Customer Reviews

White of the Eye [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I HAVE LONG BEEN WANTING A DECENT COPY OF THIS MOVIE, MY ONLY ONE BEING A SLOW SPEED VHS DUPE, WHEN I FOUND THIS RELEASE FROM THE NETHERLANDS. THE MOVIE SEEMS TO BE INTACT, ALTHOUGH MY OLD COPY RUNS 111 MINUTES, BUT THIS MUST HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM A VHS COPY, THE PICTURE QUALITY IS PRETTY FUZZY. I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY MANAGED THE SUBTITLE ON/OFF OPTION IF IT WAS A VHS TRANSFER, BUT THIS COPY OBVIOUSLY NEVER GOT NEAR A PIECE OF FILM, THE VISUALS ARE JUST THAT SOFT.

THAT SAID HOWEVER, THE MOVIE IS UNIQUELY WORTH SEEING, EVEN IF THIS IS THE ONLY VERSION ON DISC AVAILABLE TODAY. ALTHOUGH SCARING UP A TAPE COPY WOULD PROBABLY SERVE JUST AS WELL.

To call this film a "slasher flick" is to completely miss its point-- and to disappoint those seeking a blood-n-guts slasher movie. It wouldn't even work well to call it a "psychological thriller". And to call it a tense "family drama" would make it seem too dry for what's here. It's just a tricky film to put in a box.

For those seeking (or avoiding) a slasher film, this film is reserved in its visual brutality-- as that's not the point. There really are no graphic murders or anything like that, but the film doesn't give short shrift to the psychological brutality of a serial killer: the tension is very, very real. Someone else said the killer's identity is revealed early on-- it is not.

It's a small part whodunit and a large part character study-- shown in lush visuals with a rich soundtrack. The main players are rock solid with believably complex performances, while the supporting players are all individually quirky, interesting-- and somewhat suspect. Defying the cliches of any given genre leaves you guessing as to the guilt or innocence of even incidental characters.

The layers of the story are more complex than you'd expect from a film anyone would call a "slasher" flick-- dealing with a family in breakdown around infidelity at the same time the lead character is the innocent subject of a murder investigation. This material is handled utterly believably and the turns and twists in the story are so much more gratifying because of it.

The story is told in a present-day narrative (with present-day conventional film style) and a series of flashbacks which are shot and processed like the film was shot in the 70's itself-- a bit of a gimmick that mostly works.

The visuals are beautiful-- shot outside Tucson, Arizona with plenty of ambitious camera work, and the soundtrack is outstanding. Nick Mason (of Pink Floyd) and Rick Fenn supply most of the music and it ranges all over the map-- light and billowy to tense and creepy.

The ending of the film is what essentially keeps it out of any particular genre-- it's like the story unravels and goes to pieces. The experience is like the intelligence level of the film dropped a notch at the end and I've always found this unsatisfying, but I do not know how I would have ended it and I just take this ending as the only ending I have. The epilogue is more thoughtful and, unlike in a slasher film, it is not there simply to set up a sequel.

I wish this film were more widely available-- certainly, the number of titles that have been made available on DVD ahead of this overlooked masterpiece demands some explanation.

Given limited release over here in the 80's it always stuck in my mind and on revisiting this recently I was struck by how much it resembled an Americam take on Argento which is good enough for me. Hard to find this was a Dutch release and though the killers identity is known early on it still has a terrific power and captures something with it's flashbacks and portrail of the heat in it's desert locale.
Good and nasty in places, again it doesn't fall back on jokes to relieve the tension....well worth a look.

I saw this movie in 1987 and then in 1994, i gave it to someone because it's just too violent, but it's a good movie.

This bizarre slasher movie tells the story of David Keith, a stereo systems expert working in the Tucson area. Through flashbacks (Keith's hair is longer and darker otherwise we wouldn't know it's a flashback) we learn how he met his current wife and her boyfriend Alan Rosenberg (well before he became Cybil's ex-husband) as they traveled across country. Rosenberg leaves without her and in the second half of the movie, he turns up apparently to become a potential suspect in the murder mystery of women being ritualistically killed.

This movie tries to be a lot more than it is. While I enjoyed "Performance" with Mick Jagger, this movie fails at whatever it tries to accomplish. There are lots of subtexts to the story that go nowhere. The marriage of David Keith and Cathy Moriarty is not a happy one. She is unlikeable and just reacts without considering the outcome of her actions.

The movie has no apparent continuity. It jumps all over the place. The acting by the cops is atrocious. David Keith and Cathy Moriarty do a creditable job.

Since the director committed suicide in 1996, his movie total is small and this one might be viewed by those who consider themselves completists. Othrwise it might appeal as a slasher movie with the predictable suspense that genre occasionally provides.

I can't recommend this movie nor can I think of a reason to see it again.

*SPOILERS*

This is the best bad movie in my collection. That's not to say it isn't a hundred per cent worth owning. Its nearest antecedent is Roeg's 'Bad Timing', although lacking his discipline. It is a kick in the pants to the corporate blandness of Hollywood thrillers with their identical plinking piano. Made by a Brit, class conflict is an inevitable theme as a married couple, both from the wrong side of the tracks, discover that a hitherto unspoken and possibly unrealised part of their alliance, their jaundiced view of rich women, will unexpectedly tear them apart.

Unfortunately, the plot is also boneheaded. For instance, the killer knocking out his victim by picking her up, turning her upsidedown and hitting her head on the bathroom carpet. Er, right. Slamming her head against the wall I'd believe. Also, a man is shot between the eyes with a humungous machine gun for half a minute without letting go of the machine-gunner's foot. The deus ex machina final re-appearance of Mike Desantos and the explanation given instantly kills your belief in the story. Suspence is dissipated in favour of a puzzling burlesque between two paramours who are both mad as hatters and dressed to prove it. Pathetic losers are not scary and the film collapses, ruining the climax.

The Dutch DVD is murkier than my VHS version. The sound spec of 2.0 I'm almost certain is a 5.1 and is the best part about the disk.


White of the Eye could have been a masterpiece but merely adds to the list of flawed cult films clogging up one's shelf.