I just didn't understand ANYTHING

I know ,it's quite a complicated story but ive found that if you get to know who's names are who's and keep in mind all the time that Gary Oldmans character 'George Smiley' is looking for just one traitor out of the spys whos names are in the films title then it gets much much simpler to understand in repeated viewings.

Lucca Brasi sleeps with the fishes!!!

Laffitte, here's access to a relevant file "from a new secret source of mine":

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ubyfhxyptnzwmqd/ttss-guide.pdf?dl=0

- a brief rundown of the characters which would have helped me on first viewing. We're thrown in medias res and if you usually give scant attention to names expecting recaps (as I do) it's easy to get very lost.

The early screenplay is online too - very useful for clarifying points (especially with some actor directions included) and interesting to compare with the final product. Currently available here:

http://academy.filminfocus.com/scripts/ttss_screenplay.pdf


There's some good online explanations too - particularly two David Bordwell pieces.

Finally, the 1979 TV mini-series (on You Tube) and ultimately the book itself offer more expansive treatments if the curiosity takes you as it has a good few of us. Just don't expect everything to be neatly resolved by any version, they all stand on their own terms with character motivations very open to interpretation.

I always wanted to watch it again to see if I was just on a bad day back then, but haven't found the courage yet.

In order to get an idea of the torment the poor OP experienced, I have summarized the events of the first 22 minutes of this film. I have not tried to include all details of course, but I'm fairly sure I've included everything that might possibly help explain what is going on.

In order to simulate the experience of watching this film cold, without knowledge of the book, or the underlying characters and concepts, I have changed all the names and unique spy-jargon.

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Oldy admits Baldy to a dingy room for a secret meeting. Oldy tells him: trust nobody; they are after my head; nobody else knows; go to Budapest to meet a Hungarian general who wants to come over; he will tell the name of a gopher the Russians have planted in British Intelligence at the top of the carousel; we have to find a rotten apple.

Now we see Baldy walking in a crowded foreign city. It must be Budapest.

Now Baldy sits at a café table in the hall of an atrium with a lanky Hungarian. Lanky says porkolts beat goulash but you can’t get them because Moscow took the pigs. The waiter is sweaty. Baldy wants to meet Lanky’s friend. He’s coming any moment now, says Lanky. Baldy notices others are watching him. He excuses himself and starts walking away. Sweaty Waiter runs out and shoots at Baldy’s back from 20 feet away. He misses. Baldy freezes. A Russian yells “Stop, put your gun away”. Sweaty shoots again. Baldy now lies bleeding and inert. A young mom nursing a baby is slumped with a bullet in her head. The Russian curses Hungarian idiots: “we wanted him alive”.

Now we see another city. London?

Now Oldy sits in a room lined in orange foam. He signs, with a purple "H", some British Intelligence Document. Sitting with him, at a large table are 5 mid-aged men: Peevish, Chuckles, Shorty, Tweedy and Muggs. Peevish wishes he could have done more, but Oldy says Peevish did all he could. Oldy is drinking, and not sharing his liquor. He says its time he left the party. Shorty asks about Chuckles and Oldy says “Chuckles is leaving with me”. Everyone seems glum, especially Chuckles.

Now Tweedy and Shorty are in a hallway. Peevish and others walk by. Shorty waves at them after they pass. Tweedy says “You little prick, Shorty”.

Now we follow Oldy as he walks out of a gloomy office building, followed by Chuckles. Various people watch them as they go, including Young Chap, Fuzzface, Greta, Muggs & Peevish. They pass Walrus the doorkeeper; then an iron gate. On the street, Oldy and Chuckles stare at each other blankly. Then Oldy turns his back to Chuckles and walks away.

A succession of scenes: Now someone puts a file in a dumbwaiter; we follow it as it ascends. Now an alarm goes up & Chuckles wakes up in bed with bad hair. Now back to the still-ascending dumbwaiter. Now Peevish pokes his head out of the orange-foamed room & says “shall we start” to Tweedy and Muggs while Dolly walks by with a trolley. Now Chuckles is swimming in a pond with an old guy. Now Dolly unlocks a cabinet & puts a file in. Now Chuckles is walking beside a pond. Now Oldy lies slumped & inert over the edge of a hospital bed. Now Chuckles is at the eye-doctor, getting new glasses. Now Chuckles is walking in the rain; now in the snow; now in the fog.

Now Chuckles arrives at the front of a city house, removes wedges from the door, and enters. He sorts the mail & lays some on a counter: it is addressed to Joy Chuckles, in London. Now he stares at a dreary piece of modern art, hanging framed on the wall.

Now Peevish and Muggs arrive at a grand building to see Weasel, the undersecretary. Weasel says Treasury wants Intelligence Service to account for its operation. Peevish says Operation Voodoo must remain secret because it’s a fiefdom. Weasel is concerned because nobody knows the address of the London house. Peevish says it’s necessary; and Muggs says we can’t meet in a café. Weasel complains that its rents have doubled, but Muggs says it still costs less than an H-bomb and bets that Zorro does not have such trouble with the Kremlin treasury. Weasel admits the work is imporant, but says Budapest was a disaster. Muggs says, hey, it wasn’t your guy got killed – we’re the ones standing between Zorro, Moscow and World War III. Weasel says Minister is pleased with their progress, but unhappy because the Yanks think we’re a leaky ship.

Later, Weasel gets a call: “I’m Mopy Max and I need to see you. To confirm who I am, talk to my boss Scarecrow at the carousel.”

