The Little Drummer Girl Blu Ray Review (Warner Archive Collection)

The Little Drummer Girl is a 1984 drama directed by George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, Slap Shot, and Funny Farm). It was written by Loring Mandel (Conspiracy, Love of Life, Promises in the Dark, and Countdown). It’s based on the novel by John le Carré (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Constant Gardner, The Night Manager, The Russia House, A Most Wanted Man, and Our Kind of Traitor). It was remade as a television miniseries in 2018. The budget was $15 million and it grossed almost $8 million worldwide at the box office. The Mossad’s clandestine lead by Kurtz (played by: Klaus Kinski from Nosferatu the Vampire, Vampire in Venice, Crawlspace, Creature, Schizoid, Venom, Count Dracula, For a Few Dollars More, The Great Silence, and Jack the Ripper) attempt to flush out a cold blooded PLO bomber named Khalil (played by: Sami Frey from Black Widow, Band of Outsiders, and Deadly Circuit) in Europe and the Middle East. Charlie (played by: Diane Keaton from the Godfather franchise, Annie Hall, Something’s Gotta Give, The Family Stone, Reds, Father of the Bride franchise, Manhattan, and Marvin’s Room) is an American actress doing work overseas in London. She has been lured to Greece on the promise of shooting a commercial to gain more experience and exposure. She ending up meeting Joseph (played by: Yorgo Voyagis from Frantic, Jesus of Nazareth, The Bourne Identity, and Vampire in Venice) who seduces her right away. She gets kidnapped to a house of the Israeli Mossad where she is recruited there. Tayeh sends her on to a desert guerrilla maneuvers training camp to sharpen her skills. Acting as a double agent, Charlie impersonates the dead man’s girlfriend which connects her to her target Khalil. Charlie must pull off the acting role of a lifetime to get through her dangerous mission. Khalil doesn’t really trust anyone and he’s always suspicious about new people coming into his crazy life. Can she convince him that she’s legit? or Will this be her last acting gig forever????

The Little Drummer Girl follows it’s original source material very closely but I feel like it would have been much better if it was about 20 minutes shorter. I felt like it kinda dragged at times. Diane Keaton gives one of her best performances as the lead here. This one had to be interesting for her to do. It has an actor basically playing an actor but in a very dangerous situation. I think she pulled it off and she’s one of the reasons why this is better than what it should be. The Little Drummer Girl has a large cast with all kinds of characters. I feel there’s too many here so some them basically get lost in the background. You do get to see a younger Bill Nighy in this. Klaus Kinski is the best thing about this entire production. He’s the reason to check this one out with his impressive performance. I always thought he was underrated and he holds his own against an icon like Keaton here. This is worth checking out at least once, I personally didn’t think it has much replay value to it but the lead performances are great in The Little Drummer Girl.