‘The Pigeon Tunnel’ Review – A Poignant Spy Tale

You can immediately tell the attraction of legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris for John Le Carré in The Pigeon Tunnel. Morris is not fascinated with truth but with one’s perception of facts and reality. So, naturally, examining the life of the greatest spy novelist in the history of fiction (My sincerest apologies to the Sherlock Holmes scribe, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle). A man obsessed with manipulation to take advantage of the human condition.

The Pigeon Tunnel, which refers to the practice at the hotel in Monte Carlo where birds who do not know any better are being forced from their nests, only to be used as targets by sharpshooters, spans sixty years of Le Carré’s incredible life (his real name is David John Moore Cornwell). It turns out that this was the last interview by the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy author. You’ll be taken by how remarkably personal and even poignant the film is by the end.

Mr. Morris, however, has a penchant for being all over the place with his films over the past two decades. Some of his movies need more focus. That’s a significant issue with The Pigeon Tunnel. You’d expect the film to play it safe because it’s a basic setup for a history lesson. For instance, the beginning could be more impulsive. He needed a coherent focus. But soon, you’ll find it can be a product of the Second World War’s paranoia.

However, this is the director of The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War, A Brief History of Time, and Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control. Morris is a craft master, and he knows the winners tell history. And that doesn’t mean any of it’s true. As The Pigeon Tunnel begins to take shape, Mr. Morris shows you what he’s after. The reports, facts, and witness testimony are open to interpretation. It’s just like a spy novel if you will.

Imagine being able to talk to a man to decipher reality versus fiction regarding the spy game. Mr. Cornwall wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold while still working at MI-6. Morris’s interviewing style is warm and accessible, setting up specific questions and trying to connect the dots between events that happen in Cornwell’s professional foreign affairs work and his novels.

The most fascinating part of Mr. Morris’s chronicling of Mr. Cornwell’s life is in the final act. While talking about his father, the famous author recalls quotes from one of the last dinners he had with him. They had a turbulent relationship. The elder Cornwell was in prison for fraud connected to organized crime. The author begins to quote conversations with his father.

Then, the documentary pulls up scenes from adaptations of his famous films that are practically direct quotes. You can hear the anger in the character’s voice towards someone they disapprove of. This is another perspective on the author’s intimate knowledge of manipulating the con and spy game. These human moments are also what Mr. Morris is searching for.

What is true? What is fiction? Finally, what is the reality regarding David John Moore Cornwell and John Le Carré? Like any great author, they write what they know. Mr. Cornwell knows the ins and outs of government espionage and the personal pain of being a victim of attempted swindles by your father, a “confidence man” himself.

That’s what The Pigeon Tunnel unearths in the last interview with Mr. Le Carré. He intimately understands the intricacies of selling the spy game because it cuts close to the heart, being a deeply personal matter.

The Pigeon Tunnel is currently available to stream on AppleTV+. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gWnuhjwNrw]