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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780792835059
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, Original recording reissued, NTSC
ISBN: 0792835050
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: July 08, 1997
Running Time: 112 minutes
Sales Rank: 10312
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: July 24, 1981
Editorial Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
Rating:  - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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.
Rating: - 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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