7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent within MI6's echelons.
Starring: Gary Oldman, Kathy Burke, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Dencik, Colin FirthDrama | 100% |
Period | 46% |
Mystery | 31% |
Psychological thriller | 31% |
Thriller | 17% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Winner of BAFTA Film Awards for Outstanding British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay, Tomas Alfredson's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Studio Canal. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers; video interview with writer John Le Carre; interviews with cast members and director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter Peter Straughan; short featurettes; John Le Carre's novels "The Honorable Schoolboy" and "Smiley's People" read by Michael Jayston; photo gallery; and more. In English, Russian, and Hungarian, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".
The lonely spy
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Studio Canal.
The film has a very appropriate, mostly subdued look. Natural light is typically restricted, long shadows often fill up the screen, and the prominent colors are cold grays, browns, greens, and blacks. Certain sequences (mostly the flashbacks) are made to look worn out, at times even pale, while the rest of the film looks crisp and sharp (see screencapture #11) - but not vibrant. The idea behind these stylistic decisions is to highlight the fact that the main protagonists operate in a seemingly casual yet enormously depressing and dangerous environment, a gray world where people can easily disappear and no one will notice. Detail is excellent throughout the entire film. Most close-ups convey outstanding depth (see screencapture #1 and 12), while the few panoramic shots look fluid. There are no traces of problematic post-production denoising. On the contrary, some adjustments have been performed to push up the low-light noise in order to accomplish the pale look mentioned earlier (see screencapture #6). There are no banding or aliasing patterns to report in this review either. All in all, this is a strong and competent presentation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy that is guaranteed to please its fans. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English LPCM 2.0 (with small portions of Hungarian and Russian). A separate descriptive audio track is also included. For the record, Studio Canal have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they split the image frame and the black bar below it.
Some of the most effective sequences in the film are the ones where the music slowly replaces the heavy silence. In these sequences, Alberto Iglesias's score opens up the film tremendously well, adding plenty to the tense atmosphere - the sound is rich and well rounded, full of color. The surround channels are also very effective, though you should not expect a lot of activity. Again, what impresses are the well timed enhancements, not their intensity. The dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and exceptionally easy to follow. For the record, there are no sync issues or audio dropouts to report in this review.
I grew up in a world where a lot of what is depicted in Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's second feature film was a fact of life - the depressing uncertainty, the paranoia, the corrosive feeling that even your closest friends and relatives could be secret police informers. I remember well how this strange reality profoundly changed a lot of people, and destroyed just as many. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is about a group of professional spies who serve the system that created the uncertainty and paranoia and eventually get crushed by it. It is a brilliant, incredibly realistic film, one of the very best I've seen this year. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Double Play | Limited Edition
2011
Deluxe Edition
2011
2011
10th Anniversary Edition
2011
2012
1982
Arrow Academy
1962
1979
2006
2011
Masters of Cinema
1975
1965
Masters of Cinema
1965
Includes Amazing Amy Book
2014
1985
The Ghost Writer
2010
Limited Collector's Edition | Includes Original Soundtrack Cassette Tape
1974
BBC
2014
2016
2013
Ultimate Collector's Edition
1959
2014
Das Leben der Anderen
2006
Director's Cut
2007