Click, click - you're dead. (The Eyes Of Laura Mars (DVD))

Member Name: salgirl

Product:	The Eyes Of Laura Mars (DVD)
Date:	18/06/01 (223 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good plot with a moral debate attached

Disadvantages: Visually dated - but then I'm being picky

An interesting film. I'll be brief on the outline of the plot because the juicy bits to ponder derive from the issue it tackles.

Laura Marrs is a photographer, arty and controversial. Not for her the bog standard nice piccies of top models, she opts for violence, destruction and anger to portay her shots, and as a result she has become famous and much debated.

During a photoshoot she becomes alarmed by a vision that overtakes her. She can see someone as they are being murdered. And more confusingly for her, she sees them as though she herself is carrying out the murder. And it gets worse. She knows the victim.

Upon finding out that it has taken place, exactly as she had foreseen it, Laura is shaken to her core. But it won't be the first time. Little does Laura know, but she's going to have to get used to witnessing the horrific acts. There will be a few. And they will all have connections with her.

A rather handsome detective is assigned to the murder case, and a hint of romance is in the air as he tries to solve the killings, and help Laura in the process.

The movie itself is well acted with some fine performances from Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones. It's written well enough for the unbelievable plot to be believed whilst the film is playing, but as I said, the real gem is the issue of using women in degrading circumstances to portray fashion.

The shots are not explicit, lets face it, this was to be mainstream cinema in the late 70's, so as shocking as they may have seemed back then, it's nothing to what they'd show now. But having said that, the context of the argument is still forceful and will have the ability to inflame impassioned debate to this day.

Is there a case for letting fashion overstep the boundaries into controversial areas? Benetton toe-tested this idea not that long ago and found that people still had their limits of tolerance for what is acceptable adverti
sing. Considering some of the shock tactics that have been used since then, although granted not specifically with the fashion industry, maybe boundaries have been pushed far enough back for the ideas shown in this film to be deemed suitable.

It may well already have been done - I am not a fashion guru or victim and don't buy the necessary magazines enough to keep my finger on the pulse. However, I'm banking on the fact that moral outrage would have made a dint in the other media for me to have picked up on it.

But this film all hinges on the vision of degraded women and the effects it has on those who view or interacts with the images. It puts forward the argument outlined above, and also, does the visual violence encourage a physical violence?

The story works along the lines of every good thriller. More than a few red herrings, a couple of twists here, a number of turns there and you're kept reasonably in the dark as to who the killer is.

It's all very 70's in it's feel, obviously helped along by the style of the clothes and make-up, but it has enough stamina to be watched today and still enjoyed.

The film's soundtrack is "Prisoner" by Barbara Streisand and which helped make the film popular just by the very sound of her belting this little ditty out.

A good track. A good film. A good evening in with friends to watch and debate the issues therein.

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