Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 2, 2022

Tomas Alfredson's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011) arrives on 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include video interview with writer John Le Carre; interviews with cast members, director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter Peter Straughan; short featurettes; audio commentary; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The lonely spy

Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s second feature film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy opens up in London, in 1973. Control (John Hurt, The Elephant Man, Midnight Express), the top man in MI6 (referred throughout the film as the Circus), has designed an operation to help a Hungarian army general defect to the West. Control’s trusted man in Budapest will be Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong, Body of Lies), an experienced field agent who isn’t afraid to take serious risks.

There is a good reason why Control wants to help the Hungarian general -- he knows the identity of a mole in the highest echelon of the Circus who has been sending crucial information to Karla, the head of KGB, for years.

Prideaux arrives in Budapest but on the day when he is supposed to meet the Hungarian general things go terribly wrong. He is captured by AVH (Hungarian Secret Police) agents and then redirected to KGB’s local agents. The news about the failure immediately reaches London and heads begin to roll.

Some time after the disaster.

George Smiley (Gary Oldman, Romeo is Bleeding, Immortal Beloved), a former espionage agent who was forced into retirement after the Hungarian operation, is brought back to the Circus after Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy, Warrior), a field agent who has been working in Eastern Europe, notifies a senior government official that he has credible information that there is a mole amongst the top British spies who works for the Soviets. Smiley is ordered to investigate Tarr’s information.

Smiley meets Tarr and then begins to study his information. Eventually, he realizes that Control’s failed Hungarian operation might have been part of a much bigger and more complex operation meant to expose the mole in the Circus. Like Control before him, Smiley begins monitoring the four most powerful men in the Circus -- Tinker (Toby Jones, The Painted Veil), Tailor (Colin Firth, A Single Man), Soldier (Ciaran Hinds, The Weight of Water), and Poor Man (David Dencik, Brotherhood).

Based on the famous novel by John Le Carre (the nom de plume of Englishman David John Moore Cornwell), a former MI6 spy turned writer, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a slow, moody, and incredibly complex film that offers a glimpse into the world of professional spies.

The film is structured in a way that leaves plenty of credible possibilities for the viewer to ponder for as long as possible without looking ridiculous. There are clues but they are incredibly difficult to identify, and even when at the end everything is put in proper order it is difficult to fully understand the thought-process of the spies as well as the motivations behind their actions.

Difficult but not impossible, especially if one remembers well the Cold War and how it affected people. The film offers a real sense of the depressing uncertainty that was a natural part of life at the time, even for those who were far better informed than the masses. Smiley and his colleagues, for instance, are all powerful and very intelligent men who don’t trust each other because they understand how fundamentally flawed the system they serve is, which is why they are also incredibly lonely men, moving shadows that ordinary people rarely ever notice. Their sad and lonely existence is what the film focuses on, not their secret operations and unique skills.

Oldman, who earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, is terrific as the disillusioned Smiley (played by the great Alec Guinness in the 1979 TV series). Firth is superb as the calm and confident Tailor. Jones also shines as the neurotic Tinker.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber's release of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray offer presentations of a recent 4K restoration from the DSM (Digital Source Master), which was supervised and approved by cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema.

Two sets of screencaptures are included with this review. Please note that the screencaptures from the 4K Blu-ray are downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc, including the actual color values of this content.

Screencaptures: 1-14 are from the 4K Blu-ray.
Screencaptures: 16-36 are from the Blu-ray.

In 2012, we reviewed two Blu-ray releases of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The first was this Region-B release from StudioCanal, while the second was this Region-A release from Universal Pictures. I have only the first release in my library. I do not have the second release and therefore cannot offer any comments on how it compares to Kino Lorber's new release.

4K BLU-RAY DISC

I viewed the entire film HDR enabled. I think that the new 4K master offers some minor yet noticeable improvements that expand the dynamic range of the visuals. The difference is noticeable during brighter and darker footage, as well as in 1080p and native 4K. However, whenever there are wider ranges of brighter nuances, the improvement becomes very easy to appreciate. As a result, often times it feels like depth is better. This being said, the management of light is such that in a lot of areas it feels like sharpness, clarity, and depth are intentionally suppressed. There are some specific color nuances that tremendously help as well. On the previous Blu-ray release these color nuances seemed quite prominent while here they are better balanced, which is arguably the biggest reason why the dynamic range of the visuals feels superior. Delineation ranges from very good to excellent. However, I have to say that I expected to see even tighter visuals. As it is, the current presentation reveals a few darker areas that looked a tad loose on my system. Some additional encoding optimization could have been used to ensure an overall excellent presentation. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: The 4K Blu-ray release is Region-Free).

BLU-RAY DISC

I don't think that you would see a noticeable improvement in quality on this release if you already have the previous Region-B release. I want to make it very clear what this means. I do believe that trained eyes will spot some areas where the dynamic range of the visuals will be superior. However, delineation, clarity, and depth will most likely look identical on your system. Why? Because the film's period appearance is such that it becomes extremely difficult to spot actual differences if you do not know where to look while performing direct comparisons with the older release. On my system, I found it extremely difficult to recognize the 'new', even though I had already seen improvements in native 4K. One more thing. Some of the loose darker footage becomes even looser in 1080p, so I think that additional encoding enhancements could have been helpful here as well. Still, the overall quality of the presentation is very solid. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

My guess is that the existing 5.1 track is a perfect replica of the original soundtrack. I thought that the previous 5.1 track from the Region-B release was outstanding too, so I did not expect to notice a difference. I mention this in case you might be wondering, or speculating, why the 4K Blu-ray release did not get a Dolby Atmos track. Well, I don't think that it needs one. There are no technical anomalies to report in our review.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary was recorded by director Tomas Alfredson and Gary Oldman. It was also included on StudioCanal's Region-B release of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The same audio commentary is included on the Region-A release as well.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary was recorded by director Tomas Alfredson and Gary Oldman. It was also included on StudioCanal's Region-B release of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The same audio commentary is included on the Region-A release as well.

• First Look: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - four short featurettes with comments from various cast members, director Tomas Alfredson, producer Robyn Slovo, production designer Maria Djurkovic, and writer John Le Carre. In English, not subtitled. (13 min).

• Interviews - actors Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy, and director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter Peter Straughan discuss Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, its qualities, the unique relationships between the characters, the production process, etc. In English, not subtitled.
  
  1. Gary Oldman (8 min).
  2. Colin Firth (7 min).
  3. Tom Hardy (4 min).
  4. Director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter Peter Straughan (7 min).

• John Le Carre Interview - in this long and very informative archival interview, writer John Le Carre discusses his career in the intelligence community, the adaptation of his book, Tomas Alfredson's film, his famous character George Smiley, how the world of espionage has evolved since the end of the Cold War, etc. In English, not subtitled. (32 min).

• Deleted Scenes - five deleted scenes. In English, not subtitled. (7 min).

• Trailer - an original trailer for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

During the Cold War era, the men that were part of the intelligence community and fought hard to neutralize visible and invisible enemies capable of changing the course of history behaved almost exactly like the people you will see in Tomas Alfredson's second feature film, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Their environment was a lot like the one you will see recreated in the film as well. How do we know that these statements are true? Because over the years these men were expertly profiled and their environment accurately described in some quite brilliant books written by John Le Carre, who was one of them. I quite like the original 1979 TV series, but Alfredson's film is a legit contemporary masterpiece. Kino Lorber's 4K Blu-ray release offers a very solid technical presentation of the film that makes it quite a treat to revisit at home. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.