Admirable film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This Southern erotic drama casts Taylor, Brando and Julie Harris, three actors of unrelated background to create perfectly cast roles. Harris had worked in a previous McCullers adaptation and had been nominated for an Oscar. Brando had his well known background and Taylor had just started her track into decline after a decade in the limelight. A number of factors derailed the intended result: Brando replaced other considered actors as Richard Burton and Montgomery Clift (who died just before filming began). On one side it is good that We were spared another Burton-Taylor pairing in the form of protagonists, although I think Burton would make a great love interest of Taylors in the role of her extramarital affair in this movie. Furthermore, Brando had been plagued by failures in the '60s and was not the hot billing he was back in the mid fifties though he is of course quite satisfactory here! The sepia tone and a general state of hypnotism and summer laziness are evident in the film and I think this makes it a little unbearable to watch uninterruptedly.Also, the depiction of the locations of the events in the film do not provide much evident imagery that the film indeed unfolds in the South. It cold be anywhere in the warm states of the US. If I remember right, the novel was written not before World War II so it is almost contemporary to the film. No mentions or depictions of blacks, of the social routine in the South or the boiling discontent is depicted, much less is shown about segregation and racism. Of course I believe that, though unspecified, the exact place in the South that the film takes place is somewhere outside the Deep South. THat is supported by the film itself. Virginia, NC, Tennessee, Kentucky would be ideal for the setting of the film but not e.g. Mississippi. The setting is well restricted and confined. Finally, it is one of the cases I think a team of directors would do a better job than a single director. John Huston would be perfectly matched with a theatrical director to improve direction. To add a further positiv point, it is a film that really pushed the boundaries of erotic scenes and depictions. This is evident as there are scenes which you cannot believed were shot with the specific actors(!!!), especially a particular scene with Taylor that surprised me. Violence, sexual repression and a general atmosphere of desire boil into the film not always explosively but the film nonetheles deserves the characterisation of an erotic drama, in my opinion.

"Reflections" has a fantastic cast. Brando, Taylor, Brian Keith, Robert Forster? Hard to find a better group of actors. But "Reflections" fails on almost every level. Taylor, as usual, looks lovely and plays her part well. Forster isn't given much to work with but does a good job with what he has. Brando? Well, Brando walks around looking confused and bewildered for most of the film and is totally wasted here. The look on his face after the horse beating incident is supposed to be "horrified" but comes off more along the lines of "chronic brain damage". I don't think "laughing out loud" was quite the effect Brando and Huston were going for, but that's the effect it had on me. Throughout the film the characters and their relationships are almost totally unbelievable. The only worthwhile character with any depth in the entire film is Brian Keith's Lt. Col. Langdon, who is struggling with his depression and loneliness in his relationship with his wife, ably played by Julie Harris, who is mentally unstable after the death of her child. John Huston's direction is competent and well done but his choice of the "goldtone" filter on every scene was odd and distracting. The ending manages to be shocking, unsatisfying and ridiculous at the same time. Quite a feat. I'm the kind of person who will quit a film if it doesn't hold my interest. And for whatever reason "Reflections In A Golden Eye" kept my interest. I will probably never watch it again but I am glad I saw it once.

This movie hits all the Southern Gothic marks and then some.Elizabeth Taylor playing a shrill (strike that, she always played shrill) unfaithful wife, and daughter of an Army officer she's always referring to, is in 'Well, Daddy said..." Gotta have a Daddy- obsessed cheater. Bonus points: This is her one and only late career role where she's not playing the craziest person in the room. So there's that.Marlon Brando. He always brought at least a soupçon of crazy to the table, so he's well-placed here. Unfortunately, you can barely understand what he's saying most of the time, so you have to go on the occasional flicker in his wooden expression. This has been interpreted by critics as homosexual desire. (is the naked guy on the horse he keeps seeing real? If he's real, is he really naked? Is he really riding a horse?) Bonus points: he fills out that uniform very well.Julie Harris: according to the script, she's the craziest in the bunch, having chopped off her nipples with garden shears when her baby died. (Only in the South...) But her character seems WAY more sane than...Zorro David as Anacleto, her cray cray Filipino houseboy. He makes Rip Taylor look like... well, I can't come up with anyone. But compared to Anacleto, Rip Taylor is normal and serious. Speaking of which,Brian Keith, who seems to have wandered in from another movie entirely. Something with a good script, directed by Fred Zinnemann or someone similar. He plays Julie Harris's husband, Liz's adulterous honey. The tally: three crazy people, one of whom with a semi-disturbing back story (33 hours in labor, with her houseboy playing doula. Only in the South.) One adulterous affair. One Daddy's girl. One naked guy riding a horse. One of the crazy people beating a horse. (Feel free to turn away, or go to the fridge for a soda during that scene. I wish I had.) Two deaths, on on-screen. One of those was not the horse, otherwise, I'd give this movie an even lower rating.

"Reflections in a Golden Eye" begins with a quote from the original novel's author Carson McCullers, "There is a fort in the south where a few years ago a murder was committed." Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando and Murder! It's a grand opening, full of promise. Unfortunately, the quote turns out to be the most exciting part of story. The film is in what you could call sepia/color; not entirely color, but not sepia, either. This is an obvious play on the "Golden" title. Got it...Well-built young Robert Forster (as Williams) takes care of the horses, especially a white stallion named Firebird. He belongs to well-built wife Elizabeth Taylor (as Leonora). Her husband is mumbling major Marlon Brando (as Weldon). He is more interested in Mr. Forster than Ms. Taylor. Both display a nice pair of naked buttocks. A body double plays Taylor's part. She is having a not-so-secret affair with boring neighbor Brian Keith (as Morris). He is married to psychologically disturbed Julie Harris (as Alison). After a tragic pregnancy, Ms. Harris cut off her nipples with garden shears. She enjoys being fawned over by swishy Filipino houseboy Zorro David (as Anacleto). He reflects the title with a peacock's eye, and Forster brings it home by being both an exhibitionist and a Peeping Tom. Whew...All of the above sounds better than it appears.**** Reflections in a Golden Eye (10/11/67) John Huston ~ Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Forster, Julie Harris