hopinet

Eye wish they would get it right!

5th February 2009

I just wanted to pass comment about the technical aspect of two films I’ve seen recently, the two films I’m talking about are ‘Valkryie’ and ‘Seven Pounds’, just so you know there will be some spoilers in this post, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know what either film is about. I say spoilers, I’m not sure I could spoil ‘Seven pounds’ I wasn’t a great fan of it.

What’s my gripe with both films, well, it’s got nothing to do with their subject matter or what I thought of them. It’s to do with eyes, yes those two things on the front of your face you use to see. I spend a fair bit of time looking at eyes in my job so I think I know a little about them. On to my complains…..

Firstly, I had a major problem with the end of ‘Seven pounds’. At the beginning of the film we see Ezra Turner (Woody Harrelson) he obviously has something wrong with his eyes, more specifically it looks like the cornea, not sure exactly what he’s supposed to have but the front looks white (should be clear) so I’m guessing some corneal scarring, more importantly we see his eyes are blue and he makes a comment about never being able to see.

At the end of the film he receives an ‘eye transplant’ from Ben Thomas (Will Smith). An ‘eye transplant’ should actually be called a corneal transplant or more technically a Keratoplasty. They replace the transparent cover of the eye with the donor one, the coloured bit of the eye (the iris) is not affected, so why oh why are his eyes brown at the end of the film, because he’s now got Will Smith’s eyes? Utter rubbish! Also if he has never been able to see (as suggested) then it is likely that his eyes never properly developed so a cornea transplant would not make a difference. However, from the look of Ezra Turner’s (Woody Harrelson) eyes I would actually think he has been able to see in the past and the ‘scarring’ had developed over time. Which ever one it is, it just doesn’t make sense.

So after this error, imagine my surprise to see yet another film with an eye at the centre of the story. Tom Cruise’s false eye in ‘Valkryie’. The error in ‘Seven Pounds’ I’m certain of, the ‘Valkryie’ error I’m a little less certain as I’ve only seen it once, but I think I’ve got it right.

At the beginning of the film he is injured and his eye is affected at various times we see close ups of the prosthetic eye (or false eye, if you prefer), the patch and what remains of his real eye. In one scene we see him in the mirror without his prosthetic eye in it looks as if his own eye is in the socket just damaged (can’t be sure as it’s a badly lit scene – probably deliberately). Assuming I’m correct, how in another scene is he putting in a full prosthetic eye, which would normally take the place of his real eye and is only used if he has no eye in the socket?

The prosthetic eye also seems to change in appearance, as I said it’s a full prosthetic eye in one scene then in another scene with Eddie Izzard he washes it down the sink, in this scene it looks more like a painted large contact lens, much more likely if he still has his own eye in the socket.

The final problem is that when we see Tom with the prosthetic eye in place (without the patch) it moves around normally like a normal eye, however due to the fact a prosthetic eye has no muscles attached to it, it tends not to move around as much as the real eye, I’m not saying it doesn’t move at all but it has limited movement.

Sort it out, these are basic errors which should be easy to research and in the case of ‘Valkryie’ a simple contact lens with a painted on iris would have given this affect.