Movie Review: Tinker, Soldier, Spy

Improved Essays
Going into this movie, most of what I heard was that I wouldn’t like it. This prepared me to focus on following what was going on, leading me to enjoy the movie more than I otherwise would have. Because Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is so complicated, it pushes many viewers away. But the complicated paths of the plot and the characters in this movie simulate trying to find and follow a real spy, which takes a kind of focus many viewers aren’t prepared for while watching a movie. However, being a movie about spies, it’s possible that some viewers will be interested enough to invest themselves in the plot enough to figure at least a little bit out. This is somewhat like what spies do in real life, since they have to infiltrate a foreign government, for example, and then figure out important information and where that connects. Beyond this, it’s difficult to say exactly what it’s like being a spy, since these organizations tend to be secretive. Thus, this movie is accurate in the way the story is told. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy tells a nigh incomprehensible, winding tale of spies in Europe; the details follow what we’re often told about spies in the media, but the way the story is told, as well as the style of cinematography, allow the viewer to experience what international espionage may really be like.

Before getting any further, it’s worth
…show more content…
The only actual objection they have to this movie is that the scriptwriters brought in anti-Americanism that is apparently part of Le Carre’s other books. Being an American organization, the CIA isn’t happy with this negative light. They noted some other small differences, such as a less ethically ambiguous ending than that of the book. But any change from the book is an act of freedom of expression, and whether the CIA likes it or not, it’s protected under the Constitution. Thus, the CIA can only criticize from a

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The outbreak of war often changes the mindset of individuals, generally affecting their lives negatively. During the Vietnam War, families both in the United States and in Vietnam were influenced by the conflict that was brought about during the war. Donnelly’s use of verisimilitude in the fictional film, A Soldier's Sweetheart, illustrates the transformation of Mary Anne Bell from a naive woman to an experienced barbaric soldier. When Mark Fossie was drafted as a medic to Vietnam, he was forced to leave his family and girlfriend back home in Ohio.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Candidate With a look of existential crisis, Bill McKay utters, “What do we do now?”. The Candidate shows us that people with good intentions often lose their way during an election process. This 1972 classic encompasses how the media turns elections into propaganda that often changes candidates into the standard norm of a politician.…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Despite the red clay that drips down the walls like blood in an old, broken-down mansion and ghosts shrieking throughout the halls, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak is hardly scary, although riveting. An aspiring young author named Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is wooed by and wed to a penniless aristocrat, Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). With her new husband, Edith is taken to Allerdale Hall, an old, weather-beaten mansion atop a hill of red clay that stains snow the color of blood and is nicknamed “Crimson Peak.”…

