Donald Sutherland’s Spy Thriller Is an Overlooked Masterpiece

Donald Sutherland had an uncanny ability to slip into a wide variety of genres and roles while remaining eminently recognizable. This was especially evident when he followed his Oscar-worthy performance as a grieving father in the 1980 drama film Ordinary People with a chilling performance as a ruthless Nazi spy in the 1981 spy film Eye of the Needle.

Set in the United Kingdom during World War II, between 1940 and 1944, Eye of the Needle presents Sutherland’s character, Henry Faber, as a Nazi spy who is so resolute in his quest to successfully complete his mission that he’s willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Faber’s cold-blooded nature is embodied in his nickname, the Needle, which refers to his proclivity for inserting his trademark stiletto into the rib cage of his victims. Faber’s first victim in the film is his kindly land-lady, whom he stabs to death after she enters his boarding room while he is transmitting a message to his Nazi superiors via a short-wave radio.

While the various tributes that accompanied the recent announcement of Sutherland’s death at the age of 88 rightly noted his memorable film performances in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Ordinary People, and M*A*S*H, there were few, if any, mentions of Eye of the Needle, which deserves to be listed among Sutherland’s best films and performances.

Eye of the Needle Is a Superior Thriller

By featuring a villain protagonist who is defined by icy precision and sheer determination, Eye of the Needle resembles the classic 1973 thriller film The Day of the Jackal. Like the titular assassin in The Day of the Jackal, the protagonist in Eye of the Needle, Henry Faber, aka the Needle, seems to be motivated not by any ideological conviction but rather by dogged professionalism. For Faber, when a job is undertaken, it must be completed and done well.

Like all great World War II spy films, Eye of the Needle combines action, suspense, and human interest. In one of the film’s most exciting scenes, Faber approaches a British military outpost that seems to be outfitted and poised for battle. However, after cutting through a chain-like fence and crawling under barbed wire, he discovers the planes are phony plywood replicas.

Having uncovered this deception and with the proverbial noose tightening around his neck in England, the increasingly cornered Faber must transmit his vital knowledge of the upcoming D-Day invasion to Germany by rendezvousing with a U-boat off the coast of Scotland. This is a mission that he intends to complete with every breath in his body.

However, while attempting to rendezvous with the Nazi submarine on a ramshackle boat, Faber encounters a fierce storm and is shipwrecked on a fictional Scottish island, Storm Island, which is inhabited by a husband and wife, David and Lucy, their young son, and an old lighthouse keeper who possesses the island’s only two-way radio. It’s here that his mission becomes infinitely complicated, as Faber, after being taken in by the couple as a lost sailor, embarks on a passionate romance with Lucy.

Faber’s romance with Lucy, played by Kate Nelligan, is based on mutual isolation and loneliness. Lucy’s husband, David, a former Royal Air Force Pilot, lost his legs in a car accident and is so consumed with self-pity that he’s seemingly lost the capacity to love Lucy. After David uncovers Faber’s deception, with an inevitable result, Faber tells Lucy: “The war has come down to the two of us.”

Eye of the Needle Has a Star Wars Connection

Eye of the Needle, which is based on Ken Follett’s 1978 novel of the same name, was directed by Richard Marquand, who is best known for being the director of Return of the Jedi, the final film in the original Star Wars trilogy. Marquand, who died in 1987 at the age of 49, was chosen to direct Return of the Jedi by George Lucas on the basis of Lucas’s enthusiastic response to Eye of the Needle.

The relatively unheralded status that Marquand has received in relation to his perceived contribution to Return of the Jedi and the Star Wars franchise is attributable to the serious questions that have arisen over the past 40 years regarding how much creative freedom Lucas afforded during the making of Return of the Jedi amid the persistent belief that he served as the film’s shadow director.

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Regardless, Marquand’s direction of Eye of the Needle, which has been compared to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic spy films The 39 Steps and Foreign Correspondent, is assured and efficient. Marquand’s understanding of creating suspense is also visible in his 1985 thriller film Jagged Edge, which is regarded as one of the best courtroom thrillers ever made.

The Needle Was Sutherland’s Last Great Leading Role

While Eye of the Needle received generally excellent reviews and was a modest box-office success at the time of its release, the film essentially marked the end of Donald Sutherland’s leading-man status in Hollywood. Throughout the 1980s, Sutherland, who was 46 when Eye of the Needle was released, steadily transformed from sandy-haired star to silver-fox supporting actor, as evidenced by his villainous turn opposite Sylvester Stallone in the 1989 prison action film Lock Up, along with countless other similar appearances during this period and beyond.

While modern audiences undoubtedly recognize the actor primarily for his formidable performance as President Snow in the Hunger Games film series, Sutherland left behind several relatively overlooked films and performances that are worthy of celebration and discovery, most notably Eye of the Needle, which contains arguably Sutherland’s most exciting and interesting starring performance. Eye of the Needle is streaming now on Prime Video.