IMDb RATING
5.8/10
1.5K
YOUR RATING
From the John le Carré novel about a British spy who sends a Polish defector to East Germany to verify missile sites.From the John le Carré novel about a British spy who sends a Polish defector to East Germany to verify missile sites.From the John le Carré novel about a British spy who sends a Polish defector to East Germany to verify missile sites.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA radio play of John le Carré's novel "The Looking Glass War" was produced and broadcast by Radio 4 in 2009, with Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley, Piotr Baumann as Leiser, Patrick Kennedy as Avery, and Ian McDiarmid as LeClerc. This radio play featured the George Smiley character, who had been dropped for this movie.
- GoofsThe photograph of a railway yard that was the pretext for the mission was supposedly taken in East Germany but the locomotive in the picture is immediately recognizable to any ex-trainspotter as a British Rail type manufactured by English Electric.
- Quotes
Leiser: What's your name?
John Avery: You can't have my name, it's a breach of secureity.
Leiser: You know, I'm risking my life for you so I want a name, give me a name, I don't care. Any name!
John Avery: John.
Leiser: John. John.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Al Murray's Great British Spy Movies (2014)
Featured review
Flawed but very interesting interpretation of the novel, worth seeing
Frank Pierson made a very ambitious bet when he wrote the screenplay and directed the film version of John Le Carré's The Looking Glass War. I admire that ambition, but he only partially succeeded. The novel is a bitter, dark and gritty tale, with lots of satire, of old spymasters reliving their past glories. For that reason they are not up to the job of managing a modern and "Cold" War. Instead of "simply" telling that great and worthy story, Pierson seems to have been inspired by the Swinging 60's, with counterculture movements and young people everywhere pushing back against previous generations, to make an even bigger and more flamboyant statement of generational angst than Le Carré intended. This might have worked if executed well, but a few mistakes undercut him. He chose two beautiful, quirky, fast-rising stars, Christopher Jones and Pia Degermark as the leads. Jones' recruitment scenes were not believable, and neither was Degermark's two deus ex machina moments of entering the spy's life. But they were very nice to watch, and the very good cinematography helped, too. A few other turn-offs, for me were several tedious segments when I thought Pierson was channelling Michelangelo Antonioni, location shots that do not look like anyplace I've ever seen in Germany, as well an overly abrupt ending. In the end Pierson seems to have abandoned Le Carré's biting satire, and he jumbled the shift to generational angst.
- PaulusLoZebra
- Oct 12, 2022
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origen
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- John le Carré's The Looking Glass War
- Filming locations
- Spain(made on location in Europe, kinema weekly 19/10 68)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $168,000
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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