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Fascinating, insightful, and informative. I could say more, but the "actor" says it better. However ... talking heads (with the occasional interjection from the writer/director Errol Morris in this case) often use other author's words, and this can leave the viewer feeling as if the question asked has not been answered, and sometimes avoided. Here, whilst the subject replies honestly, he also admits to a possible distortion by the hand of time, youth, and literary escapology and invention. I thoroughly enjoyed his affable demeanour, his candour and the insight it gave into the parallels between the books and his life. Any and every fan of John Le Carre's work should watch this tv film/documentary.

Did you know that "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" by a certain David Cromwell (aka John Le Carré) sold between 12-15 million physical copies? That's before Richard Burton took on the mantle of "Lemeas" from that novel and long before Sir Alec Guinness took on the part of the forensic super-spy "George Smiley" in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and that gives us quite an indication as the phenomenal success of this writer who basically bares his soul here in a one-to-one with Errol Morris. Spurred on only sparingly by the director, we are left with what is an succinct and informative retrospective on the life of a man who might not have seemed obviously destined for literary greatness. We start with his childhood where he was largely brought up by his con-man father (after his mother got fed up of the crooks and the mistresses and fled when he was five) and follows his education through Oxford, his recruitment into and ultimately boredom of the the British Intelligence community before turning his hand to bringing all of this experience to life in over twenty published novels. This isn't a treatise on how to write a thriller. It's an enjoyably structured lesson on how a little bit of experience, an understanding of human nature and a vidid imagination can create works of fiction that enthral and captivate. He delivers this with candour, humour, a tiny bit of self-deprecation but most notably - truthfulness. You need to have your thinking cap on, too. He uses language eruditely and in a considered fashion that I could listen to all day. You won't learn much about how to write a spy story, but you will learn something of this fascinating and engaging human being. It's an Apple TV production so might get only a limited cinema release (though the BBC seem to have supplied quite a bit of archive, so perhaps they secured a tx as a quid pro quo?) and it's most definitely worth a watch if you are remotely interested in the genre, in writing - or in just listening to an interesting man.

As "The Pigeon Tunnel" (2023 release; 93 min) opens, Le Carre and the film's director Errol Morris are discussing the making of this film (supposedly the last interview LeCarre ever gave). LeCarre (real name: David Cornwell) then reflects on his upbringing, which he admits was anything but easy. At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary...

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from Oscar-winning director Errol Morris ("The Fog of War"). Here he reassesses Cornwell/Le Carre's life and times. And how does Morris exactly do that? For the most part he simply lets the interviewee do the talking. It's almost as if we get a glimpse of what Le Carre is such an accomplished writer. The movie is at its best when Le Carre explains how his own real life experiences as a spy for the British secret service influenced the novels he wrote. Morris uses film clips to illustrate various points. At a certain point, it blurs the lines of what is real and what is fiction. I found is rather fascinating. THe movie also benefits tremendously from the delightful original score by Philip Glass and Paul Leonard Morgan, who has scored several earlier Morris documentaries.

"The Pigeon Tunnel" premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in early September, earning immediate critical acclaim. There is good reason why this movie is currently rate 95% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie just started streaming on Apple TV. If you are a fan of John Le Carre or of Errol Morris' earlier documentaries, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

This would be of particular interest if the viewer enjoyed the authors fiction which I did. This is a remarkable movie about a remarkable author living in Cold War times.

LeCarré somehow manages to capture the colour of the paint (tobacco brown) on the walls of the meager interrogation rooms and offices in his prose, and the underlying violence is subtle and implied rather than evident. And although there are sides to take his writing never demands this of the reader.

His skill in capturing the zeitgeist of the Cold War years is his brilliance which somewhat diminishes in the post war era when he still continues to shine in a more contemporary way.

See the video, LeCarré is the star.

I never read John le Carre books, but I appreciated the movies that were made from them and now that I have heard the author speak about his life, I am even more enthralled. He admits that at times he is not even sure what's real and what is fiction.

He educates us on what it takes to make a good spy - and made me happy that I am not of that ilk, but did appreciate that he was.

He explained what made him a write and why he titled his biography "The Pigeon Tunnel". It was all very educational to us, the viewer, if we really listened.

The filming of it was brilliant and quiet. Quick quips of photos and some news prints and the stories behind them.

He lead a complicated life and shared it with us, in books and this documentary.

He died at age 89 in 2020, so we were lucky at all to have had this time with him, but we still have his books.

Enjoy!