The haunting that is this movie - Eye of the Beholder (2000) Discussion

[–] skenw 21 years ago

Wow!! I can't believe someone out there feels this POSITIVE about this movie. I found it to be a very confused, odd, pointless movie. I never thought I would ever find someone out there who liked it. Although I will say I too found it haunting...haunting like a root canal with no anesthesia. I saw this movie in the theater with about 100 other people and when the credits rolled and the lights came up, no one moved. People just stared at the screen until someone blurted out "What the hell was that?!?" I couldn't have said it better.

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[–] AmadeusSucks 21 years ago

I, too, liked this movie a bunch. The focus wasn't so much on the narrative, a punched up beginning middle climx and end, but a flow that brings a lot of realism to what is a very extraordinary tale. Also, it had that art-house intelligent feel, akin to Lynch (and KD Lang had a bit role), that made me want to like it, but that could just be the pseudu-intellect in me.
I like that I don't completely understand it, that I'm pressed to watch it twice, that i want to understand why Judd's character acts the way that she did. Ewan's character, on the other hand, constntly offers an impressively understandable character, one I identified with a bunch despite the extremity of the plot. These two strange characteristics for the two characters, or rather, the -effect- of these two characters left me with a very real and interesting feeling, one worth just as much as the thrill of a horror flick or the triumph of an athlete-flick.
good film. it's like mood music, but it's a film. and its real pretty

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[–] spacegc2c 20 years ago

I saw this movie in the theater too, and the audience at the showing I attended also seemed to dislike the film (heard much negative grumbling as I left the theater). But, you know what, I really liked this movie. I watched it again recently when it was showing on cable at around 2am (ran into it by accident and I couldn't not watch it because I remembered how much I liked it). I cannot exactly articulate why I like it. Basically, I like movies that bring me into their world, ones where I never think about the fact that I am watching a movie. This one does that (for me) very well. Give it a chance and decide for yourself.

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[–] onairbob 20 years ago

One of the most incomprehensible movies that I've seen in years. First of all, the music drowns out half the dialogue so you can't tell what they're talking about. At one point, Hilary asks the so called hero how he's managing and he has some off the wall comment that explains nothing. That was a great question. Months go by and he has no job and no change of clothing, but he travels all over the US and on up to the end of the world. He eats in restaurants and stays at motels. How DOES he do it? I'll tell you how memorable this trash is. I saw it a year ago and when I saw it again tonight, I didn't recognize it until half the movie went by. Oh yeah, and the gimmick with the little girl just faded away half way through this waste of film. It should have faded at the beginning. It just goes to show you that some movies can build up a cult following no matter how awful.

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[–] hdcom8 21 years ago

this is an amazing film, with a great deal of storyline problems. This was Stephan Elliott's intention, so as to create red herrings and mystery. If anyone wants to find out how go an adaption this is try reading the explosive book, "the eye of the beholder" and ask yourself whether you would be able to do a better job or whether you would be able to get some of those scenes in the book on a hollywood film. The answer is you couldn't. The film would be banned if you did. Some critics have discarded Ashley judd's character as hallow, well take a look at the book fools, Marc Behm give her a cardboard cut out character, it's Stephan Elliott, How made her human of the page, it's ashley judd who made you love her on screen.

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[–] [email protected] 20 years ago

You're all friggin nuts. I wanted to see Ewan's character dies such a horrid death I actually threw the DVD case out the window. This movie is NOT an art film, like other idiots claim. It's a mass of confusion that definitely does not do the book *any* justice. Someone said that the director MEANT to be confusing and to tell a story about...nothing. Seriously. I laughed so hard when you said it "has an air of realism". Realisitically? I kept asking "What the hell is wrong with him???". How can anyone relate to his character? Chasing around a woman who kills men, has thousands of snow globes, is homicidal and can't make up his mind if he's an idiot or not. This movie is garbage, pure and simple.

If the point of this one was only the obsessions of the two main characters, then they achieved it. I was totally obsessed with the idea of finding the makers of this crap and beating them to a pulp.

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[–] ZeBigLewboski 20 years ago

Your opinion seems to be the popular one, but I must say that I enjoyed the movie quite a bit... The extremely flawed characters appealed to me somehow.

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[–] skyrunner_666 20 years ago

I liked this movie. but i dont get the end.. did joanna die?

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[–] dmespar 20 years ago

I'd like to know as well, does she die and if Ewan's character set everyhting up for her to "get away", why does he chase her?

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[–] wrfenton 17 years ago

This is the worst movie that has ever been made in the history of time. Period.

If you talk about the air of realism in this movie, your a douche bag. This movie simply put, was worse then a stubbed toe.

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[–] hdcom8 20 years ago

You'll find that in the book that Joanna does die. The ending was originally to have been The Eye morning over Joanna's grave, but was cut before it was released.

As to quality, as much as I love Stephan Elliott as a director, this is just one of those film where the sum of its parts are greater the then sum of the whole. To those of us who work in the entertainment industry, we dread films like this. Eye of the Beholder must have been a fantastic script, or else the female lead would not have been so fiercely fourght for by Ashley Judd (against Sharon Stone and others), and wouldn't of attracked so many big names for such small roles. If you look at the scenes individually they are fantastic, well acted, well written, and well directed. However this film just doesn't 'cut' together with scenes working against each other rather then for each other. This has to be one of hollywood's worst nightmares. The only reason why this film was even released (dispite it's merits and awards) is because in late 1999 Ashley Judd and Ewan McGregor were suddenly propelled into stratosferic stardom.

