Spy vs Spy

I recently watched the new Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie. For some reason it  resonated with me quite a lot so I sat down and watched the old 70s TV series with Alec Guinness reprising Gary Oldman's role of George Smiley. So how do the two compare?

The most obvious difference is not in the actors and plot, but the set and Alfredson's direction. The new movie could never have been made in the 70s, it is too stylised and sleek. An idealised view of what the period was about. Everyone walks around in sharp, vintage suits, having meetings in big minimalist rooms that look like a Warhol studio designed by Damien Hirst. Guinness on the other hand is shunted around small pokey offices, crammed with overflowing files and drab civil servants. The turgid 'Yes Minister' feel of the Circus is much more believable.

Impressively, even though the TV series is four hours long compared the movie's two hours, the movie doesn't feel like it has left anything out. All the marks are hit - Tarr's story, Operation Testify, Peter's infiltration of the circus, the final confrontation - and all the relevant characters are fleshed out very well. Indeed, the character development in the movie does more with less than the series. Even though Patrick Stewart gives a stalwart performance as Karla, the russian spymaster in the series, his excision in the movie is a good choice, apart from a very small, quick throwback that is a highlight of the film.

Less is more with Smiley's wife, Anne. Alfredson chose not to include her in the movie, whereas the TV series can't resist sticking her in the final scene. A bad decision, especially when Guinness gives a great performance in the final confrontation with Bill Hayden when he tells Smiley he only slept with his wife on orders from Moscow. Guinness' small grunt and vacant stare is wonderful. Oldman couldn't quite pull that otherworldly air off.

In the end, they are both good, but different. The bonus of the series is another series, Smiley's People, waiting in the wings with another great Guinness performance. But Alfredson puts together a distilled yet complete package that crams so much into every scene it would be churlish to criticise it for brevity. 4 stars.