    • 223 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wanted Movie Analysis

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages

    "Wanted" is basically from a comic book that has limited series written by Mark Miller and J.G Jones, it is about an amoral protagonist (Wesley Gibson) who is discovered as the heir of super assassin. Russian director, Timur Bekmambetov, he is the cream of the crop, he turns this comic into a movie that make the viewers not sit still and make their adrenaline and cortisone levels spike with the actions. Bekmambetov used the similar style of shots and angles with his previous movie, Night watch. It's more to wide angle (long shot), so we can see the terrifying background like one of the scenes in the torture room, where Wes has been beaten up by the butcher. Not even that, there are many special effects that Bekmambetov applies in this movie, like slow-motion with sound effects that certainly provides that "ouch" reaction from audiences.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the movie Sling Blade, the main character is Karl, a developmentally disabled gentleman that has been in a state run psychiatric hospital for killing his mother and her lover when he was a young boy. The day of his release, he is interviewed by a college newspaper reporter, to which he recounts the brutal murder of his mother and her lover with a sling blade. He goes on to explain that he killed the man because he thought he was raping his mother, but when he figured out that was not the case, he killed his mother as well. When asked if he will kill again, his response is “I don’t reckon I got no reason to kill nobody. Mmm” (Bushell et al. & Thornton, 1997).…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The movie The Patriot was directed by Roland Emmerich. The leading roles were Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, and Joely Richardson. In the movie The Patriot, Roland Emmerich defiantly does a great job of telling a patriotic story but fails to be completely historically accurate in telling the story. I will be showing you some of the historical inaccuracies and moments that stuck out to me in the film.…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Gone with the wind” and the American Civil War are a movie and a historical event which complements each other effectively. I was expecting a great analysis, however as I was reading through the paragraph composition, I found was quite confused in the flow of his paragraph. The sentences seemed fragmented and were not complete. For example, “Rhett now in jail with his foreign bank accounts all blocked, her attempt to get his money has been in vain.” This does not constitute a proper sentence; it is if two simple sentences has been brought together by a comma and the words are in the wrong order, disrupting the flow.…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My opinion about the movie Glory is very interesting, it is a good movie because it talks about the treatments that African Americans endured during the war and also during training camp. This movie shows how the African American men fought for the country in which they agree not to get commission. They also were threatened at a point to if they stayed in the military then they would become slaves or even killed, the general or corporal was also threatening if they kept the African Americans in the military that they will be charged or even sentence to death. As the movie progress when they began their march they met another military group full of African Americans but watch as they stole from houses and burn a town down because of the order that they were giving. They knew that even if…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The movie The Green Berets starring John Wayne was directed and written by him and Ray Kellogg in 1968. The film is about a group of Green Berets who are led by Colonel Mike Kirby, played by John Wayne, along with a skeptical journalist who go into south Vietnam to help with humanitarian effects and to stop the spread of Communism from the north Vietnamnese people. George Beckworth, the skeptical journalist, comes along with the Colonel and his group of special forces to see if these is a need for American soldiers to intervene in Vietnam’s Civil War. This film was influenced by American politics because it was designed to change the public’s opinion on an unpopular war and vetern. According to Alex von Tunzelmann, this movie was made “during…

    • 1856 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Departed Film Analysis

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It deviates from genre conventions by providing a more in depth look at the lives of two different characters who work undercover and how it is affecting their lives. The character development is like no other film in this category. The dialogue or lack thereof in some cases also shows how the movie does not follow the genre conventions. Another genre convention missing from this movie is that the main villain turns out to be an informant for the FBI, which is very rare for a mob boss involved in organized crime in crime dramas. 7.…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Jacob Detampel Mrs.Gauthier American Studies Lit/Comp 11 Date: 1-4-16 Saving Private Ryan (1998) This movie was directed by Steven Spielberg, a very famous Director of all sorts of Hollywood movies. Saving Private Ryan focuses on the final stages of World War II. This film shows the D-day invasion, combat in towns, and combat in the countryside.…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    James Bond Essay

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In film number twenty-four, Spectre had some huge expectations to fill, and i believe it delivered exactly what the audience wanted.. its a great adventure ,It has tons of set peices, more action than skyfallAn attention-grabbing, tense opening fight scene, good transitions ,with some sultry music, but they elaborated the sinister plot surrounding James Bond with more troubles and portraying him more evil than ever. It is more of a action driven spectacle Many parts of the film feel like a throwback to classic Bond as it looks like they have added and mixed some…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Review of "Get Rich or Die Tryin '" the movie. "Get Rich or Die Tryin '" has been the subject of my essays over the past two weeks. This week I am reviewing the film and making a distinction of the intended audience of the movie. On the surface, it would appear that the movie is attempting to reach the masses with a very entertaining story, packed with drama and action.…

    • 1330 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Hancock Superhero Film as the Storehouse of Black Stereotypes Hancock is an American superhero movie directed by Peter Berg in 2008 and starring Will Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman. While in most of the contemporary superhero films, superheroes are loved and admired by the society, in this story, John Hancock (Smith) serves as a burden to Los Angeles citizens: his saving operations regularly cost the city millions of dollars. One day, Ray Embrey (Bateman), the head of a public relations firm whose life Hancock rescues, decides to show his gratitude by transforming Hancock’s public “asshole” image to the image of a “good guy”. This becomes the starting point of the whole adventure (Berg 2008).…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Constant Gardener and the art of planting ideas. When you hear the words “political thriller” you may imagine some national treasure type shenanigans, brash loud action heroes and more explosions than perceptive dialogue. The Constant Gardener however has an altogether softer approach exploring themes of morality which are subsequently much more empowering and the journey of a grief stricken man. “If I tell you that girl over there is being murdered, will you believe me?”. The Constant gardener is inflammatory, no doubt.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays