Eye of the Stranger Reviews

EYE OF THE STRANGER is a low-budget knock-off of BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, and even for fans of martial arts star David Heavener, its inferiority is evident. Seven years ago, a civil liberties lawyer name Grissom was murdered by certain greedy residents of Harmony. The unpunished crime has permeated the moral fabric of this ghost town, whose bones are being picked clean by its mayor, Mr. Baines (Martin Landau). Why won't Joe the bartender (John Pleshette), the ruthless doctor (Stella Stevens), or even the sheriff (Joe Estevez) intervene when Baines's hired enforcers beat up local merchant Mr. Lee (Chao-Li Chi)? While Baines terrorizes property owners and quietly gobbles up property rich in oil, Baines's co-conspirators cower in fear of being found out. When a taciturn stranger (David Heavener) arrives, Lee's grand-daughter Chang (Wendy Pan) believes he's the godsend she's prayed for, Mayor Baines ponders his chances of co-opting the no-name drifter's services, and Joe's wife Lori (Sally Kirkland) wants to relive her adulterous past. Initially, the crafty loner accepts payment from the mayor and the merchants. But, as more and more details of Grissom's murder are revealed in flashbacks, the stranger reveals his true heroic colors by ruining Lee's campaign for mayor. By the time Joe kills the doctor when she tries to prevent him from digging up Grissom's corpse, and the craven sheriff commits suicide, the stranger has eliminated Baines's murderous assistants. After Baines shoots Joe at the cemetery, Chang pumps the mayor full of lead and saves the stranger. Having paid for the bad guys' funerals with the fees he collected, the modern-day knight-errant hits the highway to right wrongs elsewhere. EYE OF THE STRANGER transposes the plot of classic westerns onto a modern landscape that reveals an even wilder West beset by land-developers rather than stagecoach robbers. Writer/director/ star Heavener borrows from the best cinematic sources and aims for a lean storytelling style and crisp visual presentation. As a writer he gets sidetracked by too many flashbacks, which end up seeming like delaying tactics rather than the revelations of the villains' psychological dysfunction they're intended to be. As a director, he lets himself and his cast down with misguided stabs at moody tension that seem stilted and pokey. And having deposited some unscrupulous characters in his crime-and-punishment scenario, Heavener doesn't prove himself adept at coaxing memorable performances out of a veteran cast. Intending to showcase his macho presence, Heavener can be commended for not hogging the spotlight. But he doesn't have the smoldering charisma needed to hold a mystery film like this together. On the credit side, the triumph of the little guys over the establishment carries some impact in the film, and the retribution meted out in the finale pays off. If only the energy generated during the film's denouement were spaced evenly throughout its earlier expository passages, EYE OF THE STRANGER might be a more successful picture. As it is, it takes too long for this stranger to make those funeral arrangements and head into the sunset. (Violence, profanity, nudity, adult situations.)