The Little Drummer Girl
by George Roy Hill
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DVD details
Actor: Diane Keaton, Klaus Kinski, Sami Frey, Yorgo VoyagisDirector: George Roy Hill
Brand: Warner
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-06-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Bros.
DVD Reviews of The Little Drummer Girl
DVD Review: See the movie, read the book
Summary: 5 Stars
John le Carre is far and away my favorite spy-genre author, and The Little Drummer Girl one of my favorite books, along with the Karla trilogy (Tinker, Tailor; Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley's People). I can't dispute some of the negative points in the other Amazon reviews, but still, the movie is wonderful. And it is about as faithful to the book as you could hope for in a 2-hour production.
I would've picked someone besides Diane Keaton for the role of Charlie. She is outstanding in comedy, especially Woody Allen's Love and Death, not as good in dramatic roles. Part of the problem is her maturity -- she just isn't the right type to play a naive, easily-influenced radical and Picadilly Circus sit-in demonstrator. Still, she does a creditable acting job.
The rest of the casting is perfect, especially Klaus Kinski as Kurtz, the Israeli spy master and counter-terror team leader, and Yorgo Voyagis, who recruits, manipulates, and ultimately falls in love with Charlie. As you go through the movie, you are hit with one fine performance after another -- Thorley Walters as Ned Quilley, Charlie's agent; Sami Frey as Khalil, the arch terrorist; Eli Danker as Litvak, Kurtz's rabid assistant; Kerstin de Ahna and David Suchet as Helga and Mesterbein, the traveling German terror duo (a scary homage to Boris and Natasha? Could le Carre be a Rocky and Bullwinkle fan?); and the youngsters of the counter-terror team, who judging by their names may actually have been Israelis.
The best part of the movie, for me, is the painstaking recruitment of Charlie, culminating in the "audition," where the Israeli team breaks down her defenses, then embraces her as a member of the group. This is pure le Carre, fraught with subtlety and deception, and is the sort of plotting that makes his stories so engrossing, and a little challenging. His works don't depend on the car chases and exploding briefcases of Ian Fleming.
Another delight is the inclusion of some of le Carre's best lines -- "Cable them, 'Yes, repeat, No.'" "To catch the lion, first tether the goat." "I've killed all the Palestinians I ever want to kill." And so on.
Add a great musical score by Dave Grusin (Three Days of the Condor, The Fabulous Baker Boys), and you have a really enjoyable movie. Try the book, too -- I think you'll like it.
Description of The Little Drummer Girl
Palestinian intelligence says she's loyal to their cause. Israeli counterintelligence says she's "bright, creative, underused, romantic and a liar." Academy Award? winner* Diane Keaton stars as Charlie, a repertory actress and Palestinian sympathizer who plays the role of - and for - her life when she's thrust onto the center stage of international espionage. Klaus Kinski and Yorgo Voyagis co-star as shrewd Israeli operatives who plot to use Charlie as bait to capture an elusive Palestinian terrorist (Sami Frey). Director George Roy Hill masterfully arranges the pieces of this cloak-and-dagger puzzle based on John le Carré's bestseller into a dazzling thriller racing full tilt through London, Munich, Athens, Jerusalem and Beirut. March to the enthralling beat of The Little Drummer Girl.This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
Middle-eastern terrorism provides the dense, perpetually timely context of The Little Drummer Girl, loyally adapted from John Le Carré's complex bestseller. It's slow going at first, taking pains to establish the tragically complicated plight of Charlie (Diane Keaton), a left-wing, pro-Palestinian actress, recruited by Israeli intelligence in 1981 to play the role of a lifetime: Once her loyalties are turned, she will lure a dominant Palestinian terrorist (Sami Frey) into a deadly trap. She's an unwitting pawn, vulnerable to romance (particularly with her Israeli recruiter, played with subtle conviction by Greek-born Yorgo Voyagis), and Keaton brings sympathetic naiveté to her character's potentially lethal dilemma. Klaus Kinski is arguably miscast as the Israeli intelligence chief, but viewers are more likely to stumble over the film's constant flow of intricate detail. The Little Drummer Girl is not always easy to follow, but attentive viewers will be rewarded, and the plot itself is, sadly, as relevant as ever. --Jeff Shannon
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