Hello! I didn't see the film until a few days ago but I remembered you'd made a post critical of the TTSS film and since I did like the film thought I would test my liking by reading your post, if that makes sense. If you want to reply to this, please do so as freely as you like, I'm not going to get flamingly defensive.
so - I've seen the film and am now halfway through the book, I've read a couple of JLC's other novels before but not TTSS and I'm not familiar with the Alec Guinness version or the radio/audio adaptation, though they are on my list of things to get hold of! I'd actually read the first 80 or so pages of the novel before I saw the film, which was just enough to be confused and not quite enough to be helpful. Anyway: will try to respond to your points.
- Guillam: I thought he got a lot of screen time considering that he's not a suspect and not really part of the generation of spies that the story is about. He had far more to do than Ciaran Hinds as Roy Bland, for example. And I think his nervousness is explained by the unusual situation of his having to spy on his own people; as he says to Ricki Tarr, 'Do you know how that made me feel?' - i.e. it made him feel awful. And he gets considerably less nervous as the film goes on - the business with the combination-locked cupboard is the first thing he has to do in the office itself, by the time he steals the file he's dealing with it much better, and by the time he picks up Esterhase he seems pretty much to have just terrified him into getting into that car.
There is actually an inconsistency within the novels regarding Guillam - in JLC's first few books Guillam was a near-contemporary of Smiley. Then - realising he wanted to write more books about Smiley - he revised a few things, made Guillam younger (and gave him more to do), and made Smiley younger as well so that the novels could continue being set in the then-present day.
You mention in the comments that Guillam ran a team of agents in North Africa and that this wasn't mentioned - so far in the book it has been just that, mentioned, and no more. I think it would be tricky to work in due to it being fairly tangential to the main plot. I also think that for purposes of realism you can't have people - who in the story supposedly know each other very well - and who moreover are trained not to tell anyone anything unless they have to - mentioning at length things that they have no need to or which are mutually already known. (Which is why Smiley unburdening himself about Karla to Guillam is so powerful.)
- e.g. Smiley knows Guillam is gay, he's worked it out, and would never, ever let on that he knew, unless he had to, and here he does - incredibly tactfully - because he knows that if the Circus can make things difficult for Guillam they will.
regarding Guillam being gay in the film and not in the book: I think that basically all the changes made from the book (e.g. Guillam's homosexuality, Ricki and Irina having far more genuine affection than in the book, the reordering of events) were done to heighten the themes of loyalty and betrayal. Everyone in the film betrays in some way someone on a personal level - Smiley's difficulty is in seeing past the web of quite ordinarily unpleasant human betrayal to the single betrayal that is not personal at all. The paradox being that the minor betrayals are relevant to the big ones. I don't think that they were trying to show that being a spy messes you up - when Ricki Tarr says, "I don't want to end up like you," I think what he really means is not messed-up but lonely
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-10-03 01:39 pm (UTC)so - I've seen the film and am now halfway through the book, I've read a couple of JLC's other novels before but not TTSS and I'm not familiar with the Alec Guinness version or the radio/audio adaptation, though they are on my list of things to get hold of! I'd actually read the first 80 or so pages of the novel before I saw the film, which was just enough to be confused and not quite enough to be helpful. Anyway: will try to respond to your points.
- Guillam: I thought he got a lot of screen time considering that he's not a suspect and not really part of the generation of spies that the story is about. He had far more to do than Ciaran Hinds as Roy Bland, for example. And I think his nervousness is explained by the unusual situation of his having to spy on his own people; as he says to Ricki Tarr, 'Do you know how that made me feel?' - i.e. it made him feel awful. And he gets considerably less nervous as the film goes on - the business with the combination-locked cupboard is the first thing he has to do in the office itself, by the time he steals the file he's dealing with it much better, and by the time he picks up Esterhase he seems pretty much to have just terrified him into getting into that car.
There is actually an inconsistency within the novels regarding Guillam - in JLC's first few books Guillam was a near-contemporary of Smiley. Then - realising he wanted to write more books about Smiley - he revised a few things, made Guillam younger (and gave him more to do), and made Smiley younger as well so that the novels could continue being set in the then-present day.
You mention in the comments that Guillam ran a team of agents in North Africa and that this wasn't mentioned - so far in the book it has been just that, mentioned, and no more. I think it would be tricky to work in due to it being fairly tangential to the main plot. I also think that for purposes of realism you can't have people - who in the story supposedly know each other very well - and who moreover are trained not to tell anyone anything unless they have to - mentioning at length things that they have no need to or which are mutually already known. (Which is why Smiley unburdening himself about Karla to Guillam is so powerful.)
- e.g. Smiley knows Guillam is gay, he's worked it out, and would never, ever let on that he knew, unless he had to, and here he does - incredibly tactfully - because he knows that if the Circus can make things difficult for Guillam they will.
regarding Guillam being gay in the film and not in the book: I think that basically all the changes made from the book (e.g. Guillam's homosexuality, Ricki and Irina having far more genuine affection than in the book, the reordering of events) were done to heighten the themes of loyalty and betrayal. Everyone in the film betrays in some way someone on a personal level - Smiley's difficulty is in seeing past the web of quite ordinarily unpleasant human betrayal to the single betrayal that is not personal at all. The paradox being that the minor betrayals are relevant to the big ones. I don't think that they were trying to show that being a spy messes you up - when Ricki Tarr says, "I don't want to end up like you," I think what he really means is not messed-up but lonely