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[–] 20 years ago

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[–] vade457 20 years ago

I too found this movie haunting... in the sense that I still have nightmares that I have a couple of hours of pure hell spent watching this movie that I can never get back. Starring both Ewan McGregor (pre Star Wars) and Ashley Judd, I expected this to be a good movie. Now when people ask me what the worst movie I've ever seen is, there is no debate. This is it. I've gone to other bad movies since and had friends say that it was the worst movie ever. I say, "You haven't seen 'Eye of the Beholder' yet, have you?" It's that bad to me. Maybe it wouldn't have seemed so bad if I hadn't had such high expectations going into it, but I will never allow any of my friends watch this movie. Everyone remember now, friends don't let friends watch horrible movies.

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[–] eossite 20 years ago

Great movie, I’m buying the DVD. It is a beautifully filmed story and definitely not for action lovers. The film doesn’t let you go after it’s ended.

My favorite scene is at the end as Ewan’s character rides on the motorcycle besides the car in slow motion. The whole ending is brilliant.

It is Mind-blowing

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[–] Eric6655 20 years ago

I'm still haunted by the fact that I wasted 2 hours of my life watching this

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[–] honesto 20 years ago

I saw a bit of this movie on late at night and just had to go buy the DVD. I just saw it last night.

I can understand how the main character's motivations can be confusing or incomprehensible for some, but I LOVED this movie. Not just because it's different, but because it explores a man on the edge of madness, driven there by sadness. He's so buried in his world of electronic surveillance that he's lost touch with real life, and that makes it easier for him to not see the boundaries of morality and sanity that he eventually crosses. He becomes a guardian angel to a character that most people would avoid, but he has no moral compass, being lost in technology...

Some people hated "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", but I loved that, too. Ok, this movie isn't as good as that one, but it deals with personalities that are equally incomprehensible to mainstream audiences.

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[–] smooth_jackass02 20 years ago

Stephen's life seems so much like mine's. We both find intriguing girls but they either die on us or swing off some douchebag's nuts.

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[–] 20 years ago

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[–] tj_mower 20 years ago

It seems as though either you love the movie, or hated it. After I first saw the movie, I too said "What the hell was that?" But I agree with the thread title in that it was haunting, and stuck with me, so I bought it on DVD to watch again. (Well, that and I wanted to see the scenes with Ashley Judd's breasts that were cut on regular tv.)

With some of what has been said I agree. The acting and performances in this movie are great. The movie as a whole is not as great as the performances added together. The movie suffers from a lack of a continuous plot. The movie does not flow, it's far too choppy, and the confusion, whether intentional or not, hampers it more than it helps.

The Eye is on the verge of madness, and what he does in this movie is all from the position of being mad. His wife left him, he's a virtual hermit, anti-social, and he sees visions of his daughter. His obsession with his lost daughter transfers itself onto Joanna Eris, because they she too is a daughter who has lost her father and needs protection. The Eye's obsession builds over the course of the movie, driving him to do the crazy things he does. If you understand that, it goes a long way to understanding the great performance by Ewan in selling the character.

Ashley's character Joanna is more complicated. She was abandoned by all of her family, raised in adolesence by the very bitter warden lady, and taught to not let anyone in as a self defense. Especially men. She has taken that teaching to an extreme, and uses it to kill the men that she lets get close to her. And the reason she lets them get close is to use them and rob them. As the movie progresses, she finds the blind dude and shacks up with him because he can never really see the true her, what she hides behind her eyes, and he is safe to let in because of that. After Ewan kills the dude, she starts to break down, makes bad choices, and basically begins to go crazy as she realizes someone is following her. Unfortunately, her character is hampered by the weak plot, and bad directing that does not show us the character's transformation effectively. We are left guessing and wondering, and I think many people get lost there.

The ending is what really sucks about this movie. Personally, if the plot dictated that she dies, it should have happened directly due to the Eye's obsession, not some wacko car accident. That ending just blows. I think it would have been far more effective to have her live and escape, and have the Eye die trying to help her escape. That would bring a closure at least to the obsession, instead of leaving us with a Joanna dead and the obsessor left to ponder life. Either way, that ending just blew, and really screwed up the movie, imo. But then again, I truly believe that most movies suffer from the fact that they do not know how to end.

Anyway, I liked the movie and I'm glad I bought the dvd.

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[–] novabird 17 years ago

honesto

well said and in three sentences too..... what clarity!

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[–] siska1000 20 years ago

I really liked this movie. Maybe because I had such low expectations!
I love everything Ewan has done, so of course, I thought he was great, but Im not a big fan of Ashley Judd...but I actually liked her in this.
I think cold blooded killer fits her well or something.

Ewan totally pulled off the obsessed, lonely character. I felt for him throughout even though I knew he was making f'ed up choices.

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[–] tbradsha 20 years ago

I want to add my support for this movie. I think it's brilliant, went out and bought the dvd, tracked down the book and even the authors other books. I just wish there were more movies like this.

BTW, I lent the DVD to a guy in work, and he hated it. Guess you either love it or hate it...

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