Eye of The Needle
Directed by Richard Marquand
Acclaimed adaptation of the best-selling espionage thriller by Ken Follet, and directed by Richard Marquand (most famous for Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi)
Englishmen know him as Faber (Donald Sutherland), but to the Fatherland, he's the loyal and lethal spy known as 'The Needle'. Shipwrecked on a Scottish island en route to Germany, Faber befriends the beautiful Lucy (Kate Nelligan), whose marriage to a crippled, embittered pilot is faltering. Faber sets about seducing her, intending to use her to help carry out his mission and prevent the impending D-Day invasion.
Special features
• Original theatrical trailer
• Other extras TBC
• Fully illustrated booklet with new writing on the films and full film credits
US | 1981 | black & white | 113 minutes | 1 x BD50 / Region B | DVD9 x 1 /Region 2 | Cert 15
Eye of the Needle
Moderator: MichaelB
- MichaelB
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- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Eye of the Needle
Confirmed as a Dual Format release for August 20th:
- Dr Amicus
- Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 10:20 am
- Location: Guernsey
Re: Eye of the Needle
"Black & White" must surely be a mistake - the one time I saw this film (on its first UKTV Screening I think) it was in colour...
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Eye of the Needle
There are similar mistakes in the other Amazon listings (Separate Tables is given as a 1963 film), so I'm assuming they were hastily typed over previous notifications in order to meet a deadline.
-
- Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:02 am
Re: Eye of the Needle
I wonder if the alternate ending will be included?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082351/al ... t_ql_trv_5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Rozsa´s wonderful score deserves a music-only track!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082351/al ... t_ql_trv_5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Rozsa´s wonderful score deserves a music-only track!
- Mr Sloane
- Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2015 8:10 am
Re: Eye of the Needle
I caught this on Netflix a few months back, and to be honest I didn't think it was particularly good, despite a strong start and Sutherland's performance. I think it definitely has some effective moments of suspense, for example
but overall I thought the relationship between Sutherland and Nelligan's characters was far too rushed and not explored nearly enough.
SpoilerShow
the murders of the landlady at the beginning of the film and later Billy on the train
- antnield
- Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:59 pm
- Location: Cheltenham, England
Re: Eye of the Needle
Specs courtesy of Amazon:
- Director Richard Marquand's preferred cut of the film, presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
- Audio commentary by Julie Kirgo, Nick Redman and music historian Jon Burlingame
- Alternate ending sequence, which appeared on the previous UK DVD release
- Donald Sutherland Guardian Interview (1987, audio only)
- Careless Talk Costs Lives: Wartime Warnings (1940, 36 mins): three short wartime propaganda films produced by Ealing Studios for the Ministry of Information
- Theatrical trailer
- Illustrated booklet with full film credits and new writing by Little White Lies essayist Paul Fairclough
- Director Richard Marquand's preferred cut of the film, presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
- Audio commentary by Julie Kirgo, Nick Redman and music historian Jon Burlingame
- Alternate ending sequence, which appeared on the previous UK DVD release
- Donald Sutherland Guardian Interview (1987, audio only)
- Careless Talk Costs Lives: Wartime Warnings (1940, 36 mins): three short wartime propaganda films produced by Ealing Studios for the Ministry of Information
- Theatrical trailer
- Illustrated booklet with full film credits and new writing by Little White Lies essayist Paul Fairclough
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Eye of the Needle
Full specs announced:
Eye of the Needle
Directed by Richard Marquand
Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan
Dual Format Edition release on 24 September 2018
See a short clip here
Donald Sutherland (Don’t Look Now) and Kate Nelligan (The Prince of Tides) play star-crossed lovers torn between passion and allegiance in this heart-wrenching World War II-set thriller, played out against the Blitz-scarred 1940s backdrop of England and the windswept hills of the Scottish islands.
Eye of the Needle, directed by Richard Marquand (Return of the Jedi, Jagged Edge) comes to Blu-ray for the first time on 24 September, released by the BFI in a Dual Format Edition. Extras include an audio commentary, interview with Donald Sutherland and three wartime propaganda films.
En route to the Fatherland with secrets that will stop the D-Day invasion, ruthless spy ‘The Needle’ (Donald Sutherland) finds himself shipwrecked on the remote Storm Island. Here he becomes involved in a perilous affair with the beautiful but lonely Lucy (Kate Nelligan), who lives there with her bitter, crippled ex-RAF husband, David (Christopher Cazenove). But can the fierce passion of illicit love survive the bitter realities of war?
Eye of the Needle is adapted from the best-selling novel by Ken Follett.
Special features
• Director Richard Marquand’s preferred cut of the film, presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• Audio commentary by Julie Kirgo, Nick Redman and music historian Jon Burlingame
• Alternate ending sequence, which appeared on the previous UK DVD release
• Donald Sutherland Guardian Interview (1987, 73 mins, audio only)
• Careless Talk Costs Lives: Wartime Warnings (36 mins): three short wartime propaganda films produced by Ealing Studios in 1940 for the Ministry of Information
• Theatrical trailer
• Illustrated booklet with full film credits and new writing by Little White Lies essayist Paul Fairclough
Product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1305 / Cert 15
UK / 1981 / colour / 112 mins / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.85:1 / BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit) / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono audio (320kbps)
- Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
- Location: Edinburgh, UK
Re: Eye of the Needle
First-time watch for me. I like the set up and yeah, if you've seen this kind of thing, you can guess the storybeats. It takes nearly 45 minutes or so before Sutherland gets to the island and while I did enjoy the set up and the chases, it also felt a bit like going through the motions. But then there is a lovely scene at the hour mark between the two leads where they realise they are drawn to each other from a shared feeling of crushing disappointments and abandonment. The last half hour is nail-bitingly tense and the film gets high marks for not reducing Nelligan to the sort of damsel in distress but making her resilient and resourceful.
- Reverend Drewcifer
- Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 5:16 pm
- Location: Cincinnati
Re: Eye of the Needle
This is the kind of movie that would usually grab me by the throat, but it is so pedestrian in its staging and pace that I can not recommend it. Alan Hume is responsible for some of the laziest cinematography in Star Wars and James Bond, and he is a master at somehow making spherical-lens photography look like the worst kind of washed-out anamorphic mud. Eye of the Needle was supposedly impressive enough to get Marquand the Return of the Jedi job, but I suspect he was the right kind of lucky-strike budget-conscious marshmallow George Lucas needed to push around.
- Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
- Location: Edinburgh, UK
Re: Eye of the Needle
The entire first half up until his arrival on Storm Island absolutely should have been faster paced.