EYE OF THE NEEDLE (1981)

Director: Richard Marquand

Writers: Stanley Mann adapting Ken Follett’s novel

Producer: Stephen J. Friedman

Cast: Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, Christopher Cazenove, Ian Bannen, Philip Martin Brown, Jonathan Haley, Nicholas Haley, Alex McGrindle, Faith Brook, George Belbin, Barbara Graley, Rupert Frazer, Stephen MacKenna, Arthur Lovegrove, Barbara Ewing, Patrick Connor, John Bennett, David Hayman, Sam Kydd, John Paul, Bill Nighy, Allan Surtees, Rik Mayall

During World War II, England-based Nazi spy Henry Faber (Donald Sutherland) is trying to deliver film to his German handlers. Faber’s information could jeopardize the allies’ D-Day invasion of Normandy. Fleeing the British authorities, Faber steals a boat, gets caught in a terrible storm, and is shipwrecked on Storm Island, off the coast of Scotland. He finds shelter with the family of David and Lucy Rose (Christopher Cazenove and Kate Nelligan) and their young son, Jo (played by twins Jonathan and Nicholas Haley). David is embittered by the loss of his legs in an automobile accident. Ever since, David has been romantically distant from Lucy. The only other inhabitant on Storm Island is Tom, the lighthouse keeper. The lonely Lucy is drawn by the interest that Henry Faber shows in her, and they begin an affair. While cold-blooded spy Faber begins to reveal some humanity to Lucy, he is still intent on his rendezvous with a German U-boat.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Based on the bestselling novel by Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle is a terrific thriller that succeeds by becoming more intimate, and therefore more suspensefully intense, as it progresses. The fate of the Free World could be decided by just the chance meeting of two people on opposing sides of World War II who have a spontaneous affair. The story builds believably with plenty of intrigue and drama. One never gets the impression that any characters are doing “movie stuff.” The stakes are high enough without any heroic or villainous posing and outrageous stunts or pyrotechnics. Best of all, the engaging lead performances remind us that emotional needs can cause anyone to take risks.

Donald Sutherland was such an unconventional presence that he could play sympathetic leads, eccentrics, and villains. As Nazi spy Henry Faber, Sutherland affects a relaxed and pleasant façade while mingling with his British co-workers and neighbors. He will revert to his heartless efficiency to kill anyone who endangers his mission. Henry Faber’s codename of “The Needle” is earned by his weapon of choice, a switchblade stiletto. When Faber meets Lucy, we suspect that his initial decency is all just a part of his act. Yet, as Lucy has her first private conversation with him, we see Faber begin to express some genuine feeling. At this point, we realize Faber is starting to bond with someone as he may never have done before.

Kate Nelligan’s Lucy Rose is such sympathetic and decent person that we don’t resent her having a sexual tryst with a charming stranger behind her bitter husband’s back. She has tried to create intimacy with David Rose, yet he is unable to accept his disability in their relationship. After four years on the remote Storm Island in this hopeless marriage, her unreciprocated need for romantic love seems an understandable provocation for her infidelity. Nelligan’s tender beauty could convince me of anything, yet it is her understated sensitivity in her performance that has us rooting for her every second. She is both sympathetic and genuine.

The suspense in this thriller is both mortal and emotional. Beyond the concerns of whether the German spy Henry Faber can accomplish his mission, we have the intrigue of his affair with Lucy Rose that seems to be exactly what these two people need. However, Faber is concealing his true background from the woman he has very quickly become involved with. As the affair continues, the dynamic keeps changing because of Faber’s mission-related actions. This makes for some uncomfortable and harrowing moments for Lucy in their affair. Despite the gravity of Eye of the Needle’s espionage plot, Stanley Mann’s script and Richard Marquand’s direction zero in on the emotions of Henry Faber and Lucy Rose that drive the story to a conclusion that could decide the outcome of World War II.

Few movies have benefitted as much from a shooting location as this one. The Storm Island setting that the last two-thirds of the film centers on is really striking. It has a raw, pristine beauty with its expanses of green grass bordered by the magnificent cliffs above the restless ocean. It would seem to be a truly idyllic location for romance, but its isolation is also made very apparent and raises the risk for our heroine. This location was actually the Isle of Mull, an island of the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of mainland Scotland. The island was not as desolate as the selective camera angles would have us believe.

Director Richard Marquand also directed the horror film The Legacy (1978) and the thriller Jagged Edge (1985). George Lucas was so impressed with Marquand’s work in Eye of the Needle that he hired him to direct the third produced Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi (1983). Richard Marquand died much too young at the age of 49.

Eye of the Needle is a war film for people who don’t like war films. It has romance, intrigue, danger, and suspense that never strains credulity and challenges us emotionally.