A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Murtaza Ali Khan
The
late legendary British author John le Carré’s novels over the years have given
us films such as A Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), The Russia House
(1990), Tailor of Panama (2001), The Constant Gardener (2005), Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy (2011), and A Most Wanted Man (2014), among others. Dominic Cooke's
directorial The Courier, based on true events and real people, also appears to
belong to le Carré’s oeuvre. Written by Tom O'Connor, it is largely plot driven
with reasonable scope for character development as far as the major characters
are concerned. The little action that it presents appears quite realistic and
seems to work well with its plot.
Now, le Carré, widely
regarded as one of the greatest writers of espionage novels, added a whole new
dimension to the spy fiction genre. In his conscious attempt to present spies
that appear closer to the real-life, le Carré penned down plausible caricatures
that lacked charm, romanticism and heroics of Ian Fleming's 007. John le
Carré’s espionage artists lived routine boring lives plagued by the hardships
of a common man. They represent a quintessential breed of anti-Bonds who have
very little in common with Fleming’s larger-than-life superspy with the licence
to kill.
Born David John Moore Cornwell,
le Carré wrote a total of twenty-five novels and one volume of memoir titled
‘The Pigeon Tunnel’, which was published in 2016. He sold more than sixty
million copies of his work worldwide. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for
both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). When
his third novel titled ‘The Spy Who Came In from the Cold’, published in 1963,
became an international best-seller, he decided to leave MI6 and became a
full-time author. It remains one of his best known works till date.
Now, I can say this without
an iota of a doubt that John le Carré was a phenomenal storyteller and a penman
par excellence, an undisputed master of spy fiction that formed a great
parallel to Ian Fleming’s brand of espionage. In fact, the very reason I have
come to truly admire the works of espionage is not because of Fleming’s James
Bond but because of le Carré’s George Smiley. The latter created Smiley as an
intentional foil to James Bond. For, he saw Bond as an inaccurate and
misleading version of a spy. Smiley first comes across as innocuously polite,
unassuming, and someone you don’t easily feel threatened by. He is clever
enough to hide his razor-sharp memory, inner cunning, mastery of espionage, and
his ability to quickly detach himself from his human subjects if need be.
It’s difficult to think of a
film like The Courier without le Carré’s influence on the genre. The film
essentially narrates the story of Greville Wynne, a British businessman who was
recruited by MI-6 and CIA to deliver messages to secret agent and Soviet
officer Oleg Penkovsky, in the 1960s to prevent a nuclear confrontation and
defuse the Cuban Missile Crisis. Interestingly,
the film’s two leads, Wynne essayed by the English actor Benedict Cumberbatch
and Penkovsky portrayed by the Georgian actor Merab Ninidze, have both gained
prominence from their association with BBC shows, Sherlock and McMafia,
respectively. And it’s really no surprise that their performances are the
highlight of The Courier. For, the film certainly lacks in terms of budget. But
let’s not forget that The Courier isn’t Bridge of Spies despite the obvious
similarities between the two films. Even though Bridge of Spies is a kind of
film that one generally doesn’t associate with Steven Spielberg who is
ubiquitously renowned for his dazzling filmmaking style, the film ultimately is
more in accordance with the American sense of valor and optimism than le
Carré’s characteristic cynicism and futility.
However, The Courier, on the other hand, tries to look too gritty and realistic. And, in the process, it somewhere loses the charm that’s generally associated with old-fashioned spy thrillers such as A Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Russia House, or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But the historical details involving the Cuban Missile Crisis and the lurking threat of WWIII and fact that Oleg Penkovsky was indeed the most valuable asset that the Western Block (the United States and its allies) were able to turn against the Eastern Block (Soviet Union and its allies) nevertheless make The Courier an important film. Also, the conviction with which both Cumberbatch and Ninidze essay their respectively parts actually succeeds in elevating the film above the material at hand. As a matter of fact, without these two performances, the film may not have been half as good. Of these two performances, Ninidze’s performance clearly stands as the first among equals. It certainly should have been acknowledged at the major award functions this year but unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.
A version of this article was first published in The Daily Guardian.
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