Eye for an Eye: Maybe This Stays in the Vault
Eye for an Eye. Paramount Pictures (1996).
Eye for an Eye was considered substandard in the 90s, but is it still?
I don’t know what my parents were thinking when they let me see Eye for an Eye in the theaters as a 14 year old girl, but it gave me a good lesson about not opening the door for strangers. Maybe this is why I would literally hide when I was home alone and someone would ring the doorbell; I still do this.
This semi-forgotten movie still stands out in my mind as one of those 90s movies that made an impact on me, but maybe it’s because I was young at the time. The film barely made more in the box office than it took to produce it, and it was harshly criticized by audiences and critics when it was released.
It came out during a time when such brutality was still considered to be a taboo topic to make a movie about. Audiences today have become accustomed and almost numb to such scenes because our society is enthralled by violent crime stories, whether fictional or not. If Eye for an Eye were to be released today, it might do better or be better received.
I was curious to see if audiences back in the 90s had the right idea about Eye for an Eye. Was the film just a thin and hollow plotline about a sensationalized story of a young girl violently murdered by a serial rapist, who had a vigilante justice obsessed mother? I decided that adult me would need to watch what young me thought was a good film.
Outcome: It was okay; it wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t a piece of trash. The rape and murder scenes are still harrowing to watch. I actually stepped out of the room when Kiefer Sutherland’s character, Robert Doob, attacks his second victim because it’s just gruesome and disturbing to see.
Sally Field, who plays Karen McCann, the mother of the first victim, is believable as someone who is overcome with grief at the loss of her child. I’m sure it’s realistic when her character can’t muster up the strength to get out of bed for work, has outbursts of anger at people around her, and is seemingly distracted and lost in her own thoughts at any given moment. But, I mean, it’s Sally Field. She’s an actress that has the sort of range it would take to portray someone like this.
Even though Sutherland is always the perfect villain, his acting as Robert was a bit over-the-top at times. Things like pouring hot coffee on a stray dog, recklessly storming around Los Angeles, kicking a dumpster to show just how bad of a dude he is, and generally grunting out his lines wasn’t really necessary. The aggression was kind of cheesed up as someone who is prowling around and destroying lives.
I can see how audiences in the 90s weren’t into this movie, but I again point to the fact that people from that era were possibly turned off by the sexual violence shown on screen. Sadly, movies and television shows have amped up the sexual violence in the decades that followed Eye for an Eye’s release, and is now somewhat tame in comparison.
Would I watch this movie again? Probably not. Would I recommend this movie to someone that never saw it? Maybe. It’s one of those 90s movies that will more than likely stay in the vault.