9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not What You'd Expect, July 30, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: White of the Eye [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This is a great movie. Charting a particularly difficult marital crisis, the film addresses subjects of love, honesty and loyalty. Is it possible to love someone unconditionally - no matter what? How much can you really know someone you are married to? At what point are you emotionally betrayed by a lover?
The movie follows a typical 80's slasher framework for the first two acts. This cliched, predictable structure allows plenty of opportunity to explore the issues mentioned above.
In the third act, beginning with a grisly bathroom discovery, the slasher movie genre stutters. Expectations here would be for a frantic, exciting chase, with the tables ultimately turned on the killer. We don't get that - really - and this has led some to judge the film as a failure.
Instead, Cammell explores more fully the relationship between the husband and wife. In a hugely unsettling sequence we see their original courtship, the closeness between them now and their reluctance to function in the world apart from each other.
It might be risky, but Cammell pulls it off - just - to make a film that is compelling, disturbing and absurdly romantic. The epilogue, on the surface lifted directly from the 80's straight-to-video handbook, contains an elegance and poignancy which throws this movie in a wonderfully uplifting light.
Performances from the two principles, particularly Moriarty, are faultless. Cinematography and editing are of a similar high standard to Cammell's other work. For some, the movie will be stylistically a period piece, but it is none the worse for this.
If you want a typical slasher movie, get Halloween instead. However if you can see past the cliched 80's format, occasionally awkward arhouse pretensions and extremely challenging subversion of genre, "White of the Eye" is one of the best-observed relationship dramas you are likely to see this, or any, year.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hidden Gem, January 16, 2010
Donald Cammell, the brains behind 'Performance' and 'Tilt', was a talented Brit maverick and a very square peg in Hollywood's round A-hole. Moving to LA after the success of 'Performance', a one off indy style movie for whom Nic Roeg has historically taken the lion's share of the credit, Cammell naivley stumbled around the studios corridors of power pissing the establishment off. It is remarkable that they even gave a Green Light to his 'White of the Eye' project. The result is a remarkable film - made despite constant interference by nitwit exec producers from the studio who, having deigned to let him have the keys to the toy chest then seemed intent on breaking Cammell's spirit. Harassed and ostracized by the Los Angeles 'Film' community, the ignoramuses eventually succeeded when in 1996 Cammell took his own life. What a loss to us all who love films other than the lamentable trash that those same nitwits love to serve up to us! That same LA attitude probably explains why this movie has failed to drag itself clear of the lawyers and secure a much deserved DVD release.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF MICK JAGGER'S 'PERFORMANCE', July 9, 2011
Because director Don Cammel stunned me with his brilliant film Performance
Performance I took a gamble on this pick-up truck Americana. This is nowhere near the caliber of Jagger's surreal rock/crime masterpiece. But as an early attempt, it has its moments.
Cammel died young, probably from an O.D., certainly from his excessive lifestyle. He loved to shock; it's seen here in his excessive storyline and graphics. Aimed at unnerving viewers? Unnerving accomplished. Scripting roiled from chaotic to almost amateurish, in parts just bad. Occasionally 'emerging genius'. Art direction/editing/production qualities and suchlike were so-so, but when into intense moments they created real tensions, represented very good film making. But only momentarily.
If you are a film buff or charting the progression of film per se, this is worth your time. Otherwise. . .
(Oh, years ago I saw a documentary on Don Cammel's life and work. If you're a fan it's quite a presentation; if you just have prurient interests, it's a knockout. Sorry, can't remember the doc's name.
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