The Budding of the Rose

It’s well-known that Hollywood is gloriously incestuous, and loves stories about itself, from 1932’s What Price Hollywood? to La La Land and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Thus it’s no surprise that the movie that’s cleaned up on Oscar nominations this year is Mank, the Netflix film about the writing of the screenplay for Citizen Kane. It does help, though, that Mank is an excellent piece of filmmaking.

Herman J. Mankiewicz was a fascinating and flawed character. Born in 1897, he was a Columbia graduate who spent time as a foreign correspondent in Berlin just after WWI, then worked at the New York Times as assistant theater editor (to George F. Kaufmann) before joining the New Yorker as their first theater critic. A member of the famed Algonquin Round Table, he socialized (and occasionally collaborated with) the brightest literary stars of the 1920s – Kaufmann, Dorothy Parker, Robert Sherwood, Marc Connelly – and co-wrote a number of plays as well as contributing to the Saturday Evening Post, Vanity Fair, and other publications. In 1927 he was lured west to become head of Paramount Pictures story department where he worked on many screenplays without credit, including the Marx Brothers comedies Horse Feathers and Monkey Business. In 1933, he moved to MGM where he co-wrote the adaptation of the Kaufmann/Edna Ferber play Dinner at Eight. He often contributed to screenplays without credit, including The Wizard of Oz. It was Mankiewicz who wrote much of the opening set in Kansas, and he was the one who suggested filming those scenes in black and white. Mankiewicz recognized the dangers of Naziism early and took a leave from MGM to write a screenplay on Hitler titled “The Mad Dog of Europe.” Even though no studio would produce it, by 1935 Propaganda Minister Goebbels let MGM know that none of their movies could be shown in Germany if Mankiewicz’s name was on it. Mankiewicz sponsored many refugees who fled Nazi Germany before and during WWII.

While you get a taste in Mank of his literary days, the screenplay mainly concentrates on two periods. One is the period in 1939-40 when, after a car accident that broke his leg, Mank (Gary Oldman) began working on Citizen Kane. Producer John Houseman (Sam Troughton), who’d worked with Orson Welles since they founded the Mercury Theater together, brings Mank to a desert inn near Victorville to write, recuperate from his accident, and dry out – Mank indulged regularly and often in alcohol, which one writer of that era called “the writer’s crutch.” RKO had originally hired Mank to work uncredited with Welles so they could portray Welles as a wunderkind – actor, director, and writer. There to help Mank work are Fraulein Freda (Monika Gossman), who serves as maid and cook, and Rita Alexander (Lily Collins), a secretary whose husband is fighting in the Royal Navy.

While Welles always said the story of Citizen Kane was not based on William Randolph Hearst, the involvement of Mankiewicz made that impossible to believe. The story jumps back and forth from Mank writing the script and his MGM days. Mank had spent plenty of time at San Simeon with Hearst (Charles Dance) and Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard). During that time a California gubernatorial had writer and muckraker Upton Sinclair challenged the GOP candidate backed by Mayer and Hearst. The race had a particular note of irony, since years earlier Sinclair had written a novel about a progressive newspaperman fighting against conservative factions to help regular people. Hearst had been the basis for Sinclair’s character. Mank also befriends Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried), Hearst’s paramour, star of MGM pictures, and a lover of liquor like Mank.

David Fincher has become one of the pre-eminent film directors of this day, with credits like Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and Gone Girl. Yet it took him almost a quarter-century to get Mank made. The script was actually written by his father, Jack, a talented writer who had articles published by Smithsonian magazine, Saturday Review, and Reader’s Digest. Jack had written the script in the 1990s, but David couldn’t get backing because he intended to film it in black and white in homage to Citizen Kane. Jack passed away in 2003. In the 2010s, Fincher helped Netflix establish itself with its first major streaming hit, “House of Cards,” and later worked on “Mindhunter.” He entered into a production agreement with the service that gave him the chance to finally make Mank the way he’d envisioned it. Not only was it shot in black and white, but Fincher used microphones from the 1930s to give the picture a sound like classic films, and soundtrack composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross abandoned their usual electronic style to create a classic screen score. Fincher even added the small marks on the print that were used to tell projectionists when to be ready to switch to the next reel.

