|
|
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Format: NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1984
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Middle-eastern terrorism provides the dense, perpetually timely context of The Little Drummer Girl, loyally adapted from John Le Carré's complex bestseller. It's slow going at first, taking pains to establish the tragically complicated plight of Charlie (Diane Keaton), a left-wing, pro-Palestinian actress, recruited by Israeli intelligence in 1981 to play the role of a lifetime: Once her loyalties are turned, she will lure a dominant Palestinian terrorist (Sami Frey) into a deadly trap. She's an unwitting pawn, vulnerable to romance (particularly with her Israeli recruiter, played with subtle conviction by Greek-born Yorgo Voyagis), and Keaton brings sympathetic naiveté to her character's potentially lethal dilemma. Klaus Kinski is arguably miscast as the Israeli intelligence chief, but viewers are more likely to stumble over the film's constant flow of intricate detail. The Little Drummer Girl is not always easy to follow, but attentive viewers will be rewarded, and the plot itself is, sadly, as relevant as ever. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Riveting
Diane Keaton will never be too old! She's a masterpiece and so is this movie. The gut-wrenching decisions Keaton's character is forced to make are ones that make for truly great drama. A keeper. Not to be missed.
Rating: - realistic
Le Carre (David Cornwall) was in British Intelligence just after the war. He, if anyone, is superbly qualified to give insight into what happens in the secret world.
Rating:  - False colors
George Roy Hill's film of John Le Carre's The Little Drummer Girl was, like most Le Carre adaptations, a big box-office disappointment in 1984 and has long since pretty much disappeared from sight (it's currently only on DVD in Germany). Its plot isn't the easiest of sells, it's true: to track down and kill a Palestinian terrorist, Mossad trick an actress and Palestinian sympathiser into becoming their own undercover agent, in the process revealing and stripping away the inventions and deceits she ... Read More
Rating: - Very Mixed Feelings
For those who haven't read the book--you should, it is, 20-some years later, still relevant and still compelling and still a fast-paced and gripping thriller. Given that this is a book I have read & re-read, I had to have the movie, even when I discovered it was only available on VHS.
Where to begin? Diane Keaton's performance is nearly overshadowed by her 80's shoulder pads, which is saying a lot, as it is an extremely mannered performance. I like Diane Keaton, but she's just not ... Read More
Rating:  - Bang The Drum Slowly
The problem with many of the movies based on John le Carre's carefully woven books is the condensing of the plot, which ruins the overall development of the pace that is driven by the characters.
The Little Drummer Girl is an ambitious novel, as le Carre meticulously constructs the evolution of Charlie from an English radical left-wing actress - who is anti-Zionist - to a Palestinian terrorist, with a vicious twist. She has handlers on both sides of the conflict.
The movie ... Read More
|
|
