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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy | 2011 | R | - 7.7.5

Based on the 1974 British spy novel by John le Carré, previously filmed as a miniseries in 1979: Gary Oldman stars as a retired middle-aged intelligence officer, who's pressed into service once again in order to hunt down a Soviet mole in the Circus, the highest level of the British intelligence services. Also with Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kathy Burke, Svetlana Khodchenkova and Ciaran Hinds. Directed by Tomas Alfredson. [2:08]

SEX/NUDITY 7 - We see a man and a woman having sex from a great distance (we can see the woman thrusting on top of the man and her bare back is visible), another woman enters the room and appears upset, the man gets out of bed (we see a glimpse of his genitals) and moves toward the second woman (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
 A man unfastens a woman's blouse, they breathe heavily, they kiss, he lifts her skirt (we see her bare thighs and stocking tops) and sex is implied; we see the man putting on a shirt (his bare legs are seen) and the woman sitting in a bathtub (her bare shoulders are shown) afterward.
 A topless woman (her bare breasts are briefly visible) in a club sits on a man's lap, caresses his clothed chest and they kiss; other women are seen dancing and wearing skimpy outfits (bare legs, abdomens and cleavage are visible). A man and a woman kiss passionately and he caresses her clothed buttocks while her husband watches and is visibly shaken.
 A man and a woman kiss while sitting on a sofa and then walk out of the room holding hands. A husband and his wife kiss. Two men talk about a new employee in their office and they stop near her desk to admire her.
 A woman is shown nursing an infant in the background of a seen (no nudity is visible). Several men are shown swimming in a few scenes and their bare shoulders are seen as they bob in the water. A man in swim trunks is seen and his bare chest, abdomen and legs are shown. Men are shown in a sauna and we see two men with towels wrapped around their waists (their bare chests are visible). Women are shown wearing mini-skirts.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A woman with a badly bruised face stands in front of a man that's strapped into a chair, and the woman is shot in the head by another man (we see blood and matter splatter on the wall behind her and a bit falls off and splats on the floor). A man is shot beneath the eye (we see blood trickle from the wound) and falls dead on the ground (we see him lying face down on the ground).
 A man with a gun takes a shot at another man walking away, the bullet misses him and strikes a woman that's nursing an infant in the head (we see a bloody bullet wound in her head and her infant cries), the man shoots again and hits the man in the back, he falls to the ground and we see blood pooling under him while other people scatter and a man yells (we see this scene a few times).
 A man is shown dead in a bathtub filled with blood-tinged water and his intestines are seen floating around him. We see a dead man with a large cut across his throat, and dried blood on and around it as well as what looks like a missing eye (it's very bloody and bruised) and flies are crawling on him.
 A nude man (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) gets out of bed, grabs a woman by the neck and slams her into a plate glass window several times (we see her seated on the floor with a bloody nose and a bruise on her forehead).
 An owl flies out of a fireplace, the owl is smoldering, it flies back toward the fireplace where a man swats it with a stick hard, it falls to the floor screeching and the man kills it off screen (we hear bones snap); young boys in the room watch in dread. A man punches another man a few times (we see him drooling blood). A man is shown drooped over the side of a bed after we hear a glass break (we see the shards on the floor beside the bed) and the man appears dead. We see a woman with a bruised eye being taken away on a stretcher. A man on a stretcher is placed in the back of a truck. A man describes a man having no fingernails after having been tortured. A man is shown strapped into a chair and being forced to listen to screams through headphones repeatedly (he appears upset) and we see him later with a bruised eye (it is implied that he was beaten).
 A man holds two other men at gunpoint. A man holds a gun on another man. A man enters his house where someone else has broken in; he walks through the house, he finds the person and they talk. A man yells at several other men "Out!" A man tells another man "Trust no one." A man tells another man "They are after my head." A man says, "They're gonna kill me." A man refers to another man and says, "He was going to be executed." A man says, "The Americans had him tortured." A man says, "I'm surprised he didn't have him shot." A boy talks about his father having left him when he was young. A man sends his lover away and cries.
 A man hacks a piece of meat in a restaurant using a large cleaver. A restaurant server is shown to be sweating and a drop of perspiration falls on a table where he is placing food and beverages.

LANGUAGE 5 - About 9 F-words, 1 sexual reference, 4 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (leaky ship, yanks, scalp hunter, poison dwarf, lazy, greedy, office boy), exclamations (bloody), 1 religious profanity, 5 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A man smokes and drinks alcohol in a meeting, a man and a woman drink whiskey in their tea, people are shown drinking alcohol in numerous scenes at a celebration, in a few club scenes, in an office and in homes, and a man pours more alcohol into a punch bowl at a celebration. People are seen smoking cigarettes in numerous scenes throughout the film and in various settings, a man smokes a pipe in a few scenes and we see an ashtray filled with cigarette butts in a few scenes.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Espionage, trust, secret intelligence operations, covert operations, the Cold War, nuclear weapons, moles, double agents, defection, paranoia, infidelity, treason, madness, homosexuality, torture, Russians vs. Americans, loyalty.

MESSAGE - Espionage is a confusing game with no clear winners.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.

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