Now Young Chap arrives to work at the Gloomy building. He sees Tweedy rolling a bike and asks he has clearance for it. Tweedy says no, but he doesn’t care because the bike will get stolen even if he brings it inside. Tweedy wants to ogle the New Girl before Muggs sees her. Young Chap says Muggs already saw her. They ogle her anyway.

Now Young Chap is at his desk. The phone rings and he answer it: “This is Scarecrow”.

Now Scarecrow is driving Chuckles in a car. He says: “I was sorry to hear about handle, Chuckles”. They pull up to a large house. “He said Mopy Max called him” says Scarecrow.

Inside: “He said there’s been a gopher at the top of the carousel for years, so you’re well placed to look into it,” says Weasel. “You fired me”, says Chuckles. “Before handle died he also said there was a gopher,” says Weasel. “He never told me”, says Chuckles. “But you were his right-hand man,” says Weasel. Silence. “Anyway I thought he was going to pull his house down - that Budapest fiasco; it’s your legacy, so please do it”, says Weasel. As Chuckles considers we flashback to faces of Muggs, Shorty, Tweedy & Peevish. Chuckles says, “I’ll keep Scarecrow, & I want Gumbo”.

Chuckles and Scarecrow walk out of a house and past a beehive. Now they’re in a car with another man. They are menaced by a bee, but Chuckles gets rid of it. The man says he knows a hotel in Liverpool.

Now Chuckles and Scarecrow arrive at a hotel. A woman says be careful with her Georgian table. A man says “Mrs. Oreo-Cookie, my friend wants quiet and no disturbances”, and then says “her real name is Cookie, but she added the Oreo for a touch of class”. Chuckles, staring out the window at trains, says “Scarecrow, did you get the key to handle’s flat.”

Now we see Scarecrow and Chuckles enter a dark smelly cluttered room. (It looks familiar. Is this where Oldy & Baldy met?). Chuckles looks at papers. Chuckles and Scarecrow stare at each other. Chuckles walks toward Scarecrow, & finds chess pieces with tiny photos taped to them. An alert viewer may recognize the photos as Muggs, Peevish, Shorty and Tweedy. We also see a black queen.

Chuckles drifts into a flashback ...

######################################################

The reader is now 22 minutes in the film. Needlness to say, he is totally lost.

Simon23 has already given the most helpful links. Just in case, the Bordwell pieces can be found here:

http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/01/23/tinker-tailor-a-guide-for-the-perplexed/

(http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2012/02/20/tinker-tailor-once-more-tradecraft/ is more thorough and best read afterwards)

On a more mundane level, not understanding the plot on the first viewing has most to do with lacking a very good memory for names and faces. This varies with the person. One of my brightest PhD students who watched the film at my recommendation confessed that she "just could not tell the difference between all those old men" (sic!), whereas another student got nearly everything on the first viewing, including the nature of the relationship between Jim and Bill ... Personally, I have a very bad memory for names and faces but went to the cinema having read the novel and watched the BBC series - and enjoyed every bit of the film from the very first. Which I definitely would not have done without foreknowledge. This is not to say that the members of the "Holy Trinity" correspond to each other one-to-one, in fact there are quite a number of plot differences, let alone other kinds of differences - but once one knows who the basic characters are, the plot is not difficult to follow.

That said, it is a strangely compelling film even for those who are initially baffled. Back when it came out, there were people on this board who persisted in viewing it as many as five times to finally get it - and who grew to love the film in the process. Or rather, who loved the film even as it baffled them, hence the need for multiple viewings. There must, after all, be some genuine magic in an art-house film for it to also have considerable box-office success.

Also, the film (very much like the book itself), even when the basics are clear, leaves a lot of room for different interpretations - quite consciously so, as appears from interviews with the makers.

BTW, Bordwell (whose views, may I dare to brag, I was the first, several years ago, to cite on this board) is fairly unique in providing genuine insights into the film, as opposed to the rather empty eulogies offered up by most of the other critics. TTSS is absolutely, as Bordwell also points out, a film meant to be viewed several times, so if one has to come up with a review for the morning after the première, it not likely to be too perspicuous.

you are not alone in finding the story difficult. I have watched the 1979 BBC version more than once, and still don't really understand waht was happening.

I always wanted to watch it again to see if I was just on a bad day back then, but haven't found the courage yet.
Very frustrating

Indeed, this movie has its problems, concerning how easy it is to understand. A small list of said problems would include, but not be limited to, inclusion of more than 4 names, assigning a female name ("Karla") to an obvious male character, complete lack of explosions/alien robots/bold US troops who save the world/insert anything I may forgot here, a TWISTED plot (remember, these are TOP spies, bend on confusing each other) with at least 2 as twisted sub-plots, two speaking female "leads" one of whom we could do without...the list can go on.

For those whose education (both formal and film-wise) didnot come from between the oceans, this movie needs two viewings, to say the least, BUT makes some sense, for its most basic plot. Yes, if you want to get everything, a second viewing is required, perhaps even a third. If, after three viewings, your stance is still "I did not understand anything", give up! You'll never get it. Go watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead, that's your movie!

For those who will attack this post, for various reasons (intellectual, patriotic, fiscal, whatever), please note that I have not read the book and only saw the BBC mini when I was about 12 years old and cannot, for the life of me, remember anything from that. Also, please forgive any grammar and/or spelling mistakes that make this post more difficult to understand, English is not my native tongue so it tends to fail me, more often than not.



Cute and cuddly boyz!!