Smiley's people

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was reviewed last year on the blog. It was of course actually a tv episode feature that was made many years back starring Sir Alec Guinnes and Richard Harris and is the only episode feature to feature on the blog in any year. Smiley's people, for anyone familiar with John Le Carre's books is the third and final instalment in the series against Karla. With the second feature being 'The honourable schoolboys' and not turned into a tv work one can only assume that they have taken any relevant information and placed it somewhere in these episodes so that the audience can continue to follow the plot.

Sir Alec Guiness returns to finish his mission against Karla and most of the previous cast are now long gone out of the circus, retired or dead. There is no real spy to this, no real shooting because it is just another 'non-existent' mission that Smiley has to undertake in order to finish what he started. Karla is starting to leave a trail of evidence carelessly behind him as he goes around and this will end up being his downfall.

You are looking up spending more than 4 hours watching these episodes just to discover who Karla actually is (Patrick Stewart) and what he looks like. You aren't watching it for the action, you are watching it either because you have followed it this far and want to see it concluded or because you are a lover of Alec Guinness. I am both so I enjoyed it greatly.

As always, the character of Smiley doesn't actually give that much away and with Alec Guinness playing a similar character to that of Ben Kenobi from his acclaimed performance in 'Star Wars', the emotionally controlled performance is exactly what the character in the book always has. There is no humour in this series and not really a masterclass performance but just a nice ending to the story that we all wanted. I haven't read this book but I will add that in this novel from the wikipedia quick search I did George Smiley isn't really looking for any friends and isn't making any effort to make any more so there are a lot less characters in this series.

All the struggle, all the dodging of people's company and attempting to show no emotion comes down to hardly being able to face his enemy once his enemy is in custody. There is symbolism at the end of the final episode but I don't really understand it and can't explain it so I wont. For the simplicity of watching a genius at work in an old film and admiring the way that the world of film used to work this is an excellent series to apply four hours of your time to. Never pass off any chance you get to watch Alec Guinness.

I am going to try and watch a few films before going away at the end of the week so as to keep the blog going but otherwise just bare with me because I am taking the first holiday I have had in five years abroad and wont have any internet access to write about anything new I may watch.