Gary Oldman had envisioned using extensive prosthetics to make him look like Mankiewicz, like he did for Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, but Fincher wanted a more natural look. Still, Oldman as usual delivers a consummate performance, imbuing Mank with a Shakespearean feel even as it blends comedy and drama. Dance provides a suitable foil as the austere and powerful Hearst, including a devastating climatic scene with Oldman. A delight, though, is the fine performance by Amanda Seyfried as Marion. While she is much younger than Davies in the period of the film – Mankiewicz and Davies were actually the same age – Seyfried’s intelligent, heart-felt embodiment of the character goes a long way to restore Davies, who was in fact nothing like Susan in Kane. (A few years before Kane was released, Davies had retired from films after a twenty year career, including several years when she was the most popular star at MGM. In interviews later in life, Orson Welles stated he felt bad about the portrayal of Susan in light of it being confused with Davies.)

For the upcoming Oscars, Mank has been nominated for the most with 10, including nods for Best Picture as well as for Fincher, Oldman, and Seyfried. That actually puts it one ahead of Citizen Kane’s tally of 9. Hopefully, though, it won’t suffer the same fate as Kane which only won in one category – Best Screenplay. Strangely enough, that was one category in which Mank wasn’t nominated.

One last bit of trivia: In the movie you hear the radio broadcast of the 1940 Oscars where the win for Mankiewicz and Welles is announced. The voice actor for the scene is the host for Turner Classic Movies for the past 20 years, and the grandson of Herman, Ben Mankiewicz.

A Light in the Darkness

Winston Spencer Churchill was a pivotal character in 20^th Century Western history. He’s been the subject of many volumes of biography along with movies and TV series, and rightly so since he was involved in much of what happened in the first half of the past century. Throughout that time, though, he was also a controversial personality who often made mistakes, failed at endeavors, and was seen as a self-promoter. He flipped party affiliation twice, and by 1929 he was pushed out of the party leadership. Churchill spent a decade in what has come to be known as “The Wilderness Years.” In retrospect, those years out of power were vital. He wasn’t tainted by the appeasement policies towards Hitler pursued by England during the 1930s, and many military officers and civil servants fed him information on how woefully unprepared for war the British were at that point. His sharp questions in the House of Commons helped force the government to start those preparations. After war broke out in September 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was forced to give Churchill a place in the cabinet as the First Lord of the Admiralty, a position Churchill held in WWI. But Winston had to wait until May 10^th of 1940 to take over as Prime Minister, within hours of the Blitzkrieg of Western Europe by the Germans beginning. Joe Wright’s portrait of Winston’s first weeks as PM, from his ascension to Prime Minister to his “We Shall Fight” speech following Dunkirk, shows it truly was the Darkest Hour of the war.

Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) had wanted Lord Halifax (Stephan Dillane) to replace him after he was forced to resign, but Halifax refuses. Instead Chamberlain recommends to King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) that Churchill be asked to form a government. Neither is happy about it. Chamberlain doesn’t trust Churchill, and George hasn’t forgiven Churchill’s support of his brother, Edward VIII, during the Wallis Simpson affair. But as a constitutional monarch, he has little choice but to summon Churchill.

At the time Churchill (Gary Oldman) is at Chartwell, his home outside of London. A new secretary, Elizabeth Layton (Lily James) is brought in to help Churchill, but his harsh and demanding demeanor make her ready to walk out that day. Winston’s wife, Clementine (Kristin Scott Thomas), takes him to task over his boorish behavior. Layton is in the driveway, ready to leave, when a motorcycle messenger arrives from Buckingham Palace. Instead she turns around and delivers the note summoning Churchill to an audience with George – and she remains with Churchill as he takes on the responsibility of Prime Minister.

The film is anchored by a tour de force performance by Gary Oldman as Churchill. Oldman looks nothing like Winston, and had to go through a couple of hours in make-up where prosthetics were applied. However, the actor submerges himself in the role, capturing his voice and mannerisms perfectly. After his recent win at the Golden Globes, Oldman is easily the front runner for best actor honors throughout this award season.

Oldman is ably supported by the rest of the cast, especially by James, Scott Thomas, and Mendelsohn. James’ character functions to give the audience an entry into Churchill’s world and the Cabinet War Rooms, and James manages to do that while still presenting a realistic characterization. (Layton, whose married name was Nel, was a real person who served as one of Churchill’s secretaries; she was the last surviving one, passing away at age 90 in 2007.) Scott Thomas embodies the refined steel of Clementine, the one person who could exercise some control over Winston. Special kudos to Mendelsohn’s version of George VI, since he goes for a more subtle performance than Colin Firth’s Oscar-winning take. The speech impediment is there if you listen, but what comes through is George’s decency and sense of duty, especially in a scene late in the movie between Mendelsohn and Oldman.

Screenwriter Anthony McCarten focuses the story so that even if you’re unaware of the history of that chapter in Churchill’s life, you can still understand what’s happening. While they’re completely different in tone, Darkest Hour adds context to Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. Wright overall does a good job bringing the script to life, though he leans a bit too much on bomb-site visuals that are more showy than illuminative. But that’s a small quibble.

In the end Darkest Hour hangs on Oldman’s portrayal, and he delivers a truly riveting performance that rings true down to the smallest gesture. He definitely deserves Oscar gold for this role.

Darkness at Dawn

If ever there was a movie series that has reaped the benefit of modern technology, it’s Planet of the Apes. While the makeup in the original 1968 move was quite impressive for its day, you never forgot that you were watching actors in heavy latex prosthetics. The movie’s theme and its killer twist overcame the prosthetics – and allowed the film to become a five-movie series. There were some makeup improvements in the Tim Burton reboot, but the rest of the film was such a mess you hardly noticed them, and it looked like the series was dead. But then came 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, using motion capture technology and the genius of Andy Serkis’ embodiment of Caesar. For the first time, the intelligence-enhanced apes were believable, and fascinating. The success of Rise led to the newest film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

The end of Rise foreshadowed a nasty plague caused by the Gen-Sys anti-Alzheimer’s drug ALZ 113, the treatment that gave Caesar (Serkis) and the other apes their intelligence. In a simple but effective sequence, the plague – called the Simian Flu because of its tie to ape testing – is tracked to its final devastation of mankind. Ten years have passed since Caesar led his apes north of San Francisco to Muir Woods where they set up their own society. During a hunt for food, Caesar and another of the original tribe, Koba (Toby Kebbell) must save Caesar’s son Blue Eyes (Nick Thurston) from a rampaging bear. They return to the settlement where Caesar’s wife Cornelia (Judy Greer) presents him with a new child. Cornelia, though, shows signs of illness.

Later while walking through the woods, Blue Eyes and a friend come face to face with a human. The man’s both armed and paranoid about apes, and he shoots Blue Eyes’ friend out of fear. The man is part of a small group under the leadership of Malcolm (Jason Clarke) that wants to find and restore a hydro power plant to give electricity to an outpost of humans still living in San Francisco. Caesar at first refuses the request, forcefully telling the leader of the outpost, Dreyfus (Gary Oldman) to forget the plan. But Malcolm, along with his son Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and his partner Ellie (Keri Russell), return to the forest and are able to change Caesar’s mind. While they make progress toward peaceful co-existence, both Dreyfus and Koba prepare for war.

Jason Clarke has a wonderful ability to communicate both physical strength as well as sensitive intelligence. His role as Dan, the CIA agent in charge of enhanced interrogations in Zero Dark Thirty, played up how quietly imposing he can be, while in Dawn he is the hope for understanding, following in the footsteps of James Franco’s role in Rise. Oldman is effective as always as the less-than-trusting Dreyfus, while Russell and Smit-McPhee provide good support for the story.

Toby Kebbell’s Koba rises almost to the level of Shakespeare’s Iago or Richard III. He’s fearsome, and the physical manifestation is truly frightening, yet he’ll pull on a mask and act the fool when he must. The moment when he drops the mask, though, is starkly powerful. A strong antagonist is needed to make a story memorable, and Kebbell provides that strength.

Caesar remains the central character, a leader trying to balance power and mercy. While the embodiment is incredible, what sets it apart is when the camera focuses on Serkis’ eyes and you read his thoughts. While he’ll never be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar – the prejudice against technology is too strong – in both Rise and Dawn Serkis does Oscar-caliber work. Serkis continues to be busy, with Avengers: Age of Ultron coming next year to be followed by a new Tintin movie as well as Star Wars 7.

Director Matt Reeves had worked in television (including several episodes of “Felicity” with Keri Russell) before moving to the big screen with Cloverfield and Let Me In. While those movies were a solid start, with Dawn he reaches blockbuster success. He’s assisted by production designer James Chinlund (The Avengers) who creates a post-human world where nature has taken charge again. Also, one particular kudo to the movie for not destroying the Golden Gate Bridge as a cheap post-apocalyptic visual. It’s become so common (Godzilla destroyed it two months ago) that leaving the bridge intact stands out.

With Rise and now Dawn, screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, assisted by Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard, Unstoppable) on the new film, have not just rebooted the series but have completely reimagined it, adding depth and emotional heart that was absent in the original movies. Dawn made more in its initial weekend than Rise, and it has topped the weekend box office for two weeks straight. According to IMDb, another movie is in the works with Reeves directing as well as collaborating on the script with Bomback. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

 

Anticipation – Summer ’14

Rather than make a long list of movies for my summer preview blog this year, I’ve decided to focus on the films I’m excited about seeing. These are the movies I’d line up to watch on their opening day over the course of the next four months, in the order of their release dates. At the end I’ve included the titles of some movies I may also see, as well as a few that strike me already as turkeys.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (May 2)

With the reboot of Spider-Man two years ago starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, director Marc Webb cut out the camp of the Sam Raimi films and replaced it with a harder edge. This time you have three excellent actors – Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti, and Dane DeHaan – as the bad guys Spidey must defeat. DeHaan was excellent in Chronicle, which was something of a deconstruction of the genre – super powers won’t solve your problems, it will just super-size them. He’s an actor to watch.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (May 23)

After the classic The Usual Suspects, director Bryan Singer made the first two X-Men movies, which were wonderful. His recent oeuvre (Valkyrie, Superman Returns, Jack the Giant Slayer) hasn’t done well. After Singer, the X-Men series made a bad misstep (“Curse you, Brett Ratner!”), but came back strong with X-Men: First Class. Now we have the best of both worlds, with Singer directing members of his original cast as well as their earlier versions from First Class. Days of Future Past is based on a classic story line from 1980, so it has a strong plot as a starting point. The first trailers look like it’s a winner.

Maleficent (May 30)

This movie does a “Wicked” twist on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale by giving us some sympathy for the Devil – or at least the delightfully devilish Angelina Jolie. It gives backstory that makes the cursing of Princess Aurora more understandable than simply an overlooked birthday shower invitation. Elle Fanning plays the teenaged Aurora, while Jolie’s daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt plays the princess as a toddler.  Vivienne had to take the role since all the other children who auditioned for it were completely freaked-out by Angelina in full Maleficent mode. Audiences may be as well.

The Fault in Our Stars (June 6)

One of the pleasures of The Descendants was Shailene Woodley as George Clooney’s eldest daughter. Woodley not only held her own with Clooney, but matched him in magnetism on screen. Now she’s starring in this movie, based on the Young Adult bestseller. Usually in the summer there’s a movie that breaks the blockbuster format for releases, such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel three years ago. The Fault in Our Stars may be the movie for this summer.

Begin Again (July 4)

And if The Fault in Our Stars isn’t the antidote to movies filled with explosions, then this one might be it. Director John Carney scored a few years back with the movie Once, that has now become a hit as a musical on Broadway. Here he again explores music and the effect it can have on people. (The original title for the film was “Can A Song Save Your Life?”) He has a wonderful cast to work with: Kiera Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, Hailee Steinfeld, and “Maroon 5” frontman Adam Levine.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (July 11)

2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes successfully rebooted the series, after Tim Burton’s 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes crashed and burned. The advances in CGI, as well as Andy Serkis’ incredible ability with performance-capture special effects, made Caesar believable as an ape with enhanced intelligence. In this sequel, humanity has been decimated by a pathogen. The survivors in San Francisco, led by Gary Oldman, come into conflict with Caesar’s clan of intelligent apes.

