Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Film Deconstruction

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a thriller/drama film which came out this month! We went to the cinema to see how the film applied itself to it’s genre and to research the presentation of the characters. Warning – Contains spoilers!

Summary: There is a Soviet agent working in MI6, and George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is brought out of retirement to find him. The film is set during the Cold War.

The film presented intelligence warfare and juxtaposed to it’s context: the violence of the Cold War. It is a motion picture adaptation of a novel, which is rumoured to be based on true events as it’s author John le Carré worked for both MI5 and MI6.

The tone of the film was thoroughly sombre, serene and slow. The pace meant that violent scenes were more shocking  as characters were forced to break out of composed roles. The complicated plot meant that the audience were forced to work it out at the same time as Smiley. Extended silence was used to create tension and the naturalistic action made it clear that it was a British drama. The lack of action sequences was made up in the focused violence and purposefully morbid gore.

The film also used a combination of shots we appreciated would work well to mirror in our trailer. We noticed that the shots were often over the shoulder during dialogue, and that this meant that the audience had to imagine the character’s emotions. Whenever the suspects were presented in a series of quick paced shots, Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) was always first. He was the double agent, and therefore the audience was given clues throughout the film. Most of the film was flashbacks, and these sequences were slightly more hazy than the present shots and depth of field was interestingly never used. Another memorable shot was that of Peter Guillam appearing as a lift door opens behind Toby Esterhase waits unaware. We enjoyed how ominous this shot was, and how it gave a slightly comical edge to the sequence. During the film the character Control was always presented at the head of a desk. At the end, he was replaced by Smiley. This epitomised how Smiley was now in control, and was extremely effective. 

The thriller/drama genres were met by the following criteria:

•          We follow a central protagonist as he works out an enigma
•      The film is based around the British Intelligence
•     Tension is created
•         Truth, betrayal and mystery were central themes
•     There was a psychological aspect to the narrative
•      The characters were all flawed and these flaws effected the plot

Semiotics were used throughout the film:

• The files that travelled up and down the floors of the building represented the selling and trading of secrets
• Communist symbol was used to reflect the historical context
•    Pictures of the suspects were attached to chess pieces to represent the manipulation of the Soviet government within the British Intelligence. It suggests that spying is a game and spies and people can all be controlled.
• Smiley’s glasses changed in the present and past which could represent how people always see things differently at the time

The protagonist George Smiley was presented as cool, calm and collected throughout the narrative. He wore period dress which was discrete, dark and non-descript. His glasses were different in the present and in the past which made it easier for the audience to distinguish between the two. The antagonist of the film was more the enigma he had to solve and the obstacles in his way. Bill Haydon was a sympathic antihero in the way that the audience could understand how he lost faith the west.

The title of the film ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ is presented in the trailer like this. The idea is based around unwrapping an enigma. The title itself is intertextual as it refers to the child’s nursery rhyme which describes the occupation of various men. This rhyme is referenced in the film as all of the suspects are named after one of these titles. 

We believe that the main message of the film was to enhance the paranoia of the Cold War and that the film was based around the idea of disillusionment.