Saturday, January 14, 2012

Tinker, Tailor

First let me say there's nothing wrong with the new Tinker Tailor movie. It's well acted and the cast and director have nothing to be ashamed of. But why did they decide that this story needed to be remade. The original BBC mini-series was so well made and the cast as close to perfection as we are ever likely to see, that a remake was always going to be second best.

Well it happens I guess, and not only in Britain. Why someone in Hollywood decided to remake True Grit still puzzles me. There was nothing wrong in Jeff Bridges and the rest of the cast's acting, but the original was one of the few very good movies that John Wayne appeared in and he acted about the best he ever had in it. The big scene where he charges the baddies probably couldn't be repeated and the new remake didn't really try to match that.

So why do they do it? Money I guess. If producers want to make a British spy movie from that period why not look at stories by Len Deighton which could do with a remake or even less well known authors of spy fiction like my favourite, Anthony Price.