A Most Wanted Man (July 29)

This thriller is based on a John le Carre novel and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his last roles. That’s enough to make me to want to see this film, though it also stars Robin Wright, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, and Daniel Bruhl. One caution, though, is that it’s directed by Anton Corbijn, who made the George Clooney misfire The American. Hopefully Corbijn learned from that experience.

Get On Up (August 1)

The trailer for this bio-pic of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, is reminiscent of Ray and Walk The Line, but with better dancing. It stars Chadwick Boseman, who had a star-making turn in the Jackie Robinson bio-pic 42 last year. The movie also has The Help of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer as Brown’s mother and aunt respectively.

What If (August 1)

This movie was originally titled “The F Word” and was shown at some festivals last year, but is only now being released. It stars Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan as two people who form a platonic bond of friendship. Radcliffe moved on from the Harry Potter series with an effective performance in The Woman in Black, but the real attraction here is Zoe Kazan. The granddaughter of Elia Kazan wrote and starred in the excellent and inventive film Ruby Sparks. Apparently much of the dialogue for What If was improvised on the set, which with Kazan could be a strength.

Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (August 22)

The original Sin City opened the door for semi-animated movies both good (300) and bad (Sucker Punch). Now co-directors Miller and Robert Rodriguez have returned to town to deliver another story from Miller’s series of illustrated novels. Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba reprise their roles from the original movie, and are joined by Eva Green, Lady Gaga and Josh Brolin.

Others movies that I’m on the fence about: Godzilla, Jersey Boys, Edge of Tomorrow, A Hundred Foot Journey, The Giver, Guardians of the Galaxy, Lucy, and If I Stay.

And there are some movies this summer that you’d have to pay me to see: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Haven’t they reached their twenties yet?), Transformers: Age of Extinction (This franchise should have reached the age of extinction two movies ago), The Expendables 3 (More expendable than ever?) and Hercules (The Rock should have rolled past this one).

Agree? Disagree? Are there other films on your list? Please feel free to leave a comment.

 

A Trilogy Rises in the End

The third movie in a trilogy often becomes an embarrassing mush.  Along with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 and Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, think of Coppola’s The Godfather: Part III.  The only good that came out of that movie was that Sophia Coppola moved behind the camera, and has become a fine director.  The Lord of the Rings trilogy was an exception, because of its strong source material and Peter Jackson’s filming it as one huge movie.

The good news is that The Dark Knight Rises is another exception to the “3^rd Times the Harm” rule.  It is a fitting conclusion for the series.

The movie begins with an action sequence even more thrilling than the bank robbery in The Dark Knight.  A CIA agent (Aiden Gillen) and his crew of paramilitary operatives take custody from a local warlord of a rogue nuclear physicist, Dr. Pavel (Alon Aboutboul) as well as three hooded men who supposedly work with a terrorist named Bane (Tom Hardy).  While in flight, the CIA’s plane is literally hi-jacked by Bane’s operatives in order to get Dr. Pavel, for whom Bane has plans.

In Gotham City, it has been 8 years since Batman rode off into the dark after taking the blame for the crimes that Harvey “Two-Face” Dent committed.  In that time Gotham has been freed from much of the crime that had plagued it, thanks to draconian laws passed in Dent’s name that have filled the city’s jail.  Every year the anniversary of Dent’s death is a time for celebrating the DA’s supposed sacrifice, including a gala garden party held on the grounds of the rebuilt Wayne manor (after it was destroyed in Batman Begins by Ra’s al-Ghul and the League of Shadows).

In those 8 years, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a Howard Hughes’ figure, a hermit locked away in his mansion, mourning his lost love, Rachel Dawes.  Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) has paid a price as well; his family deserted him as a consequence of his covering up of Dent’s crimes.  He’s asked to give a speech at the garden party about the real Harvey Dent.  Gordon pulls out notes which tell the truth, but thinks better of it.  A business colleague of Wayne’s, Miranda Tate (Marion Cottilard), tries to meet with him during the party, but Alfred (Michael Caine) rebuffs her efforts.

