Reflections In A Golden Eye
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Actor: Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon BrandoDVD: Region Code 1
Movie Reviews of Reflections In A Golden Eye
Movie Review: A work of genius in a psychologically disturbing yet beautiful film.
Summary: 5 Stars
This film, even by contemporary standards, is a bit shocking in subject matter. However, since the film was originally made in 1967, it is amazing that the studio, director, and actors were all willing to bring a very difficult story to motion picture screen. John Huston, as a director, has always had that bravery to tackle difficult novels and interpret them in a masterful manner. Beside Carson McCuller's novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye, he also has interpreted Flannery O'Connor's Wiseblood and James Joyce's The Dead, both of which are complex literary masterpieces that would almost defy film-making. But this film is an under-appreciated masterpiece.
However, brave actors at the height of their careers were also willing to participate in a story that was far from mainstream experience. Marlon Brando provides a performance that almost defies description. As a repressed homosexual career Army Major, Brando does an excellent job of interpreting a man barely able to sustain a mask of sanity as homosexual compulsions eventually drives him to rash acts of violence against himself, his wife, her horse, and others. He invites punishment from his wife and then accepts it like a stoic. He often practices social conversations in front of mirrors and yet he is constantly stiff and formal with his associates. He can not escape the life he seems to have built for himself and thus at times is very upset and dispirited.
Elizabeth Taylor is superb in the role of the Major's wife, Leonora. Taylor and the storyline reveal her to be a beautiful spoiled military brat who has married a handsome, masculine, career officer with a repressed secret that undermines their relationship. As a sexually frustrated wife, she meets her sexual needs with an affair that is so open that everyone on the military base knows it is occurring, with the possible exception of Major Weldon Penderton. Major Penderton may know about her affair with Lt. Colonel Morris Langdon, their next-door neighbor, but he sees it as punishment for his dark secret. Her passions are strong and require more than Colonel Langdon, for she must also direct her anger toward the stoic, handsome, mystery of a husband with whom she has linked her fate. There is a wonderful line where she strips nude in front of her cold husband and then asks him if he has ever been shackled and chained and beat in the street by a naked woman. She also releases some of her pent up passion through horseback riding on her beautiful white stallion, Firebird, an animal that her husband sees as somewhat of a rival.
Some may indicate that this is a dark Southern Gothic tale by a Southern writer. It takes place in a post-World War II army base in Georgia where officers and their wives make use of a stable of horses, maintained by the enlisted men. When riding, there are multiple trails in the southern forest that surrounds the Army base. This forest is especially important in this film for it is here that Leonora and Colonel Langdon frequently go to have sex among the blackberry bushes. It is here that Private Williams, a handsome animal force from nature, rides a black mare nude. It is here that Major Penderton pushes his wife's horse into panic and frenzy in a wild ride of desperation to escape his life condition.
Private Williams is a fascinating character, partly because he only speaks once or twice in the entire film, and yet his actions bring about the crisis of identity for Major Penderton for he becomes the object of male obsession. He is a force of nature drawn to nature and destined to appeal to the nature hidden within others. He is as one with horses and the forest where he takes off his clothes and either rides or naps in the nude. He recognizes in Leonora an animal instinct and animal passion that is unreleased and seething. As a voyeur, he observes Leonora taunt her husband while she is nude, and then sees her husband contemplate a hidden picture of the Apollo Belvedere on a post-card. However, Private Williams has his own secret, for he becomes obsessed with Leonora and enters the Penderton home nightly to watch her sleep and to smell her clothing. Robert Forester plays this role very well for it requires very little dialogue but much facial intensity.
There could also be a Jungian interpretation of Private Williams, for he acts as a shadow archetype for Major Penderton. He nightly enters the home of Penderton (which is the symbol of the psyche) as if the repressed homoeroticism is breaking through the unconscious into consciousness. Major Penderton has romanticized a world of male warriors and a society of men that Leonora is intuitive enough to recognize as a veiled confession of homoeroticism. But surely such a situation where a Major is sexually obsessed with a handsome Private who in turn comes into their house at night to smell the sexually frustrated wife's underwear is a tragedy and crisis just waiting for explosion.
Julie Harris plays the role of Alison Langdon, the mentally disturbed wife of Colonel Langdon. But as is many classics, she may be mentally ill but she sees all. She sees that her husband is unfaithful and she sees that Private Williams enters the Penderton home on a nightly basis. She is tended to by an effeminate butterfly of a man, Anacleto, who is the houseboy for the Langdons. Alison lost a female child in childbirth and mutilated her nipples afterward in an act of grief and an emotional break from reality.
With a challenging storyline that would highly disturb some viewers, and exceptional performances by some of the most talented actors in film history, the film is further enhanced with excellent cinematography that captures the murky world between the structured army base and the wildness of the surrounding forest.
Much more could be said of this film which is a work of art. Like any work of art, it may require some thought and reflection to begin to mine the multiple meanings that emerge from such a drama, but it is well worth the viewing.
Summary of Reflections In A Golden Eye
Bizarre tale of sex, betrayal, and perversion at a military post.Similar DVD Movies
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