bch@mcnc.UUCP (Byron Howes) (10/29/84)
- - - mod.movies - - - - - - Volume 1, Issue 3 - - -
"The Little Drummer Girl"
reviewed by Peter Reiher
John Le Carre's "The Little Drummer Girl" is one of the finest of
all spy novels. The story concerns terrorism and anti-terrorism,
focussing on the Israeli/Palestinian situation, and is full of
convolutions and surprises. The book's multiple themes include the
moral ambiguity of both sides, the coercive power of love, and the cost
of violence to those who perform it. George Roy Hill's film version of
the book manages to keep a surprising amount of both the plot and the
themes in the film, but something has been lost. The film, while good,
is not one of the great spy films.
The problem is Hill. His direction is professional, but doesn't
capture Le Carre's shadowy world of men and women willing to do
anything for their cause. Hill's great talent is for mixing drama and
action with humor, as demonstrated by "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid", "The Sting", and "The World According to Garp", among many other
films with similar tones. "The Little Drummer Girl" comes to life on
the few occasions when Hill can legitimately set a lighter tone. At
all other times, even in action sequences, the film is, well, not
lifeless, but also not electric.
Part of the problem would have been hard for anyone to avoid. As
mentioned, the plot is complex (not by Le Carre's standards, perhaps,
but certainly by anyone else's). Loring Mandel, the screenwriter,
almost miraculously fits in all of the important elements of the story,
and still manages to touch upon the major themes within a two hour
script. However, this fine job of compression requires Hill to play
most scenes rather slowly so that the audience can follow what's going
on. Hill has always preferred to set a quicker pace. A great script,
as opposed to this very good one, or a director more comfortable with
leisurely pacing might have been able to get more from the project.
"The Little Drummer Girl" was a controversial book which managed
to offend both Palestinians and Israelis by presenting the justice of
both of their causes and the savagery of both sides' methods. The film
preserves this point of view. The story concerns an Israeli plot to
catch one of the most important Palestinian terrorists, Khalil. The
Israeli scheme centers on the terrorist's preference for using European
women recruited to the Palestinian cause, and the relative visibility
of Khalil's brother, who is part of the terrorist organization. To
make the plot work, Kurtz, the Israeli leading the operation, must
infiltrate an agent into the terrorist group. He chooses Charlie, an
actress with pro-Palestinian leanings. Kurtz's first task is to
convince Charlie to do it against her convictions. The method used is
brilliant, playing on Charlie's deepest insecurities and need for love
rather than trying to convert her to the Israeli point of view. Now
Charlie is ready to start on an adventure that will take her across
Europe and to Palestinian training camps in Lebanon and will require
the actress to give the performance of her life.
Diane Keaton gives a pretty good performance as Charlie. The role
was originally written for an Englishwoman, but the conversion to an
American doesn't much harm the film, and was an economic necessity.
There is currently no British actress of the right age with the box
office power necessary to bring large audiences in. Keaton's weakest
moments come when she is onstage, doing Shakespeare and "Saint Joan".
She is much more convincing playing Charlie playing herself. This is
the sort of a performance which might get nominated for an Academy
Award, in a slow year, but certainly won't win. Klaus Kinski is strong
as Kurtz. Hill gets more from him than any director other than Werner
Herzog. Yorgo Voyagis playing Joseph, the Israeli agent most respon-
sible for recruiting Charlie, is strong but somewhat inarticulate. The
supporting cast, largely unknowns (to me, at least), is very good.
Technically, "The Little Drummer Girl" is a typically competent
Hollywood movie, with the unusual twist that most of the technical
people are Europeans. (Milos Forman also used a European crew for
"Amadeus", but Forman comes from Czechoslovakia, making him more
inclined to use Europeans.) Since "The Little Drummer Girl" was shot in
England, Germany, and Israel, using local talent made a lot of sense,
and paid off.
"The Little Drummer Girl represents an unusual thematic departure
from Hollywood's usual pro-Israel line, only possible because it was
based on a novel whose moral ambiguities could not be safely rewritten
while preserving the essential qualities of the book. This film
presents a point of view many people have never seen, but is evenhanded
in its revelations. It's worth seeing on this basis alone, but it also
offers a moderate amount of suspense and a large helping of the kind of
intellectual satisfaction given by a tight, complex plot well
presented. Good performances and good production values, including
fine use of locations, add to a rather satisfying film. A more ap-
propriate choice of director might have led to an excellent film.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher