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 the
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:
Twelve years have passed, 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 Marlon Brando's monologue with the mirror was the genesis of "You Talking To Me?" scene for Robert De
Niro in Taxi Driver and that the pictures
of him in uniform 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.