Eyes Behind the Stars

Why do I watch movies like this ? - other than I have some weird misguided masochistic belief that one day I will find a true gem amongst all this dross I can't think one one good reason. This movie was dross from start to finish - but semi-hilarious dross. Where else but in a bad Italian dubbed movie could you find heated exchanges of surreal mangled English like this one between a honest military type and the sinister chief of a secret X-files like organisation dedicated to hiding "The Truth":

Man in Black: Silence is best for us until we are able to prove that the UFOs have no bellicose motives.

Military Type: In any event I find your interference abusive.

Man in Black: Whoever has to impose his will is.

I rewound the DVD (you know what I mean) a good half dozen times and I still can't make those lines mean anything sensible. My other fave line was:

"We can be quite hard on those who contravert our interests."

It's English Jim, but not as we know it.

The other highlights of this dull plonker of a movie for me were the totally spaced out acting of the photographer character at the start. Saddled with the worst haircut EVER in the history of everything, the man just wandered around looking like a stunned fish in a bad wig till kidnapped and forced to look at a piece of Plexiglas by some aliens. The aliens are most effectively not seen as a POV shot - hand held camera with a fish-eye lens - sort of spooky the first time but, used over and over again it lost its power (incidentaly, if it is a Point of View shot, it means the aliens always walk out of rooms backwards for some reason).

The film was set in "England". This meant the Spanish Italian set designers put some British number plates on a couple of English cars and put a Union Jack on our hero's press card... and that was about it. No other attempt to make it look like the UK at all.

Favourite moment? When the Foley artists didn't notice that characters they were foleying (is there such a word?) were no longer walking on gravel but were now on the lawn so their feet kept on making loud "crunch! crunch!" noises. Other than that, another total waste of 90 minutes of my life. I hope they prove those UFOs have no bellicose motives soon...

While out in the woods on a photo-shoot, a photographer accidentally captures pictures of aliens. He soon comes to the attention of secret government men who seem hell-bent on a cover-up.

The Italians were pretty adept at making entertaining movies in all genres of film. But if there is one thing I have learned it is that, aside from the early 80's post-apocalypse cycle, they weren't very good at sci-fi. The Eyes Behind the Stars is yet another example of this unfortunate observation. It's not as if this is a terrible movie – it has some good parts to it – but it really is a bit of an unfocused mess. The two threads of the story – the aliens and the paranoid thriller – aren't especially well integrated. It's like two completely different films merged together pretty ineffectively and awkwardly. There's probably a good basis for something reasonable to tell you the truth but they sure never put the ingredients together in a form that remains in the mind for very long that's for certain. Ironically, not long after viewing this movie you sort of cannot really remember it at all, as if you have been abducted by aliens, been probed and had your memory of the unfortunate incident completely erased. Most strange

What was this film?? It begins with the great Italian star Sherry Buchanan doing a phoot shoot in the woods, then the photographer thinks he took a photo of something odd. Then he realizes he took a photo of a UFO, then he goes back to that locaton, gets chased by something (we only see their POV) then gets abducted, then the aliens kill a local old man, and blinds his dog! Then they capture Sherry, then we finally see the aliens, who look like a bunch of guys in sji mask and goggles, then it becomes a detective movie with martin Balsam (dubbed by someone else) and the lead and Natalie Delon trying to find out what happened, as the Goverment "Silencers" are out to stop them! The ending is a real mess, and you realize that in the end, you couldn't root for anyone,and no clear explaniation on what the aliens were dong here, and why were they in cahoots with the baddies! A big bore from Italian cinema, but maybe if it gets re-released on video again, it might find an audience. Not with me though.

Photographer, Peter Collins (Franco Garofalo) is stalked, abducted, and duly probed by aliens. When his friend and model, Karin (Sherry Buchanan) goes looking for him, she winds up in the same predicament.

Unfortunately, Peter and Karin have little to do with the rest of the story, which delves into the investigation into the disappearances by a police inspector (Martin Balsam) and a reporter (Robert Hoffman).

There's also a secret government organization known as "The Silencers" (!). Peter has something that "The Silencers" desperately want.

This is supposedly an Italian sci-fi / thriller film, but those expecting any actual thrills may be disappointed. It's mostly driven by windy, UFO conspiracy theory dialogue. That is, right up to the final 15 minutes. Even the finale isn't all that interesting or exciting...

This film was not nearly as much of a chore as I expected it to be. There are a few seconds of brilliance in this somewhat idiotic hardcore UFO conspiracy paranoia-fest. Most of the acting is mediocre, but fairly typical for 1970s-style stuff replete with pregnant pauses. A photographer and a model witness some strange goings-on in the woods and soon fall victim to these same goings-on. Flying saucers are spotted, more people disappear - but is it the aliens or our own government's ultra-secret group of cover-up guys? Soon enough, a reporter and a "UFOlogist" (apparently modeled on the character of the writer-director) are drawn into this unraveling fiasco and become the target of the ultra-secret agents who are as menacing as they are improbable and witless. Then the fun really begins.

The movie, predictably, makes about as much sense as the average UFO conspiracy theory, but should be commended for taking itself so seriously. The camera work is OK for a low-budget film, the pacing is pretty good, the script is silly and absurd, and there are continuity issues which are fun to look out for. What are the few seconds of brilliance I mentioned? Honestly, I can't say much you without writing a spoiler. Suffice to say that the end of the film is, at least, worth fast-forwarding to if you can't take the middle.