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Popular Culture Review
form. Through their mutual agent Morton L. Leavy, Hill and le Carre met in Swit
zerland, where it was decided that Hill would make the film version of The Little
Drummer Girl. Hill employed veteran television writer Loring Mandel to translate
le Carre’s vision to the silver screen. The result of the Hill and Mandel collabora
tion was a two-hour film — long on plot development and shorn of le Carre’s indepth characterization and political insights. In fact, while the novel may be per
ceived as attempting to deal with the root causes for Palestinian militancy, the film
presents a decidedly more pro-Israeli stance. The filmmakers assembled an inter
national cast, including American Diane Keaton as Charlie (in the film version
Charlie’s character is changed from British to American); Greek Yorgo Voyagis as
Joseph; German Klaus Kinski as Kurtz; and the French Sami Frey as Khalil. The
film was only a moderate success, earning less than such 1984 films as Cannon
ball II and The Muppets Take Manhattan. Critical response was also considerably
mixed.
Perhaps one of the most enthusiastic endorsements of Hill’s film came from
Jack Kroll in Newsweek. Kroll found the film’s politics to be equitable, depicting
“the mixture of pragmatism, ruthlessness, and ideals on both sides.” While many
reviews were critical of Keaton’s casting and Hill’s direction, Kroll described Charlie
as a part that the actress was “bom to play,” while Hill had “never been better in
shaping and pacing a movie that has the excitement, romance and resonance of the
best popular art.” Equally enthusiastic about the film was The Washington Post's
Paul Attanasio, who praised Keaton’s performance and credited Hill with produc
ing that rarest of Hollywood feats —“the thriller of ideas.” Attanasio interpreted
the film as pro-Israeli because they were “more imaginative and efficient players
in the game.” The review concluded by observing that the combative Israelis and
Palestinians “seem as pointlessly vicious as rats competing for a discarded cab
bage.” 14So much for the film of ideas and using art to understand the root causes of
terrorism.
Rex Reed also extolled Hill’s version of The Little Drummer Girl, terming the
film a “gripping and powerful study of espionage and terror that is also riveting
entertainment.” Reed commended Hill for attempting to present both the Israeli
and Palestinian perspectives, but in the final analysis, Reed read the film as favor
ing the Israeli side by portraying the Palestinians as “cold-blooded killers,” while
the Israeli agents were depicted as “dedicated professionals who phone their wives
and kids in Jerusalem between murders.” A similar interpretation was offered by
David Edelstein of The Village Voice, who termed the film more pro-Israeli be
cause in the thriller genre the Israelis are the heroes while Khalil and the Palestin
ians are the villains. Nonetheless, he congratulated Hill for attempting to make an
“honorable” thriller which would antagonize partisans on both sides of the Middle
Eastern political divide.15