Both of my favorite spy movies from last year are hitting DVD in the next few months. We already heard that Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol comes out on April 17, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (which couldn't be a more different example of the genre - though both films do begin with missions going awry in Budapest) beats it by almost a month, hitting shelves on March 20 courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment on both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo. According to DVD Active, the DVD release will feature an audio commentary with director Tomas Alfredson and Oscar-nominated lead actor Gary Oldman, along with interviews with Alfredson, Oldman, co-stars Colin Firth and Tom Hardy, and co-writer Peter Straughan. The Blu-ray/DVD Combo release (obviously the one to get) will also include deleted scenes (more Roy Bland, I hope!), a making-of featurette called "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: First Look" (I assume this is the same as the Sky Movies featurette on the UK disc), an interview with author John le Carré, and an UltraViolet digital copy of the film. If these specs are final, that means that North American fans will miss out on several special features (as well as a lot of disposable physical bells and whistles) included on the Region B Blu-ray, but absent here: a featurette on Smiley, an "Inside the Circus" featurette, a "Shadow World" featurette, and a featurette on the UK premiere. Oh well. That's too bad, but hardly a reason not to get one of the best spy movies of the past few decades! (And maybe some of them will turn out to be Easter Eggs, or just aren't listed.)
Retail is $29.98 for the DVD and $34.98 for the Combo Pack, though both are currently available to pre-order from Amazon (via those links) for considerably less.
Read my full review of Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a truly masterful adaptation of my all-time favorite novel, here.
This is a wonderfully complex and erudite story, and, as one would expect from the cast, it is superbly acted. The clutter that usually surrounds spy stories (impossible feats of action, for example) is blessedly absent. The only problem is that the second biggest "name" is cast as the traitor, so the suspense is reduced to waiting to see how Smiley figures out who it is. One of the best spy movies ever made in my view.
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