THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - GEORGE SMILEY
"The fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt."
From the film "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".
The movie is excellent, and Gary Oldman is superb as George Smiley, a British secret service agent during the cold war. I watched the movie twice to tie up the loose ends from the first time around, which included more than one than one distraction. The film calls for close attention. Although I'd read the book and watched the TV series of the same name years ago, I had mercifully forgotten who was the mole, so the suspense remained on the first view.
When I heard Oldman speak the words above, they seemed very true to me, so I backed up to get the exact quote. The words do not refer only to others but are cautionary for me to examine myself for drift into fanatic mode, and, should I find myself there, to look for the secret doubt.
Picture from Wikipedia.
Mimi,
ReplyDeleteI agree about the movie, and I think whether it's the show from PBS with Sir Alec Guinness, or the movie the premise is that the spy is usually the one you would never really suspect at all. And I believe that quote can be true of all of us. We need to be very careful as to our OVER enthusiasm for anything.
Ciss, I tend to get emotional about the issues I care about, and I do have to guard against going off the rails. In hindsight, I should have suspected the mole in the movie, because he played it a bit smarmy. I don't want to spoil the movie for those who have not seen it, which is why I don't name a character.
DeleteGlad you liked it Grandma - us Brits feel an ownership on Smiley. The sets are good, esp the offices with their untidy appearance and all those cabinets; it was the same right across MOD (the Ministry of Defence). In fact only once in 35 years can I remember any decorating (except once when we got really pissed off and did our office ourselves!) I wondered if the greyness of the colouring was right, but looking back we'd just begun to have strip lights then, but it was only a couple per office so it was always a bit gloomy by modern standards. Did you notice the Chubb locks on the front of the cabinets, the ones of conical shape and numbers around the edge? We all had them, but unlike in the film you didn't just turn them a bit to unlock and open the door. It was so many turns one way to particular set numbers and the same in the opposite direction and if you had it right, bingo! one full turn the right and it unlocked. Too long for a film of course. These numbers were altered and re-set once a month and it was always a game trying to get a new set the office crew would remember - only those in that office knew them, not the neighbours or even your bosses. Once set we'd try them - and then find out what actually worked! Anyway, the office dymanics was mostly fun.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're still with us and not blown away, Charlie Farns-Barns.
So Charlie, you worked in MOD? Well, you'd know. I did not notice the locks on the cabinets. Similar to a safe lock, right? We had removable locks that you had to know the combination of numbers to open on our lockers in school. They're sometimes hell to get right, especially when you're running late for class.
DeleteI thought the dim lighting was deliberate - part of the intended ambiance of the film, as even the lights inside the places where the characters lived were mostly darkish. The weather cooperated in that the scenes outside were rainy or, at best, bleak.
There were so many memorable scenes in the movie. I loved the scene near the end in which it's raining, and Smiley walks away from the office under his umbrella. Another character walks by him with no umbrella and a grim expression on his face.
We came through the damned hurricane unscathed, though the waiting and watching took its toll. Mercifully, Tom and I slept through the worst of it.