Working Title Productions 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy & The Boat That Rocked.

The trailer above is for Working Title’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”. This was directed by Tomas Alfredson and based on the best selling novel by John le Carré. This story is set during the bleak and suspicious years of the Cold War (a political conflict mainly between America and Russia). The Cold War lasted from 1946-1991 however this glimpse of the Cold War which we witness in ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ is in/around the year 1974 when the Cold War was perhaps at the most tense between nations. The storyline is that there is a mole (spy for another nation) at the top of MI6 but nobody knows who. A man named George Smiley (played by the brilliant, British A-list actor of Gary Oldman) is forced out of semi-retirement to uncover who this mole is. In this film MI6 has a codename of “the circus” in this film which gives it a realistic edge and makes you feel as if your part of the action by including you with this sort of thing e.g. catchphrases and codeword’s, codenames etc. This film is in-fact a remake of the original TV drama/thriller series ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ which was directed by John Irvin and was aired in 1979. In my personal opinion I think that the recent film directed by Tomas Alfredson is very good although if you are a viewer with fresh eyes e.g. you haven’t read the book or seen the 1979 television series, then the film could be a little bit confusing and perhaps slightly lost on a more “uneducated” audience.

The trailer above is for Working Title’s “The Boat That Rocked”. This was directed by Richard Curtis and based on a true story. In the 1960’s there was a very similar pirate radio station to the one portrayed in the film called ‘Radio Caroline’. I personally believe this could have been some of the inspiration which spurred Curtis on to create (in my own personal opinion) this masterpiece of a film. The main storyline behind this film is that it’s based in 1966 where free love and peace rules. There is a boat which is a pirate radio station called ‘Radio Rock’. This is the most popular radio station because in 1966, BBC only played 45 minutes of popular rock music a day whereas radio rock played it 24/7. The government sees this radio station as ruining the country. Therefore they bend every rule in the book to try to shut radio rock but the pirates fight on. The film is based around this conflict but also the relationships between the crew on board. There is a quote from the film from the character that is in charge of shutting down the radio station who calls the people of Britain who listen to this radio station: “the drug takers, the law breakers and the bottom bashing fornicators of our recently great country”. I thought this summed up his views on the matter very succinctly. I think the reason this film did so well is because it appealed to so many different audiences. For example it appealed to the older generation because they would’ve been around in the 1960’s and could relate to the music. So it could have been mainly the soundtrack which appealed to the older generation. It would also appeal to the younger generation because it has A-list British actors like Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, and Chris O’Dowd etc. This is my favourite film just due to the fact that because my dad is such a huge ‘Beatles’ fan etc I was pretty much brought up on the kind of music which is in this film and so I can sort of relate to it because it reminds me a little bit of my childhood and that’s the kind of music I grew up around which I know and love.