Inside Wayne Manor, Alfred directs one of the catering staff to take a food tray to a locked wing of the mansion, unaware that she’s Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), a burglar known as the Cat-woman.  Wayne interrupts her as she’s taking an heirloom necklace from the safe.  His previous adventures have taken a toll on his body, and Selena is able to escape, picking up a congressman on her way out.  Afterward, Wayne finds fingerprint dust on the safe.  Apart from the necklace, Selina has stolen his prints.

When the body of a youth is washed out of a storm drain, policeman John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) recognizes the boy as a former resident of the orphanage where Blake was raised.  After talking with Blake by the smashed Batman signal on the roof of police headquarters, Gordon promotes Blake to his assistant.  Selina meets her contacts to give him Wayne’s fingerprints in exchange for her fee, but she finds she’s being double-crossed.  She pulls her own double-cross and brings Gordon and the police racing to the scene.  The hoods escape into the sewers.  While following them, Gordon is captured by Bane, who’s living beneath the city with his gang.  Gordon manages to escape, but is shot in the process.  Blake has figured out Batman’s identity, and he barges in on Wayne, forcing Wayne to return to the world of the living.

Christopher Nolan had always viewed his Batman movies as a trilogy, and that vision has paid off in a final chapter that is not only strong in itself but also wraps up themes and pays off moments from the first movie.  The screenplay by Nolan and his brother Jonathan (based on a story developed by Nolan and Batman Begins co-writer David Goyer) expands on The Dark Knight to create a fully-rendered world.  Nolan had decided, after the death of Heath Ledger, to not mention The Joker in this movie.  Rises is so full on its own that you won’t even notice the omission.

As with the previous movies, the acting is sterling.  Bale, Oldman and Caine layer onto their characters the regrets and pain accrued in the previous two movies.  The new characters, and the actors playing them, blend seamlessly into the Batman world.  It helps that Hardy, Cottilard, and Gordon-Levitt worked with Nolan on the twisty, fascinating Inception.  Hardy embraces the anarchy of Bane, an erudite ‘roid rager extraordinaire.  Gordon-Levitt has the thankless task of playing a straight arrow, but he pulls it off beautifully and believably.  Cottilard offers a possible salvation for Bale’s Wayne, both on a business level as well as emotionally.

The opposite side of Cottilard’s coin is Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle.  Catwoman has been both fascinating and frustrating in previous incarnations.  You have the campy purr-formances of Lee Meriwether and Eartha Kitt in the 1960’s Batman series and movie (Julie Newmar originated the role, and was the best of the three).  In 1992’s Batman Returns, Michelle Pfieffer was mesmerizing.  2004’s Catwoman expanded on the character’s backstory from Batman Returns, but the film was an embarrassing mess.  Now Nolan has raised the bar for the character, just as he did with Batman in Batman Begins.  There’s a depth we’ve not seen before, and Hathaway embodies it beautifully.  (She has said she’d be interested in doing a spin-off for the character, if Nolan would be involved; here’s hoping that will happen.)

The movie runs 12 minutes longer than The Dark Knight, but if anything you’ll be sad to see it end.

***********

I’ve kept any mention of the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado until now because I don’t want to give any greater place to the madman who perpetrated that horrible crime.  Christian Bale showed a grace beyond what we often see when he and his wife quietly visited with the victims, first responders, doctors and nurses a few days after the shootings.  My prayers are with the many that were injured, and the families of those who lost loved ones.  But I choose to end by remembering three men: Jon Blunk was a security guard who’d served 8 years in the Navy, and was in the process of re-enlisting, hoping to become a SEAL.  He was 25 years old.  Alex Teves, 24, had served as a mentor at the University of Arizona near his hometown of Phoenix as well as at the University of Colorado.  Matt McQuinn, 27, had just moved to Colorado from Ohio with his girlfriend.  All three men gave their lives to save others, using their bodies as shields.  The Dark Knight Rises extols the virtue of heroes taking a stand to protect others from evil.  Jon, Alex, and Matt showed the reality of such heroism in their sacrificial act.

