| Eyes of Laura Mars | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Irvin Kershner |
| Produced by | Jack H. Harris Jon Peters Laura Ziskin |
| Written by | John Carpenter David Zelag Goodman |
| Starring | Faye Dunaway Tommy Lee Jones Brad Dourif Rene Auberjonois Raúl Juliá |
| Cinematography | Victor J. Kemper |
| Editing by | Michael Kahn |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 2, 1978 |
| Running time | 104 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million |
| Box office | $20,000,000 |
Eyes of Laura Mars is a 1978 thriller film starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones and directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, adapted from a spec script titled Eyes, written by John Carpenter, was Carpenter's first major studio film. Producer Jon Peters, who was dating Barbra Streisand at the time, bought the screenplay as a starring vehicle for the actress, but Streisand eventually decided not to take the role because of "the kinky nature of the story", as Peters later explained. The role went to Dunaway, who had just won an Oscar for her performance in Network.
The film's theme song, "Prisoner", was performed by Streisand, and was included in the soundtrack.
Eyes of Laura Mars is said to be an example of an American version of the giallo genre. The film is also noted for its twist ending.
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Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway) is a glamorous fashion photographer who specializes in stylized violence. Amid controversy over whether her photographs glorify violence and are demeaning to women, Laura begins seeing, in first person through the eyes of the killer, real-time visions of the murders of her friends and colleagues.
John Neville (Tommy Lee Jones), the lieutenant in charge of the case, shows Laura unpublished police photographs of unsolved murders that very closely mirror Laura's fashion shoots. Laura's visions continue, including visions of the killer stalking her. The murders continue until a final confrontation between Laura and the killer.
At her apartment, Laura is affected by a vision of the killer making his/her way to an apartment block, which is one where Laura lives and then she sees her front door and then she answers the door, to find John standing there.
Production began on October 17, 1977. It was shot entirely in New York and New Jersey. The famous sequence where the Laura Mars character photographs a group of models against a backdrop of two burning cars was filmed over four days at New York's Columbus Circle. The $7 million production wrapped on January 9, 1978, after 56 days of filming. It was reported that Peters and Dunaway had a tense relationship while making the film, and that Streisand visited the set on a few occasions.
The movie received a broadly positive review in The New York Times, in which Janet Maslin called the ending of the film "dumb," but otherwise liked it. She wrote of it: "It's the cleverness of "Eyes of Laura Mars" that counts, cleverness that manifests itself in superlative casting, drily controlled direction from Irvin Kershner, and spectacular settings that turn New York into the kind of eerie, lavish dreamland that could exist only in the idle noodlings of the very, very hip."[1]
Roger Ebert was less enthusiastic and pointed out its clichéd "woman in trouble" plot.[2]
As of May 2010, the film had only a 47% fresh rating on the Rotten Tomatoes movie review website.[3]
On its release, the film received mixed critical reviews, but it was a box office hit, earning $20 million off of a $7 million budget.
George Lucas hired director Kershner for The Empire Strikes Back because he was very impressed after seeing an early rough cut of the film.
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