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Director: Donald Cammell
Starring: David Keith,
Cathy Moriarty, Alan Rosenberg, Art Evans, Michael
Greene, Danielle Smith
Screenplay: Donald Cammell,
China Cammell
Country: USA |
Hailing from an eclectic background, the immensely
talented Donald Cammell (formerly a painter immersed
within London's swinging 60s underground whose father
penned biographies of such controversial figures
Lord Byron and Satanist Alistair Crowley amongst
others) was perennially frustrated by the limitations
placed on him working within Hollywood's conservative
studio system, hence his sporadic spawn never quite
lived up to their thematic promise. The surreal Performance (1970), co-directed
with Nicolas Roeg, was let down by a muddled script,
somnambulistic performances and self indulgent direction,
whilst science fiction genesis drama Demon
Seed (1977) was disappointingly mundane
and beset by studio interference. Prior to tackling Wild Side (1995), upon which Cammell
again suffered the indignity of extensive studio
meddling – which, it is thought, drove Cammell
to his own aesthetically-motivated suicide in 1996;
he took on this adaptation of the 1983 novel Mrs.
White.
Cammell's picture opens in riveting style
with the bravura killing of an attractive housewife
- ritualistically slaughtered amidst the splendour
of her sumptuously decorated kitchen – a
sequence which incorporates 55 cuts in a mere
2m, 22sec and is beautifully intercut with slow
motion shots of elegant décor being shattered
- juxtaposing classic oppositions such as violence/beauty
and civility/ferocity, thus creating a symbolic
representation of what Cammell sees as the awful
beauty of violent crime. It transpires, that across
Arizona a number of women have been murdered in
a similar manner reminiscent of American Indian
ceremonies. However, this time investigating detective
Charles Mendoza (Art Evans) catches a break. Seems
that tire tracks found at the scene match one
of only 44 sets recently sold in the area, a line
of enquiry that leads them to half-Indian native
Paul White (David Keith). White, a gifted stereo
technician from a small town outside Tucson, Arizona
is an average, sane, happily married father of
an adorable little girl, and yet Mendoza, perhaps
overzealously, sees him as the only logical suspect
… but then Paul's wife Joan (Cathy Moriarty)
begins to find evidence that makes her doubt her
husband...
Cammell's tempestuous career had always suggested
a visual genius trying to break free of the mechanics
of straightjacketed storytelling, and White
of the Eye showcases his ocular strength
as a filmmaker – there's less of a
preoccupation with what is being said, than the
framework and context in which it is being said.
Hence, White of the Eye is first
and foremost a love story - albeit one seen from
an oblique p-o-v, and much more of an absorbing
character study than a mystery. Cammell's picture
is also a profound meditation on the aesthetics
of violence - one murder victim is bound, dumped
in the bath, allowed up for a breath, then held
underwater whilst a mirror is held above her so
that she can watch herself drown - and the mystical
- the phrase "White of the Eye" itself
refers to an Apache legend about those who look
closely into the eye of violence, and how it marks
them, it is said that it allows the mystical eye
to be upon them - something that fascinated Cammell
throughout his life.
The film is beautifully shot by Larry McConkey
– Cammell's eye for artistic detail
amidst strikingly violent tableaux acts as a window
into his character's souls, whilst the haunting
soundtrack by Rick Fenn & Nick Mason helps
lift what in other hands might've been just
another stalk n slash picture out of the ordinary
and into the realm of the strikingly original.
David Keith is superb in the multi-layered lead
role as the charismatic protagonist, although,
whilst support playing is generally competent
it is the film's one major weakness, most
especially Cathy Moriarty, who's character
comes across as dislikeable selfish and weird
– not ideal in a role that should be the
source of audience identification.
Judging by the documentary Donald Cammell:
The Ultimate Performance (1998), White
of the Eye suffered less in the way of
creative interference than the other films in
his canon, although the US, distributor cut a
pivotal moment, a kiss between lead David Keith
and another key character. White of the
Eye can, even so, be regarded as Cammell's
purest vision. An interesting note, when the combination
of dark subject matter and graphic violence resulted
in the film's initially receiving an X rating
from the Motion Picture Association of America,
Marlon Brando, a close friend of director Donald
Cammell, wrote a lengthy appeal to MPAA analysing
certain sequences in the film in great detail
and praising it for its originality and its artistry.
It was eventually cut down to an R, but that didn't
help it in the marketplace. In much the same fashion,
and for much the same reasons as Michael Mann's
superb Manhunter (1987), White
of the Eye, a film that challenged the
American viewer and demanded they do more than
park their brains at the box office and pick up
a 3-gallon tub of popcorn before taking their
seats, flopped at the box-office. |
