On R List of Movie Reviews
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Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
2/07, 3/19
2/07:
Unfairly bashed by countless critics and viewers alike, Reflections in a Golden Eye is a surreal film that's a mix of
high quality and incomprehension.
The performances are excellent, most especially from Marlon Brando in a role that was meant for soon-to-be-deceased Montgomery
Clift. Elizabeth Taylor, Brian Keith, Zorro David, and Robert Forster make for wonderful treats. The photography is unique,
and Tony Thomas wrote the following in The Films of John Huston:
"It evolved a costly and complicated process of desaturating the film's color until only a gold and slightly pinkish image
emerged. [Cinematographer Oswald] Morris called the effect on the film's mood 'quite extraordinary.' Warner Brothers didn't
agree, however, and released the film in full Technicolor, which made the film pictorially striking and quite beautiful to
look at, but decidedly worked against the emotional impact Huston wanted Reflections to have."
All in all, I'll have to see Reflections in a Golden Eye later for a re-evaluation.
3/19:
It's twelve years later, and I realize now Reflections in a Golden Eye is a bad movie.
It's just too soap operatic for my taste. Elizabeth Taylor overacts every chance she gets. Marlon Brando is angry at himself
for no reason. Zorro David needs to stop being so blatantly effeminate. Robert Forster goes around and around the woods in the nude
for who knows what reason. Julie Harris...Julie Harris...please shut up, for goodness' sake.
Tennessee Williams had never written such trash. In fact, he didn't, but it's Carson McCullers of
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter fame who did. It's interesting that a couple
of things came out of this film for Brando: his monologue with the mirror which became the genesis of "You Talking To Me?" scene
in Taxi Driver and the pictures
of him in uniform which would be used in Apocalypse Now.
All in all, when I think of Reflections in a Golden Eye, I think of the urine-stained cinematography.