Watching master spy novelist John le Carre answer exactly the questions he wishes is an imperfect pleasure. Our The Pigeon Tunnel review:
can seem—at first glance—deceptively placid. Clocking in at just over 90 minutes, the film features an extended conversation between David Cornwell, AKA, and Oscar-winning docmaker Errol Morris. It’s just that. Two people talking, with Morris off-screen, their parrying question-and-answers broken up with archival images and re-enactments of Cornwell’s past, as well as snippets from the classic movies or TV adaptations based on his spy universe:.
The documentary delves into Cornwell’s relationship with his father, which he characterizes as one of betrayal. Cornwell was abandoned by his mother when he was five, and was brought up by his con man father Ronnie, who was always on the run from either the mob or the police. The movie’s title comes from one of Cornwell’s visits to Monte Carlo with his father, where a local pastime involving pigeon shooting became imprinted on his memory.
Ronnie ensured that Cornwell was educated well, so that his son could fit in with polite society. But he also regularly involved Cornwell in his shady world. His duplicitous upbringing eventually led Cornwell to be recruited by the British intelligence agencies MI5 and MI6—although exactly how this happened, we don’t find out. He learned his lessons well, and eventually was the one performing the betrayals.
There are no grand revelations. Morris doesn’t push Cornwell far on his own betrayals—to his friends or in his love life. We don’t get a sense of what it was like for Cornwell to live in murky worlds of his own making as an adult, and whether he felt guilt—beyond a general attitude of shrugging away life’s messiness. It’s clear that Cornwell had determined in advance that there would be some questions that he would never answer, that he’s not an open book to be read through and through.
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