Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

White of the Eye Blu-ray Movie Review

Don't blink.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 23, 2015

As someone who has dealt with a variety of workmen traipsing in and out of my various homes through the years, I can state without fear of much rebuke that some of these guys have seemed at least a bit on the questionable side. During a major home remodel my wife and I endured many years ago, we found out once the project had started that one of the guys working the job was a felon with a very long record, including attempted murder. On a somewhat less personal level, every time I see the Angie’s List advertisement that features a number of different kinds of helpers magically appearing to flaunt their wares, I can’t help but think that the piano tuner looks seriously disturbed (and I am someone who needs a piano tuner on a regular basis). Which brings us to one of the central conceits of the interesting thriller White of the Eye, a film that traffics in some relatively standard serial killer tropes but which has a compelling psychological undertone which gives it a rather distinctive flavor. The film is a bit more structurally and (especially) stylistically dense than many films of this ilk tend to be, with a story that utilizes flashbacks to inform what’s going on in “current” time, and a number of visual bells and whistles like bleach bypassing performed on various sequences to give the film an unusual appearance.

Someone has been killing well to do women at various Arizona locations in and around Tucson, and a Tucson CIS police detective named Charles Mendoza (Art Evans) is on the case. Mendoza’s investigation brings him to a guy named Paul White (David Keith), a guy who (in the pre-home theater days) is a high end audio installation expert who may have had contact with at least some of the victims. While the “is he or isn’t he the killer?” aspect of the plot plays out in the contemporary timeframe, a series of flashbacks slowly starts to detail certain aspects in the past involving Paul, his wife Joan (Cathy Moriarty) and a “third wheel” named Mike De Santos (Alan Rosenberg), a guy who probably thought Paul was the third wheel until Paul and Joan ended up as an item.

The first hour or so of White of the Eye plies a kind of psychological thriller territory that is a bit reminiscent at times of other “three handers” like Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water, especially with regard to the simmering tensions within the relationship of the focal couple and how the third person’s interactions play into everything. This gives the film an undeniable mood, though the simultaneously unfolding elements that are more akin to traditional police procedurals sometimes don’t blend especially organically with the roiling emotional content.

While there’s no real question as to who the killer is, despite a number of not especially artful attempts at misdirection, once the film offers up its big “reveal”, in a way White of the Eye actually becomes more involving, as the focus turned more specifically to Joan’s part in the whole drama (it’s notable that the source novel the film was based on was entitled Mrs. White, a good indicator of who the true main character of the piece is). Director Donald Cammell had a fairly brief and ultimately aborted career which started with a relative bang with Performance, but which for whatever reason failed to really gain much traction thereafter. Cammell committed suicide in 1996, leaving only a handful of films in his wake. White of the Eye suffers from some haphazard writing (by Cammell and his wife China), but Cammell keeps things moving briskly, offering several rather ingeniously staged murder scenes and getting excellent performances out of the cast.

White of the Eye Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

White of the Eye is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.83:1. This release came with an interesting cover letter from Scream Factory which states:

The back of the packaging lists that this presentation is from an "All new transfer taken from the original camera negative." However, this needs some clarification. . .The HD transfer is recent (about a year old) but it was not created specifically brand new for our release.

Scream's letter goes on to apologize for any misunderstanding. The film itself is presaged by this text announcement:

The 2K transfer of the 35mm negative was done by Arrow Video in the UK and supplied by our licensor, Cinema 7.

Sharpness, grain and clarity fluctuate during the film as director Donald Cammell used different stylistic choices during the filming, including a "bleach bypass" process during some scenes.

With all of those perhaps needless caveats out of the way, it appears that this was sourced from the same master as that utilized for the British release of the film put out by Arrow which was reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov here. Svet's comments on some of the fluctuations clearly on display throughout the film are echoed by me, but this release does suffer from some occasional compression anomalies. There is quite noticeable macroblocking in the credits sequence and some of the heavier grain tends to assume the yellowish or even multicolored edge that seems to recur fairly regularly in some Shout! releases. While most likely "baked in" due to the high contrast ambience of the bleach bypass process, there's some noticeable crush in the darkest moments, with very little to no gradation between black tones.

Note: I've attempted to provide several screenshots which approximate those provided in the review of the British version so that those interested can do side by side comparisons.

White of the Eye Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

White of the Eye offers both a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. There's a noticeable difference in both amplitude and general forcefulness between the surround and stereo tracks, and my recommendation is to go with the 5.1 track if your home theater setup supports the format. The film has some really interesting music, including some kind of Mark Knopfler-esque guitar cues, and those sound moody and evocative. The first murder sequence offers some really nicely done sound mixing as various kitchen items get smashed in the maelstrom. Dialogue is cleanly rendered and well prioritized, and there are no problems of any kind to warrant concern.

White of the Eye Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Into the White with Cinematographer Larry McConkey (1080p; 11:00) is a really interesting sit down with the cinematographer, who discusses the dysfunctions that Cammell seemed intent on fostering around the set, as well as some of the various techniques which were employed in the shooting of the film.


• Into the Vortex with Actor Alan Rosenberg (1080p; 17:51) is a typically well done Scream supplement, which allows this familiar character actor a chance to discuss his overall career as well as this particular film.


• Eye of the Detective with Actor Art Evans (1080p; 15:36) does much the same service for Evans.


• Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Sam Umland (1080p; 5:31)


• Alternate Credits Sequence (1080p; 2:27)


• Bleach Bypass Sequences (1080p; 11:50) is a somewhat misleading title, as this supplement actually present raw footage of various moments from the film before the bleach bypass technique was applied.


• Audio Commentary with Donald Cammell biographer Sam Umland. Umland is decidedly on the scholarly side of the commentary trade, and as such tends to be a bit stiff in his delivery. He offers a lot of information about Cammell, including disputing some aspects of the director's sad suicide, while also providing a number of picayune factoids about various aspects of the shoot.

White of the Eye Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

White of the Eye has a palpable mood, but it never quite hits the bullseye, especially once things go all Grand Guignol in the final few minutes. Still, Cammell offers a really distinctive visual style (one that presages a somewhat similar approach by Oliver Stone in U Turn), and performances are first rate, at least given some of the preposterousness of the screenplay. Best appreciated as an ambitious curio, White of the Eye now has two Blu-ray releases (albeit one in locked Region B), both with excellent technical merits and interesting supplements. Recommended.