"The Tailor of Panama" John le Carré's projection of the "tailor" who vacillates between The Truth and fiction

The Tailor of Panama Synopsis

British spy Andy is sent to Panama after a scandal. His role is to investigate the political situation in this country, which has just lost ownership of the Panama Canal from the United States. Andy sets his sights on Harry, a skilled tailor who is used by government officials, and hints at his weakness to turn him into an information source. However, Harry spreads false information, which soon causes a turmoil that will involve the entire nation...

First of all, I should point out that the movie "The Tailor of Panama" (2001) is not a very highly acclaimed work. It is a powerful work by the masterful director John Boorman, who has released many masterpieces, but it is by no means the kind of work that can be called a masterpiece, and even while watching it, it is difficult to understand what the appeal is and how it is supposed to be interesting.

However, looking back at it now, more than 20 years after its release, I feel that perhaps because it has matured considerably, we can look at the film from a bird's-eye view and appreciate it with a little more ease.

There are many things you learn or realize for the first time when you look at the movie from a bird's-eye view. For example, there is a cute boy standing there as a child actor. "I feel like I've seen him somewhere before..." I thought, and when I looked closely at the end credits, I saw that it was Daniel Radcliffe. At the time of the movie's release, we had no idea that he would become famous for playing the role of "Harry Potter" not long after this movie was released.

In addition, a book called " The Life of John le Carré " published in 2018 states that the film was originally intended to be directed by Tony Scott, not John Boorman. Scott visited Panama to check things out using a huge amount of money from Columbia Pictures, and John le Carré, who was the original author and also involved in writing the screenplay, accompanied him.

However, perhaps because they could not come to an agreement on the production costs, Scott ended up dropping out. 2001 was the year of his peak maturity, with the release of the masterpiece " Spy Game, " so it's fun to imagine how, if Scott had directed "The Tailor of Panama," it might have turned out to be a suspenseful film with a speedy camera gliding through the air.

"The Tailor of Panama" trailer

Index

• Le Carré's spy image is fundamentally different from 007
• A work that could only have been created at this time
• The "one more" meaning that Le Carré included

Le Carré's spy image is fundamentally different from 007

The central theme of this work is the Panama Canal, which was returned from the United States to Panama on December 31, 1999. Various plans had long been intertwined in terms of its construction, management, and operation, and the future of the canal after its return was extremely unclear. John le Carré's original novel was written in 1996 as if to predict the future. This work, which was quickly made into a movie The Day After five years later, can be seen as a work that attempted to capture this turning point vividly without missing out on anything.

Le Carré is a master of spy novels, known for his films such as " Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy " (2011), " The Constant Gardener " (2005), and " Most Wanted " (2014), as well as drama series such as " The Night Manager " (2016). As he himself is a former intelligence agency employee, his portrayals of spies are extremely realistic. His novels are different from the flashy, action-packed works of James Bond, and are appealing in that they depict spies in a unique situation, with tenacious observation, setting up, figuring out what is going on, and gradually uncovering the truth behind the situation. His hard-hitting storytelling and meticulous structure are what make his works so appealing.

In that sense, it is visually very interesting to see Pierce Brosnan, who was playing the role of Bond in the 007 series at the time, take on the Le Carre-esque image of a spy head-on in this film.

"The Tailor of Panama" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

The character Andy, played by him, commits a terrible scandal from the beginning and is transferred to Panama as if he was exiled. However, the sparkle in his eyes is not lost. Never one to give up, he lands in Panama with a mysterious aura and tries to get useful confidential information from Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), a Jewish tailor who lives in Panama and has clients including local politicians and influential people, by using all sorts of methods.

On the other hand, Harry the tailor also has a secret past. He appears to be in the same vein as the high-end tailors who started their business on Saville Row, but in fact, that is not the case. He learned tailoring while he was in prison, and then lived a life of lies in Panama, where he knew no one. During that time, he also lived through the oppression of the Noriega regime, and it can be said that he has continued to survive by being very eloquent.

He is, so to speak, a tailor of lies. The stronghold of lies that he has built up over the years should have been rock solid. However, the spy Andy immediately notices the wound in Harry's shin and begins to mentally shake him up. In desperation, Harry tells another lie. It's such a charming lie that Andy's eyes light up. Andy reports the information he has obtained to his superior at headquarters as if he owns the place. The superior excitedly relays the information to the American side. Without thoroughly checking the veracity of the information, the US launches an emergency operation... and like falling dominoes, everything goes from bad to worse.

A work that could only have been created at this time