Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan in Eye of the Needle.

It's always hard to review a movie that is based on a favorite book and Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett, is one of my favorite books. Because of that, it's very hard for me to remain objective when I watch or write about this movie. I just can't help but compare it to the source material and by that standard it's nowhere near as good.

 In 1944, when the Allies were preparing to invade France, they tried to keep the Nazis guessing as to where they would invade. Would it be in Normandy, with its wide open beaches, or would it be at Calais, the closest city to England? To keep the truth from being known, the Allies perpetrated one of the greatest acts of deception of all time. They built fake warships out of balsa wood. They constructed phony barracks that would look real from aerial photographs. They broadcast fake radio traffic and issued orders to non-existent regiments. They stationed General Patton in East Anglia to give the impression he was leading the invading army. Because of this subterfuge, the Nazis kept their Panzer divisions off of the beaches because they weren't sure where they would be needed. The plot of this movie posits, what if a Nazi spy discovered the Allies' secret?

Donald Sutherland plays that Nazi spy. His name is Faber, but his Code Name is The Needle. He obtains photographs of the fake army barracks and phony planes. He knows that the Army in the East is fake and therefore that the invasion will most likely take place in Normandy. Unfortunately for him, British intelligence is hot on his heels and he is forced to run for his life to Scotland where a German U-Boat is scheduled to pick him up and whisk him and his photographs back to the fatherland.

In the book, this first half is exciting and detailed. Faber is a daring, ice cold and quite deadly spy. He's very good at his job and even though he's a murderer and a Nazi you will find yourself on his side. You don't want him to succeed, but because Follett creates such an interesting and strong character, you don't exactly want him to get caught either.

Faber of the movie is quite a different matter. He's still good at his job, but he's not nearly so threatening. In the book I picture him looking like Jason Statham, but here, as played by Sutherland, he's more effete and not very physically imposing. As an example, in most adaptations Hollywood increases the action, but here it's played down. Faber kills five men during a fight in the book, but here it is reduced to two. I don't think Sutherland could have believably pulled off killing five.

The problem with this first half of the movie is that it races through the plot as if sprinting for the finish line. It condenses the action to the point of seriously diminishing the tension. It also drastically reduces the part of the men who are hunting the Needle by combining the two of them into one and removing all personality from the remaining character.

In the second half of the story, Faber ends up on Storm Island off of the coast of Scotland. He is washed up there during a storm when he tries to take a boat to the rendezvous with the U-Boat. Living on the island is a married couple, their son and an old man. The husband is confined to a wheelchair and is excessively bitter about it. The wife, Lucy, is lonely and longs for physical contact. A contact Faber is only too happy to reciprocate while he recuperates and waits for the submarine.

While the movie rushes through the first half of the story, it stretches out Faber's time on the island, trying to make a true love story out of it. Instead of removing scenes from the story, it actually adds some, including a picnic. We also learn some psychological details about Faber and what makes him tick that are absent from the book. None of the additions are an improvement.

Most of the time I'm complaining about movies being too long, but this is a movie that should have been longer. Or perhaps, better still, should have been made into a mini-series instead. This is a great story with rich characters that need to be fully explored. This condensed version still has some exciting moments, but it needed more character development and background to the story.

I know that I'm biased and that this movie does still manage to entertain. I was just hoping to see a better representation of the book that I love.

Did you enjoy Scott's review? +2 -0