Amazon.com essential video: Eye of the Needle is a superbly effective World War II spy thriller from the Ken Follett bestseller of the same name. Donald Sutherland is "the Needle," a German spy in England bearing critical information on Allied invasion plans that he must deliver personally to the Führer. He's so named because of his preferred method of assassination, the stiletto. As played by Sutherland, he's a coldly calculating psychopath, emotionlessly focused on the task at hand, whether the task is to signal a U-boat or to gut a witness to avoid exposure. On his way back to Germany, a fierce storm strands him on an island, occupied only by a woman (Kate Nelligan), her disabled husband, and the lighthouse keeper. A romance of sorts develops between the woman and the spy, due to an estrangement of affections between the woman and her husband, whose accident has rendered him emotionally crippled as well. Much of the suspense of the latter half of the movie has to do with this romance, and the way it begins to reveal the Needle's motivations and whether there's a sympathetic personality buried somewhere inside him, though he remains by-and-large tantalizingly enigmatic. Early on, we discover that he may not enjoy the hand life has dealt him. When a courier asks him about the way he lives, and "What else can one do?" the Needle answers, "One can just stop." But as the film makes amply clear in its final third, one doesn't stop, does one? The direction by Richard Marquand (known primarily for thrillers such as this one and Jagged Edge, although he also did Return of the Jedi) is crisply done, boasting numerous suspenseful episodes, including a deadly encounter between Sutherland and the disabled husband, which is jaw-droppingly surprising. --Jim Gay
A Stab at Genius The Film: Ken Follett's WWII espionage thriller brought to the screen in 1981 by director Richard Marquand.
The basic plot: 'The Needle' is a Nazi spy in Britain, ruthlessly stabbing his enemies as he races to stay a half-step ahead of quite-competent MI5 C.I. agents. In 1944, he must get information and get back to Germany to expose the Patton-Calais deception. Weather and circumstances strand him on remote Storm Island, where he must meet a U-boat.
Acting: Sutherland's icy, reptilian qualities (think Backdraft and Casanova) are perfectly suited to the spy character--he's brilliant. Kate Nelligan delivers a sturdy performance as a plucky resident of Storm Island.
Nice editing; compact, well-paced plot with some interesting twists. Interesting role reversals, sexual metaphors, and atmospherics.
Production values were high; the film has no cheap effects or CG; it stands up well and looks good on the DVD.
Personal enjoyment: The Brits are portrayed as ever-polite but in their own way, even the old gaffers and other common folk are as ruthless as the spy, and all are passionate about helping 'do their bit.'
If you like WWII movies, spy thrillers, Sutherland, or ken Follett novels, by all means buy this little gem.
Diagnosing Sutherland's character, the Needle I watched this movie for the first time recently on cable and found it so engrossing that I watched it a second time a week later -- and now I'm on amazon reading the reviews and considering whether to purchase it. I decided to comment on Sutherland's character, the Needle, because as a relatively new psychotherapist I found myself wondering during the first half of the film whether this man was sociopathic (I have to disagree with another reviewer who said he was "psychotic") or whether he was turning off whatever feelings he might have about killing because it was what he had to do. In other words, would this man have the capacity to kill were it not socially sanctioned and viewed as a necessity during wartime? Arguably, he might not have killed Kate Nelligan's husband had he not confronted him about the camera film of the airplanes and not killed the lighthouse keeper if he had been able to use the wireless without being discovered. He did not harm Kate Nelligan or her son, even when she chopped off part of his hand and fried the wireless (and he looked at her burnt fingers with a subtle compassion). This tells me he was capable of caring, if not love. We have hints to his adult personality, as influenced by his chiildhood, from comments he made about parents essentially using children for their needs and not really loving them (we assume he was talking about himself). But he said it in a way that felt like he had an understanding of his childhood as opposed to a person who was simply acting out from repressed rage. What do others think? Is he sociopathic (anti-social personality disorder would be the diagnosis according to the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-IV TR), does he have some sociopathy but not rigidified enough to call him personality disordered, or a normal guy capable of handling complex and highly stressful situations in wartime (and following through on what others need him to do, as socialized to do by his parents)? I don't think a person suffering from unresolved childhood trauma (the fight, flight, or freeze response) would be able to hold it together and think as clearly as he was able to over an extended period of time either. Thoughts?
One more question: a couple of reviewers mentioned that this DVD was an edited version of the film. Is this true? If so, where can one get an unedited version?
Donald Sutherland does it again... For some strange reason, Donald Sutherland has presided over the end of several of cinema's previously sure things - the Alistair Maclean thriller (Bear Island), Neil Simon comedies (Max Dugan Returns), Agatha Christie adaptations (Ordeal by Innocence) and, with Eye of the Needle, the WW2 romantic thriller. After frequent demonstrations of his adeptness with a switchblade, his top nazi spy `The Needle' and his bad English accent are shipwrecked on Storm Island, where Kate Nelligan lives with her crippled husband Christopher Cazenove and their badly dubbed child. While Ian Bannen fritters away on the mainland in lukewarm pursuit before his prey can get away with D-Day secrets, the two leads start an affair before things turn nasty. You'd have thought that after the last time Nelligan played a girl called Lucy who rescued a near-drowned stranger turned out (in 1979's Dracula) she'd have learned her lesson...
Miklos Rozsa delivers a vividly romantic score that is both full of overpowering dramatic drive and in completely the wrong picture (it works better on disc) while Richard Marquand's merely functional direction, wildly overrated at the time because the news had just leaked out that he'd been signed to direct Return of the Jedi (`so he must be good' as one critic profoundly put it before finding out what a botched job he made of that assignment), fails to elevate the picture. The result is one of those films you really want to like much more than it'll let you, entertaining enough but still somewhat disappointingly average. The unimpressive non-anamorphic widescreen transfer that's particularly poor on flesh tones and has a few wobbles and a horribly botched end title that has the score laid on twice out of synchronisation (so you can hear the middle of the cue playing at the same time as the beginning, making for a confused cacophony) on the English soundtrack doesn't help.
The laserdisc release included an alternate ending (barely different from the one used) that's missing from the DVD, although the UK disc does restore the original censor trims to avoid an X certificate - but be warned, it's a mere six seconds of footage! The only extra here is the US trailer which goes to great lengths to hide the fact that the Needle is a spy and the film is set in WW2, instead pitching it as a slasher movie!
Good Version of Book This is based on a great novel by Ken Follett and one of the best WWII spy novels I have enjoyed..Follett is a master.
Though often falls short of books, this one doesn't. Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan turn in great performances.
If you liked the book this is worth seeing.
Forgotten Spy Thriller This 1981 WW2 Spy thriller with Donald Sutherland is simply amazing. Sutherland is at the top of his game in this film.
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