Watch Eye of the Needle For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Hiding behind the mask of calm solitude, Nazi German spy Donald Sutherland is as quiet a killing machine as he is a lover. Having British secrets on the intention of a full scale on Germany, Sutherland doesn't hesitate to knife anybody who stands in his way, even co-conspirators he feels might reveal too much if captured. While trying to get the information to a German submarine, his boat capsizes, and he ends up on a British island where he is nursed back to health by the unhappily married Kate Nelligan and Christopher Cazenove, crippled in a car accident on their wedding night. Sutherland's presence brings out a longing for love by Nelligan and suspicion by Cazenove, and as Nelligan gets clues of her own, she realizes that she's fallen in love with a monster. Subtle and mesmerizing, this gives an on-site into the insanity which took over the minds who chose to follow the Nazi regime. The story switches back and forth between the British investigation as to his whereabouts and Nelligan's plot to prevent him from going any further. The strength of individuals determined to stop evil keeps you on the edge of your seat, and the fact that Sutherland delivers such a quiet, often thoughtful performance, makes his character all the more creepy. This may not be in the realm of other recent Nazi related movies (such as "Marathon Man" and "The Boys From Brazil"), but it's extremely riveting none the less.

This is one of the greatest and most passionate World War 2 and/or spy movies ever made, and it is so British! :-) German spy Faber (superbly played by the ever-errant Canadian actor Donald Sutherland) was a nonconforming discipline problem as a naval cadet and so became an intelligence officer for (anti-Hitler) Admiral Canaris's Abwehr agency. Planted in England and working in transportation ... and not young enough to be conscripted ... he is in perfect position to monitor British troop and equipment strengths and movements.However, his cover is blown when his not unattractive landlady discovers him tapping out a message to home base, and he bloodily dispatches her with his stiletto "needle," evidencing a cold, calculated ruthlessness which then puts every viewer on the edge of his/her seat every time Faber is in desperate circumstances and around any potential victim. He later even kills a fellow German spy - a young courier - to prevent the latter from being captured and identifying him and his mission, directly ordered by Hitler.Only Faber is trusted by Hitler to find out if the famous and feared U.S. General Patton's First Army Group is real or a mere diversion, to threaten a D-Day landing directly across the English Channel at Pas de Calais. Hitler intuits that Normandy will be the real landing site instead, and he needs proof to goad his generals into re-focusing German forces down there.Once Faber discovers the truth about FAG, he must get the information radioed or in person back to Hitler, but MI6 - led by veteran actor Ian Bannen's Godliman - is closing in on him, and he flees north, eventually shipwrecked on a beautifully filmed island and given shelter by the bitterly hateful, unfulfilled former Royal Air Force fighter pilot and legless amputee David (grimly played by Christopher Cazenove) and his little family.But totally complicating everything is David's voluptuous, sweet, spurned, and thus emotionally and sexually repressed and desperate young wife, Lucy. Then too, there is their little boy who loves and respects his daddy as well as his mommy, even if his parents are in such unhappy turmoil.Moved out of his own emotional shell - cell - by the girl's unhappiness, Faber suddenly opens up as a human being and gives Lucy the sympathy and affection ... and sexual relief ... she craves. And so just as suddenly and irresistibly they fall deeply in love with each other.(Kate Nelligan's remarkably perfect beauties were fully displayed in a later BBC TV series, the title of which I forget. Sorry.)Sensing what has happened intensifies David's suspicions about their guest, and David finally discovers Faber's true identity and intentions. They get into a life-and-death struggle on the edge of a cliff - David wanting revenge for Faber's betrayal of his hospitality and to stop Faber's intelligence mission and Faber wanting to liberate Lucy from her domestic hell ... and for himself.This battle between a ruthless spy and a determined, patriotic amputee revives Faber's ruthlessness, and Lucy soon finds out what has happened. But to save herself and her child she must fake love and sexual ardor with him - submit and essentially prostitute herself to this unmasked monster who has murdered her husband - for fear of him killing her and her little boy. This is a scene of unsurpassed horror ... and a disturbing kind of eroticism.The climax of the film is the struggle by Lucy to save herself, her little boy - and (in loyalty to David as well) save D-Day and the Allies by somehow stopping Faber from escaping to a waiting U-boat to complete his mission. And Faber MUST get to that U-boat, regardless of any love or sympathy he has felt for Lucy.The film's climax is right down to the sea and absolutely rending.

I don't know what it is about Donald Sutherland's acting style, or vocal style, but he always seems to be acting from behind a massive wad of soggy Kleenex. He's just...I don't know, THICK? Somnambulistic? On meds? Weird.That said, I just saw the flick again for the first time since its original release, and frankly, I don't remember it ending anything LIKE that. A bad ending, too, because nothing gets tied off. What about the dead husband? The annoying child (and was the kid dubbed?)? The Scotland Yard and military pursuers? I would have liked something wrapping things up and giving some dramatic closure to it all, not just the big panoramic pull-away.And what woman sleeps with the man she knows just killed her husband? Even if she was trying to allay Needle's suspicions to protect her kid, she could always have had a headache. That last encounter made me feel way too itchy and uncomfortable...

I loved the first 100 minutes of the film. This is an old-school war movie, back in the days where there was a truly unavoidable war and the belief in a higher cause. Personal dramas take second place to the consequences of losing the war and the responsibility that entails on both sides. But people are people and no matter how noble or cold-blooded, there is always that conflict between duty and desire.For the most part, the film is a taut yet believable thriller. Everything that Donald Sutherland does is completely in character, as are the reactions of those around him. The historical details are fairly accurate (except for the hyperbole about losing the war if the D-Day site were known) which is something rare these days. The triangle is believable, as are the conflicts that develop as we learn about our protagonists.But then we get to the climactic scene at the end. The actions of our confused heroine as she flees from Sutherland are a bit annoying but explainable - and it all could have worked except for the presence of the child. I might believe that Sutherland would leave her alive (though it might have worked better had she not cut off his fingers..). I might possibly believe that she could fall in love with a man enough in two days to forget that he killed her husband, and murdered her shepherd friend. I just can't believe that after this man threatens her child that she would feel that strongly for him. She's not *that* weak especially after she had just shocked herself in an attempt to prevent him from completing his mission. So the entire stumbling sequence to get to the scene at the end where they gaze into each others eyes is *so* contrived. While such weak plot devices are everywhere these days, the lazy scripting is an insult to the rest of the film.But if you ignore that bit - it's very good.