexico (rival drug gangs) without real loss.
And I guess I was thinking to myself: what made them think they could or should remake Tinker Tailor now–in such a short form. And my answer was that it was a very different type of movie than the novel or the miniseries–time and place, villain and controversy, didn’t actually matter. Even at the end SPOILER ALERT–the mole gives an extremely vague account of why he did it, that could be transferred without loss to any other political battle.
One set of historical facts that you won’t get from the novel Tinker Taylor concerns the recruitment of many spies at Oxbridge by both MI5 and MI6, and the KGB. Among the notable academics and writers who served in the espionage game were Graham Greene, LeCarre’ himself, ian Fleming, and my favorite scholar R.C. Zaehner, not to mention Anthony Blount, art historian, friend and cousin of the Queen Mum, and spy for the KGB, as well as the other four celebrated traitor-spies, including Philby who was highly placed in the Circus itself.
What were the real values of the British upper classes at the time? The stereotypcal image of the privileged upper-class survivors of the Titanic bandied about in another thread here recently just doesn’t seem to fit these guys — not the ones on either side. Fiction really is much better than statistics, I think, in revealing what a culture is really like.