The novel by John Le Carré is the best spy novel ever written. It is a work of pure genius and it elevates the genre to literature. Daniel Silva has made a career out of basically borrowing everything from this book for his Gabriel Allon series.
Forget about the fact that she's a terrible actress, but Diane Keaton is just too old for the part. Charlie was a very young and hip woman, not a middle-aged dork...and she was English. She isn't even hot enough for the role. In the movie she's obviously too old for the Arab terrorist Michel who she was supposed to be involved with. Yorgo Voyagis as Joseph was also a little too old for the part and he is just too much of a Rock Hudson lookalike for my tastes. At least he could have lost the porn star moustache.
The best bit of casting was Klaus Kinski as Kurtz.
If ever a movie needs to be remade it would be this excellent story.
Update: It has been remade as a TV series which better suits the novel. The TV series is better, not great, but better.
Forget about the fact that she's a terrible actress, but Diane Keaton is just too old for the part. Charlie was a very young and hip woman, not a middle-aged dork...and she was English. She isn't even hot enough for the role. In the movie she's obviously too old for the Arab terrorist Michel who she was supposed to be involved with. Yorgo Voyagis as Joseph was also a little too old for the part and he is just too much of a Rock Hudson lookalike for my tastes. At least he could have lost the porn star moustache.
The best bit of casting was Klaus Kinski as Kurtz.
If ever a movie needs to be remade it would be this excellent story.
Update: It has been remade as a TV series which better suits the novel. The TV series is better, not great, but better.