Reflections in a Golden Eye

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Charlene H Although many of the motivations and relationships were left unexplained or muddled, it definitely kept my attention throughout. I hope to watch it again to see what I can pick up with hindsight. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 04/03/24 Full Review Red T What a Strange Film with a All Star Cast & Director with a weird result. The acting is surprisingly just ok. Taylor is the best thing in this and she's only decent honestly. For 85% of the film Taylor & Brando don't even interact really. Brando barely has any dialogue for most of his performance and Harvey doesn't say a single word. The editing isn't that good either. This never weaves the stories really of each couple/person together in a cohesive narrative. I understand the underlying theme is sexuality and sexual norms but it comes across as abstract stories merged together rather than each character having unique challenges that contribute not just to the whole of a message but the whole of the story also. I feel similar about this to The Last Picture Show in that sense where it feels like the characters share the same setting but not the same story. The lack of a focused narrative, nothing special acting all eventually start to weigh on this and make it feel like a slog by the final 30 minutes. Everything else is ok fundamentally speaking as well. I understand the color filter is supposed to convey through the perspective of lust and desire but it comes off more as distracting than anything. Huston could've just used red lighting to convey this instead. Heck Hitchcock did a decade before this in Vertigo. Harvey's character feels completely unneeded and the storyline of the horse beating feels out of place. This needed a tighter narrative, more dialogue for certain characters, and more scenes of confrontation between Taylor & Brando to take advantage of the greatest assets this has and finally get rid of the gold filter. Honestly unless your a die hard Taylor fan I can't recommend this to anyone. I appreciate they wanted to try something risky but it just doesn't work that well unfortunately for casual viewers. (Maybe it does for Art House Film Fans but I can't speak for that) Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/20/23 Full Review David H One of the strangest movies I've ever seen. The acting is good but the plot and premise is bizarre. One wonders what kind of mind would conceive of a movie like this. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/17/23 Full Review Audience Member I was almost ready to award this film 5 stars, but Brando's recurrent mumbling made me feel as though I was missing some critical dialogue at key moments in the story. If this film were released in 2022, not 1967, some of the insinuation about Brando's sexuality could have been more clearly defined, and perhaps, better understood. Liz Taylor does the best she can, seeing as the overarching theme seems to be, "What will Weldon (Brando) do next?" Julie Harris is genuine in a role custom-made for her -- neurotic and uncomfortable with herself. Her husband's (Brian Keith) infidelity with Taylor seems to be somewhat of a distraction in the movie, while we wait to see if Brando is still stalking Private L.G. Williams (Robert Forster). My main annoyance with this film is the stretch of imagination I had to overcome to accept that Liz Taylor would never stir or even completely awaken in shock to find a man leering at the foot of her bed (several times). The final scene is decidedly over-the-top, and I found the film's golden hue to be less than clever after almost two hours. With all that said, the word bizarre best describes this film, and bizarre is always worth a shot. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member I wanted to like this; how can John Huston make a bad film? Well, I gave it 17 minutes and nuthin' happened. An out-of-shape Marlon Brando mumbled in a Southern accent. Either Huston or the cinematographer decided that a sepia hue would be nice. Well, that might be fine if the thing weren't so dreadfully boring. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member It is not an unpleasant movie, but it's mostly flat. It deals with life around a military base, with repressed homosexuality as well as two opposing ways of living. On one hand, we have Leonora, with her simplicity (and spoiled upbringing), on the other, most of the other characters, with their complexity and traumatized existence. This is perhaps the best executed aspect of the movie. When it comes to repressed homosexuality, it's terribly underwhelming, but I'm sure it felt tumultuous back then. We continuously chase after a climatic event, but nothing feels climatic; all is flat, and somewhat boring. A sort of human comedy, people, their lives and existences. But nothing really develops, but rather repeats without major developments. The movie is very ambitious, but might've fallen in short of its ambitions. For example, the characters are probably meant to have great depth, but their depth does not transpire, thanks to very subtle innuendos/ symbols that never really mount to nothing of concrete despite the incessant repetition. The sepia color setting did not help. All said and done, again, the movie is not unpleasant, and has an existential tone to it that will linger. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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