Reflections in a Golden Eye

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1 hr. 49 min.

Drama

LGBTQ+

List

55%

22 Reviews

Tomatometer

58%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

An Army major (Marlon Brando) with a lusty wife (Elizabeth Taylor) feels homosexual in the 1940s South.

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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 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 out of 5 stars

07/20/23

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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 out of 5 stars

04/17/23

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martin b

See the movie with a real movie lover where you can debate the characters and plot afterwards. For most of us it's tedious, depressing with very unsatisfying ending. Accomplished actors often make pretentious movies like this with convoluted characters and scenes that let them spread their wings. This one ended up dated with no legs for the long term but I'll bet the cast enjoyed doing it.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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 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 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

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John Huston

Director

Elizabeth Taylor

Leonora Penderton

Marlon Brando

Maj. Weldon Penderton

Brian Keith

Lt. Col. Morris Langdon

Julie Harris

Alison Langdon

Zorro David

Anacleto

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Brando regains the peak of his magnificent talent. After his series of six or seven disastrous performances, even his admirers had given him up for lost. But it was too soon.

Rated: 4/4

Jul 2, 2018

Full Review

Empire Magazine

Brando gives perhaps his worst ever screen performance, not counting Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.

Rated: 2/5

Mar 23, 2011

Full Review

TIME Magazine

All that remains praiseworthy is the film's extraordinary photographic technique.

Mar 23, 2011

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Such a unique motion picture experience that it's no wonder it flopped with moviegoers and most critics.

Rated: 3/4

May 16, 2020

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

The golden version gives the film a heated, otherworldly quality, as if its characters are wondering around in some sort of erotic dream, lost in a tangled web of their own unexplored desires.

Rated: 3.5/4

May 13, 2020

Full Review

Gene Youngblood

Los Angeles Free Press

In short, this movie is a perfect demonstration of how the Hollywood syndrome has corrupted, distorted and misrepresented the art of film throughout its brief history.

Feb 3, 2020

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Synopsis

An Army major (Marlon Brando) with a lusty wife (Elizabeth Taylor) feels homosexual in the 1940s South.

Director: John Huston
Screenwriter: Carson McCullers, Chapman Mortimer
Distributor: Warner Home Vídeo
Production Co: Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Genre: Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 11, 1967, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 18, 2016
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: 35mm, Scope (2.35:1)

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