Eye for an Eye (1996)

When the courts fail to keep behind bars the man who raped and murdered her daughter, a woman seeks her own form of justice.

Director:

John Schlesinger

Writers:

Erika Holzer (novel), Amanda Silver (screenplay)

Stars:

Sally Field, Kiefer Sutherland, Ed Harris

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sally Field	...	Karen McCann
Ed Harris	...	Mack McCann
Olivia Burnette	...	Julie McCann
Alexandra Kyle	...	Megan McCann
Kiefer Sutherland	...	Robert Doob
Joe Mantegna	...	Det. Sgt. Denillo
Beverly D'Angelo	...	Dolly Green
Darrell Larson	...	Peter Green
Charlayne Woodard	...	Angel Kosinsky
Philip Baker Hall	...	Sidney Hughes
Keith David	...	Martin
Wanda Acuna	...	Hispanic Housewife
Geoffrey Rivas	...	Hispanic Housewife's Husband
Armin Shimerman	...	Judge Arthur Younger
Natalija Nogulich	...	Susan Juke (as Natalia Nogulich)

Storyline

Karen McCann's eldest daughter is raped and murdered whilst on the phone with her. When the case against Robert Doob, the perpetrator, is dismissed because of a technicality, she starts following him and sees how he checks out his next victim, a woman he delivers groceries to. She tells the police, but is only warned she must stop following Doob. When she tries to warn the woman, she is shooed out of the house. Doob, having found out that Karen is following him, threatens to do something to her youngest daughter. She then seeks help from a group of vigilantes connected to a support group, in order to shoot Doob. However, a friend from the support group turns out to be an FBI agent investigating the very vigilante activity Karen is involved in and warns her that she will go to jail for the rest of her life unless it is self-defense. In the meantime, tension grows between Karen and her husband Mack, because he finds out she has secretly been taking self-defense classes and has been ...

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Plot Keywords:

rape | vigilante | rape and murder | rape of a minor | self defense | 

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Taglines:

A John Schlesinger film

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and disturbing violence which includes rape

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French Spanish Korean

Release Date:

12 January 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ojo por ojo

Filming Locations:

451 S. Main St., Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,968,044, 14 January 1996, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$26,792,700

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$53,192,700

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The source "Eye For An Eye" (1993) book by Erika Holzer was the second novel written by her with the first having been "Double Crossing" (1983) which had been first published around a decade earlier.

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Goofs

In the other rape scene in the film, the Spanish woman is being assaulted on the table. When Kiefer Sutherland flips her over and she is facing down, the camera breaks to a different point of view and in the mirror reflection, she is clearly on her back again, legs kicking in the air. Then with another cutback she prone, face down on the table.

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Quotes

Robert Doob: Come on mother fucker. Blow my fucking head off, five people watched you come here. Show me you've got some balls.
[sing-song to the tune of "Ring Around The Collar"]
Robert Doob: Pull the fucking trigger.

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Connections

Featured in At the Movies: From Dusk Til Dawn/Eye for an Eye/12 Monkeys/Two If by Sea/Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)

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Soundtracks

Bitter Moon
By Mark King, Roland Gould
Performed by Mark King
Courtesy of Virgin Records American, Inc.

User Reviews

Another Revenge Movie

Sally Fields does a good job with this movie as a revenge seeking mother of a teenage daughter who's been raped and murdered. I suppose to make this worth watching, she has to do a good job with this. The story itself has been done over and over: seeking revenge after a violent crime because the justice system has failed. That's a pretty cliché type of situation and story, so there's not really a great deal to recommend this as far as originality is concerned. But Fields is good, and Kiefer Sutherland is appropriately creepy and threatening as the rapist/murderer. The portrayal of the rape of Karen's daughter was terrifying, but (thankfully) not especially graphic.) The same could be said for the later rape committed by Sutherland's Doob. The movie, in my opinion, also makes a fair point about the justice system leaning too far on the side of defending the rights of obviously guilty criminals at the expense of actually dispensing justice for their victims. I understand the need to protect the rights of the accused, but there does have to be a balance, and that balance is sometimes lost in the system that we have.

I was kind of put off by the "group" the McCann's attended for people who had lost loved ones to violence. To each his or her own, I suppose, but I can't imagine that sitting around night after night talking about the same thing over and over and over again is really going to help anyone move on, and I wasn't convinced by the "vigilante organization" aspect of this.

I have to say, though, that I did like the ending. What I was finding distasteful up to this point was that Karen was going to turn vigilante, and by so doing she'd be be risking losing her other daughter as well by ending up in prison, which might have satisfied her own desire for revenge but would have been very selfish toward the younger daughter. So, the way she played things, she made sure that (a) she'd get her revenge, but (b) that she wouldn't lose anything more by doing it. So, the ending worked for me. Overall, I found this a pretty good watch. (7/10)