I just finished watching this and couldn't slow it down enough to figure out what was dropped to the cobble stones in the final minutes. I think it was a lighter but couldn't be sure. I don't have the book in front of me and I'm dying to know.
Thanks if you can tell me!
The dropped item by Karla in Berlin after he walks into West Berlin...ah yes...it was the Zippo lighter belonging to Smiley which Karla pocketed in Delhi during their only meeting in an Indian prison. The encounter was described by Smiley to Peter Guillam over dinner in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."
Karla had been detained by the Indian government in 1963 on a trumped up charge so that the British could have a chance to get him to defect. Smiley was sent to talk to him. George knew Karla was chain-smoking American Camel cigarettes so he offered a pack in the interrogation cell and LOANED Karla his lighter. The lighter had an inscription to George from his wife Ann..."all my love, Ann."
Karla listened to Smiley as he tried to convince the Russian to defect. Karla never said a word. As he rose to go back to his own cell, Karla pocketed the Camels AND Smiley's lighter. The bastard!
Just to add a little more shading to the above:
My take on the lighter is that it symbolises the power that Karla holds over Smiley. It was the impetus for Karla to direct Bill Haydon in his tryst with Ann (while she was still married to Smiley). This served the dual purpose of deflecting any accusations towards Haydon from Smiley as simple jealousy and also pushing Smiley further out of the Circus' inner circle.
Smileys failed relationship with Ann is a major theme in the Karla trilogy and in SP, Smiley finally begins to come to terms with that. Witness the scene where he goes to tell her to stay out of harm's way. She suggests something along the lines of a reconciliation, and he gently but firmly rebuts her.
When Karla drops the lighter, it is a mute (as Karla always was around Smiley - didn't want to give up any weaknesses) statement about both Smileys use of equally personal tactics against Karla (using his love for his daughter against him), and the fact that the long battle between them is now over. That's why he drops it instead of handing it to Smiley. He knows Smiley doesn't want it back.
That was excellent, gmazza! I appreciate your post! I didn't realize that angle!!! Karla was saying to Smiley "touche'" for using his daughter against him, just as he had used Ann against Smiley!!
I'm a little slow on the uptake with LeCarre sometimes...his interwoven subtleties are brilliant and to be savored. Probably why TTSS and SP are still enjoyable after repeated watchings and are fun to introduce to the un-initiated.
Best regards.
CmdrCody
I really like your analysis. Subtle symbolism is usually lost on me, so I'm glad to have it explained. I still haven't gone back to the book, so was this moment included in the text? Just curious if LeCarre put any of his own spin on it that might have been lost in my memory and in translation to film. Thanks!
shareIt was a Ronson, not a Zippo.
shareI am so gratefull to all the insightfull replies to the original question post. I just finished watching the last part of "Smiley's People" last night. I hadn't seen it in 20 years and finally rented it from Blockbuster. I, too, was mystified by the dropped item at the very end. Now, thanks to this post and it's replies, I not only know what was dropped but also some very intriguing insights on what it meant. Thanks!!!
shareIt was a Ronson, not a zippo, I think they refer to it as such in Tinker, its a very popular model been going at least 30 years, some even were fitted into settings as table lighters, we had one :)
In the book they explain the showdown in Delhi so well, I think for three days Smiley tries to break Karla, and on the last day he tries a desperate final tactic of suggesting maybe Karla has family, a wife, someone, anyone, and in doing so, shows his own weakness there. I believe the Delhi trip was just after George found out Anne was being unfaithful for the first time, and the lighters engraving from Anne plus Smileys rant about a wife back home being 'tough for people in their business' shows its smileys own weakness.
Karla remembers that its Georges weakness and files it 'for later use'. Once George finds and exploits Karlas own weakness (his daughter) to much greater success, they are even, and its no longer a symbol between them.
At the end of the book, when Karla starts to come over the checkpoint, Smiley is upset and hoping that Karla turns back, he has more in common with his adversary than with the middle class golfers and office boys he is handing Karla to. great moment. But at least he avenged the General and Otto's deaths.
It has been a long time since I read the book, but I seem to remember that, in the book, Smiley seems to be the only one who notices the dropped lighter. He mentions that he considers picking it up and wonders why no one else has noticed it, sitting on the ground, in the light. As he sees Karla walking over the bridge, he imagines that Karla is spotted by a border guard and shot dead before he arrives. Eventually, he leaves the lighter on the ground and he seems to be carried away in the anti climax of the moment and his own realization that he has now become what he shought so much to destroy.
shareThere may also be an element of contempt in Karla's gesture - for, while he used Ann against Smiley, he did so knowing her true, duplicitous nature and knowing that really deep-down Smiley did too; on the other hand, Tatiana/Alexandra is an innocent, and Karla's love for her a more pure one than Smiley's love for a wife he never really connected with.
shareMy own (recent) interpretation of Karla dropping the lighter is:
He is saying "OK Smiley, you win. But just look at what this victory has cost you!"
Basically, it cost Smiley his whole life and any prospect of happiness.
slatbrad: you're on to something there. What does the dropped lighter mean to Karla? It's a rich, meaningful moment of the picture when one thinks about that little bit of irony created by the captured Russian "poppa-spy."
But, of course...Smiley looks down and walks away. He does not pick the lighter up off the wet pavement. That would be rather...degrading.
CmdrCody
I agree that dropping the lighter showed a certain amount of contempt on Karla's part. But then, I've always had an image of these two old spies becoming almost friends. After Karla has been wrung dry by interrogations, undoubtedly he will be farmed out to some dismal suburb to live out his life. I can just picture him and Smiley sitting there, a couple of lonely, elderly men reminiscing about 'old times'.
shareThere are some good interpretations here about what the dropped lighter represents. I tend to think slatbread is right. Karla drops the lighter for his own reasons--as the earlier post surmised--to underscore the deeply personal (and morally ambiguous) nature of Smiley's winning tactic (just as Karla's own tactics cut deep and personal). Of course, Karla and his side clearly weren't bound by the same moral compass as Smiley and the Circus. Moral relativists may take issue with that point but I would defend such a stance.
Smiley, for his part, doesn't pick up the lighter because it doesn't hold any value for him anymore. His relationship w/ Ann is over for good. He's finally come to terms with that and I think it takes a lot of the sweetness out of his ultimate victory over Karla. Sure, he got Karla in the end, but at what cost? His life hasn't exactly been roses and chocolate. Smiley was great at his job but lousy in his personal relationships. He knows it, and we the audience can see the effect of this realization on him.
Thus when Peter says "you've won" and when Toby earlier says, "Brilliant, George--your whole life, you've done it!" (or something to that effect) it finally sinks in for Smiley: was this worth his whole life? That is the brilliance of that final scene in which no dialogue is needed. These series are the BEST and John Le Carre is THE MAN. I love the spy genre and I think TTSS and SP are the gold standard by which all others can be compared.