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”                                                                                                                             John 15:13

Cold War Redux

Every spy story of John Le Carre’s, starting with his first major hit, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, have been the antithesis of movie spy/action heroes like James Bond.  Le Carre’s thrills have always been anchored in reality.  Eleven years after Cold, Le Carre wrote what is arguably his masterpiece, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  The story features George Smiley, who was the main character in Le Carre’s first two books and a minor one in Cold.  After one more appearance, the character disappeared for several years, but then roared back in Tinker Tailor and the next two books of the Karla trilogy, The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.  In 1979, the BBC adapted Tinker Tailor for the small screen, with Sir Alec Guinness as George Smiley.  It was a success on both sides of the Atlantic.

Now Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has made it to the big screen, and the filmmakers have done the story proud.

Control (John Hurt) believes there is a mole highly placed in the British Foreign Intelligence Service (nicknamed the Circus).  He sends agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) to get in touch with an Eastern Block general who may know the name of the mole.  But the meeting is blown and Prideaux is shot and captured.  The stink caused by the mess leads to Control being kicked out of the Circus, along with George Smiley (Gary Oldman).  That leaves the service under the overall leadership of Percy Alleline (Toby Jones), assisted by Bill Haydon (Colin Firth), Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds) and Toby Esterhase (David Dencik).  Control passes away soon after he’s forced out.

Percy has been cultivating a highly-placed Russian source under the code name “Witchcraft.”  The source has given them what seems to be a gold mine of intelligence.  But then the government minister in charge of overseeing the Circus is contacted by rogue agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) who says the mission he was on was blown by a traitor inside the Circus.  The minister approaches Smiley, asking him to come out of retirement to catch the mole.

Smiley requests help from Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), a mid-level manager in the Circus.  In effect, Peter will be spying on his own bosses and stealing information for Smiley.  If he’s caught, he would be prosecuted as a traitor.

Working from an intelligent, nuanced screenplay by the husband/wife team of Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, Swedish Director Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In) has crafted a thriller in every sense of the word, even though there are only 4 gun shots in the film and not a single car chase.  The movie keeps winding back upon itself so you see scenes from different angles and learn more as Smiley learns more.  (Sadly, Ms. O’Connor passed away from cancer in 2010, shortly after completing the script.  The movie is dedicated to her.)

Oldman gives an interior performance, betraying very little as he absorbs information, yet it is riveting to watch.  He gained weight for the movie, so that he could have the middle-age paunch that Smiley would have had.  Cumberbatch is effective as the golden young boy helping Smiley.  Yet you can feel the inner tension within him, which finally bubbles over.  As Tarr, Hardy is an electric jolt within the film.  If this were a Bridge game, he’d be trumps.  Jones, Firth, Hinds and Dencik must remain enigmatic, so that all who haven’t read the book or seen the earlier TV adaptation won’t know until the final reveal the identity of the traitor.  But even if you’d read the book, as I did, you’ll be mesmerized by the peeling away of the covers to expose the mole.

The movie looks like it was filmed in 1970 – the props, the color schemes, the costumes are all wonderfully authentic.  The Circus is bland and low rent, realistic for those austere times in the UK.  This was long before MI-6 got their large modern office building along the Thames.  It’s a delight when you see the Circus’s Christmas party, with them drunkenly singing the theme song to The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World, a 1965 British spy spoof.  Or when Santa Claus appears in his red suit with a hammer and sickle on his chest and the whole group breaks into the Soviet national anthem.  (If you look carefully among the revelers, you will catch a glimpse of John Le Carre.)

While this is a movie tethered to the Cold War, it also transcends its time to look at the whole question of loyalty and betrayal, and how we can casually slide from one side to the other if we’re only concerned about ourselves.  As the traitor eventually explains, “It just got to point where I had to choose a side.”  That banal decision costs a number of people their lives in the course of the movie.

The movie has been nominated for 3 Oscars: Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Score.  In my opinion, it could also have been the 10^th Best Picture nominee.  If you want an intelligent thriller that involves your mind more than just your sense of sight and sound, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is that movie.