Tubi Thursday: Eye of the Needle (1981)

 A Film that both relates to this Anniversary AND to Star Wars.
I'll get to the explanation for that later.

This is the seminal Thriller called...

Donald Sutherland is working for British Intelligence in 1940.

Unfortunately (for his Housekeeper), he's also a spy.
Get used to seeing him stab people with that knife (or needle).

Four years later, he's assigned a big task- find out about Operation Overlord.
That's D-Day, in case you missed the 100 Articles about it today.

He gets his proof, but runs into trouble.

More stabbing.

Now he's got to get to Germany and his cover appears to be blown.

He travels by Car, by bike, by train and even by boat.

That leads him to Storm Island (aka the original Title of the Book that this is based on).

He's rescued by Tom, a would-be RAF Pilot who got paralyzed in a car accident on his Wedding Day (right before his deployment).

Things are tense with him and his Wife.

Sutherland bides his time on the Island while he waits for a U-Boat to pick him up.

Things go well for a while, as he hooks up with the lonely Wife.
By the end, however, there's lots of shooting and violence (despite what this happy still says).

To see how it all plays out, stream the Film now.

A really good and tense Film.  It is easy to see why it so well-reknowned.

I'm definitely glad that I picked this over an Asylum Film.  No lie.

Sutherland plays a cold, calculated man that is just shy of pure evil.  You see glimpses of his humanity early on and more by the end.

The Film takes a neat turn once he gets on the (originally) titular Island.  The Plot basically becomes a twisted version of a 1940s Romance Tale.  In those, it is usually two Men (usually in the Army in some capacity) who fall for the same Woman.

In this case, one is a Nazi Spy!

One thing the Film does well is repetition, but with key changes.  Without SPOILing too much for you, it gives you a happy moment involving the Wife.  Later events make the same moment now seem tragic.  It's really well done.

Like with Siege, I'd be interested in seeing a version of this done where we DO NOT know the truth about Sutherland.  Maybe show it in flashbacks or something like that to build the tension on the Island- just a free pitch for when this inevitably gets remade for Paramount + or something.

As for the Star Wars connection mentioned at the top, it was this Film (especially being shot on time and on Budget) that got Director Richard Marquand the gig of directing The Return of the Jedi in 1983.

There's a real killer for you to Direct!

A true classic.  Happy D-Day- you owe it all to this random lady in Scotland!