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Eye of the Needle

The book Eye of the Needle was made into the movie Eye of the Needle.

Which one did you like better, the book or the movie?  There are 7 votes for the book, and 5 votes for the movie.

Book details for Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle was written by Ken Follet. The book was published in 1978 by Harper Paperbacks. More information on the book is available on Amazon.com.

 

Read More About This Book

One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolate... Read More

One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory.

Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life.

All will come to a terrifying conclusion in Ken Follett's unsurpassed and unforgettable masterwork of suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Movie details for Eye of the Needle

The movie was released in 1981 and directed by Richard Marquand. Eye of the Needle was produced by MGM (Video & DVD). More information on the movie is available on Amazon.com and also IMDb.

Actors on this movie include Donald Sutherland, Stephen MacKenna, Philip Martin Brown, Kate Nelligan, Christopher Cazenove, George Belbin, Faith Brook, Barbara Graley, George Lee, Arthur Lovegrove, Colin Rix, Barbara Ewing, Chris Jenkinson, William Merrow, Patrick Connor, David Hayman, Ian Bannen, Rupert Frazer, Jonathan Nicholas Haley and Alex McCrindle.

 

Read More About This Movie

Eye of the Needle is a superbly effective World War II spy thriller from the Ken Follett bestseller of the same name. Donald Sutherland is "the Needle," a German spy in England bearing critical information on Allied invasion plans that he must deliver p... Read More
Eye of the Needle is a superbly effective World War II spy thriller from the Ken Follett bestseller of the same name. Donald Sutherland is "the Needle," a German spy in England bearing critical information on Allied invasion plans that he must deliver personally to the Führer. He's so named because of his preferred method of assassination, the stiletto. As played by Sutherland, he's a coldly calculating psychopath, emotionlessly focused on the task at hand, whether the task is to signal a U-boat or to gut a witness to avoid exposure. On his way back to Germany, a fierce storm strands him on an island, occupied only by a woman (Kate Nelligan), her disabled husband, and the lighthouse keeper. A romance of sorts develops between the woman and the spy, due to an estrangement of affections between the woman and her husband, whose accident has rendered him emotionally crippled as well. Much of the suspense of the latter half of the movie has to do with this romance, and the way it begins to reveal the Needle's motivations and whether there's a sympathetic personality buried somewhere inside him, though he remains by-and-large tantalizingly enigmatic. Early on, we discover that he may not enjoy the hand life has dealt him. When a courier asks him about the way he lives, and "What else can one do?" the Needle answers, "One can just stop." But as the film makes amply clear in its final third, one doesn't stop, does one? The direction by Richard Marquand (known primarily for thrillers such as this one and Jagged Edge, although he also did Return of the Jedi) is crisply done, boasting numerous suspenseful episodes, including a deadly encounter between Sutherland and the disabled husband, which is jaw-droppingly surprising. --Jim Gay