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Directed by Simon Langton and coscripted by John Hopkins and Le Carré himself, this is a leisurely mystery. It offers a cannily generous central performance from Guinness, who never takes off his scarf and does his best to fade into the background while a succession of striking character players hold center screen; but slowly and by sheer presence he begins to dominate the panoramic view of European treachery, deception, and disappointment. Among the terrific supporting cast are Michel Lonsdale, Mario Adorf, Vladek Sheybal, Michael Gough, Alan Rickman (a tiny, early role as a hotel clerk), Beryl Reid, Ingrid Pitt, Bernard Hepton, Michael Elphick, Rosalie Crutchley, Michael Byrne, Bill Paterson, and Maureen Lipman. Smiley's People is more interested in character than thrills, with each cameo contributing another view of the human cost of the cold war: most of the old friends Smiley seeks out react to his reappearance by saying they never wanted to see him again, and victory is only possible because Smiley discovers that his opposite number has a weakness that makes him almost sympathetic. It was originally broadcast in six hourlong episodes, and its intelligent approach works better if you watch episode-length chunks, letting one sink in before going on. --Kim Newman
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
117 of 119 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top rate LeCarre from the BBC . . . but beware,
By
This review is from: Smiley's People (DVD)
`Smiley's People' wrapped up the three John LeCarre Cold War novels concerning George Smiley, the lumpy, unprepossessing but brilliant British spymaster who plays a deadly game with his Russian nemesis, Karla, in the dark world of East/West espionage. As played marvelously by Alec Guinness in this filmed version co-produced by the BBC and Paramount Pictures, no matter how bland his character attempts to be he is always the center of attraction, though surrounded by great, mostly British character actors, among others Bernard Hepton as the shady, pseudo-sophisticated Toby Esterhase; Anthony Bates offering a somewhat more vulnerable version of his trademark supercilious performance as Smiley's former superior; Eileen Atkins as the doughty émigré mother of a long lost daughter who Karla has picked for his own daughter's new persona; Michael Lonsdale as one of Karla's bumbling Russian agents-in-place; and Barry Foster, in a delightful comic turn as the new head of the British `Circus' which has brought back the retired Smiley for one more foray out into `the cold.' Michael Byrne competently takes over the role of Smiley's protégé Peter Guillam from Michael Jayston (marginally better) in the earlier BBC production of LeCarre's companion Smiley novel, `Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.' Although based on a dubious premise - Karla is looking for a covering `legend' for his daughter, a schizophrenic, whom he desires to be treated in the West rather than in Russia - once accepted the film slowly but powerfully builds to the final confrontation between the two long time adversaries.
Though Karla himself is played by the accomplished actor Patrick Stewart, make no mistake about it: if he hadn't gone on to stardom on American TV as Star Trek's Captain Picard, his effective but non-speaking mini-role would hardly have been noted. The DVD is disappointingly grainy, though the sound is adequate. But buyer beware: for some reason BBC for their American market has released the cut, PBS version, which is minus several excellent scenes. At the end of the Foster turn, for example, when he suggests to Smiley that they now retire to the rooftop garden for further discussion (during which he avows, in a display of typical Le Carre cynicism, that if the Karla operation is blown the Circus will disavow both it and Smiley), the next scene instead opens the following day with the operation already begun. Also missing is a delicious later scene when Hepton in his inimitable fashion `persuades' the overbearing Lonsdale that the latter's sudden attempt to hold the operation ransom is misguided at best. Why BBC chose to do this is a mystery, since I was able some years ago to obtain a tape copy of `People' from an original master, and there should have been no reason why they didn't use such a master for this release. Nevertheless the movie is still highly recommended; now if the Brits would finally release that other masterpiece of English spycraft, Len Deighton's `Game, Set and Match' starring the splendid Ian Holm, our libraries of these more intelligent forays into the underworld of Cold War espionage would be just about complete!
