Hacker Cinema
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
1965 · Film · 112 min
Directed by Martin Ritt
British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the Cold War during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one.
7 positive2 neutralfrom 9 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
9 comments on Hacker News
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is another great movie (and great book) semi-related to this theme.
I also strongly suspect you watched "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold". If you enjoyed this movie and the way it is narrated, please do yourself a favor and watch all the BBC mini series from the 70ies/80ies based on John Le Carré books, namely "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "Smiley's People", and "A Perfect Spy" (or read the books, John Le Carré is an excellent writer, and "A Perfect Spy" can be compared to works by Dickens). You usually have no clue what is going on, and only learn about it later.
I finally got around to reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, which was pretty great. Also the Richard Burton movie (read the book first).
Best paper, easily:
https://nebuchadnezzar-megolm.github.io/
As mentioned, the most popular Soviet spy film is the series ‘Seventeen Moments of Spring’ which is more of a procedural in the approach and certainly aims for a more realistic portrayal—though still with plenty of heroics, of course. A close Western analogue, in terms of the mood, is actually ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’ from 1965.
‘The Diamond Arm’/‘Бриллиантовая рука’, which was played to death on Soviet and post-Soviet TV, is in fact a clever inversion of the whole adventure genre that was popular in the 60s and 70s.
As a non-Brit, I'm using the dictionary to look up words often, sometimes multiple times per page. So reading Le Carre's books as ebooks is better for me just for that reason.
I'm reading them in order. I found the first two enjoyable enough, but it took getting to the ending of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold for me to really "get" Le Carre. That floored me. Taking a break before starting the next one.
I also got a hint of that feeling from the "A Most Wanted Man" movie.
I didn't really like the Gary Oldman Tinker Tailor movie, so I'm not sure how much I'm looking forward to that book.
That was my point. Magically compelling even though not much happens there.
I haven't seen Richard Burton's movie, but the book 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold' was engaging.
Wow, I had no idea John le Carré was still alive. I loved the movie version of "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold," and the novel's been waiting for me on my Kindle for a while now. I may have to bump that to the top of my reading list...
The original BBC mini-series is a must watch. For me is the best of all of his material turned to a motion picture. Followed by the “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold”.
What I liked about "they spy who came in from the cold" was the pacing. Its small. "a small town in germany" is similary small, as is "the looking glass war" which has a nice quality that its really about inter-service rivalry more than the fieldman.
Peter Wright "spycatcher" made me think this stuff is more true than not. UCL (london) is next door to the kind of grey curtained (bomb-proof chain mail apparently) anonymous doors and blocks which we are told once housed outlier farms of the more elite services in the seventies. The big place down on the Thames up-ended all this, as did GCHQ's remake.
(Duncan Campbells writing on how the british state listened in pervasively to all telephone calls in the days of the microwave backbone up the spine of the UK is also worth reflecting on)
The atmosphere of the remake of 'tinker tailor' was really good. the grimy, flare-trouser, italian-design feels of the place was spot-on for time. I am less sure it was spot-on for what the secret services were like inside, but it felt like it should be: its what we want to believe. I've stayed in those grotty kings-cross hotels, they are alas, all too true.
I love all his books, but the later ones are frankly bloated. He's returned to small. His biography about his amoral father ("the perfect spy" is of course about the same family dynamic and probably has echoes of reality all through it) but you can't call autobiography novels, so thats out.
I thought "the russia house" was a better film adaptation than "the little drummer girl" and I thought "the night manager" was terribly adapted. All three are much the same as books I find.
"the constant gardener" is in some ways, the most depressing. I think it very probably speaks more truth than we would want.