70 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alec Guinness reprises George Smiley in a marvelous sequel,
By Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Smiley's People (DVD)
SMILEY'S PEOPLE is a slight come down after the glories of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, but this needs some explanation. The latter is in my opinion one of the three or four finest things ever produced for television, while the former is merely one of the fifty or so finest things. He is easily one of the best things ever to appear on TV; it simply fails to be as glorious as the preceding series.
Both series contain virtues that are rare in television: enormous patience in developing a complex and challenging narrative, a refusal to insult the intelligence of the viewer (instead of making every point achingly obvious, they assume we'll figure it out eventually), a willingness to be content with small moments of drama instead of epic action sequences, and acting that can compete with that of the most outstanding Shakespearean production. In every way, this is the anti-Jame Bond spy drama. Though George Smiley's nemesis Karla (played in both series by Patrick Stewart, a nonspeaking role he undertook several years before becoming famous in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) emerges as a more than adequate villain, he would be by far the least charismatic bad guy in all of the Bond corpus. Narratively, almost nothing happens in contrast to a Bond film. The series contains the results of violence, but almost all of the actual violence takes place off screen, or even prior to the narrative timeline. Like a Bond film, the series features several international locations, but there is none of the cosmopolitanism of the Bond films, and absolutely none of the glamour. Indeed, much of the series features sets that are a bit dowdy, worn, or frayed. But the greatest contrast with the Bond films comes with George Smiley himself. Unlike Bond, Smiley is old, completely lacking in physical prowess, decidedly unsexy, fat, a complete failure in his relations with women, never seen with a gun in his hand, and in contrast to Bond's sizzling verbal repartee is laconic and sphinx-like. Yet, by the end of the series, one senses that Smiley's accomplishments in unraveling the mystery confronting him and the ends to which he puts the information he discovers are utterly beyond the abilities of the comparatively clumsy Bond. On top of all else, one gets the sense that real spying bears vastly more resemblence to Smiley's undertakings than Bond's. A number of things make this a successful series, including superb direction, an excellent yet subtle score, a superb cast of mainly stage actors (including a very young Alan Rickman as a hotel desk clerk), and a fabulous script that manages to digest into filmmable form a very complex novel. But if one has to point to one thing, it has to be Alec Guinness. Although Guinness enjoyed a long and remarkably productive career, his portrayal of George Smiley represents one of the highlights of his career. It was also probably his last truly great role. To be honest, Guinness was in many ways inappropriate for the role. In the books Smiley is often described as looking froglike, a description that hardly applies to Guinness. He is also fat, and never quite fits into his expensive if traditional clothing. But Guinness enjoys in spades the one absolutely crucial quality that Smiley is also said to possess: a melifluous, melodidic, beautiful voice. I loved listening to Guinness throughout this series, almost never for what he said so much as for how he said it. I've never been one for whom discs turned on the special features, but I should add for those for whom such things are important that this set has relatively little in that line. On the other hand, the images are quite vivid. In fact, SMILEY'S PEOPLE looks markedly better than did the earlier presentation of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY. But all this aside, these two sets together represent absolutely essential viewing. Only only a very, very few occasions has anything better than this appeared on television, and just as rarely has television been graced with a performance as outstanding as Alec Guinness's depiction of George Smiley.
41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Typical excellent story and acting, terrible DVD transfer,
By
This review is from: Smiley's People (DVD)
I'm torn as to how to review this set. The acting and story itself are superb, a glorious tour de force by Guinness and those around him, and Le Carre at top form -- though if I had to rate it I'd put it slightly behind "Tinker Tailor" in terms of gripping storytelling, this set is close behind. Rather than be duplicative, I'll let the other reviews speak for themselves on this element of the set.
But the transfer, the transfer is simply terrible. Someone cheaped out on the restoration of the sound in particular, and there are more than a few moments when the dialogue is essentially inaudible, a problem in a production as complex and deft as a BBC workup of a Le Carre drama. This is why I give this set three stars instead of the five the story and acting so richly deserve. Expect to have the sound cranked up uncomfortably loud while viewing, and still miss some dialogue. You may be thinking that this is a thick American who doesn't understand English accents, but I followed every word of Tinker Tailor, which is a greatly superior transfer, though not itself great by any means.
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