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Released in 2005 (watched 7/18/26, review written 8/21/26)
Rating: 6/10 Red Eye (2005) is a decent thriller and my favorite Wes Craven film just behind the first Nightmare on Elm Street (The Hills Have Eyes was fun too but a little dull at times). It doesn't entirely feel like one of his movies unless I just don't have the eye to notice his directorial touches, and comes across as standard thriller material of the period (especially after getting off the plane). It would be a cozy, forgettable flick if it weren't for the curious propaganda of it all. The movie clearly justifies post-9/11, post-Iraq security theater. In order to build support for the manufactured War on Terror, you have to scare the living shit out of people. Red Eye is targeting the common American woman, aged 20-45 and single. First, the protagonist must be the everywoman: Rachel McAdams is pretty but not too pretty, like a girl next door or childhood best friend. Second, she is a self-admitted people-pleaser (something in common with most women, or at least how they envision themselves). Third, as a survivor of sexual assault, she is both sympathetic and the object of inner feminist projections. It is no more apparent than the hamfisted lines about female and male-driven thinking, culminating in her fight at the end. Cillian Murphy plays the strawman (a fate shared by his future role in Batman Begins' Scarecrow), and a chauvinistic terrorist. Cillian, from the beginning, is set up to be Prince Charming with a catch. A dashing, assertive, astute, funny man flirts with little old Rachel, but it's all a plot to use her to kill the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. This is just the decades-long trend of demonizing decent men and splitting the sexes. The female audience will identify with and live vicariously through Rachel McAdams. They will swoon for Cillian; they, too, will feel the same terror, dread, and betrayal the character feels upon revelation of his true nature. This emotionally imprints the mind with "trauma". The real goal of projects like MK-Ultra: supplanting valuable psychological real estate with memories of things that never actually happened. See the music video from the Robbin Williams movie Toys for what it's all about. Red Eye is government propaganda to justify defense contracts and security theater, and second, split the sexes by making women afraid of men. It's obviously funded by the DHS and the writer Carl Ellsworth enjoys writing paranoia propaganda junk like Disturbia, Last House on the Left (fear your neighbors), Red Dawn (fear commies/Eastasia), and Unhinged (fear random dudes driving near you). There are countless movies, TV shows, books, and even fake news events that accomplished the same thing and Red Eye is just one of them. I liked it as a kid and on re-watching it was still fun like I said but obvious in its intent. I recommend it if you aren't naive enough to project or immerse into characters. Always ask yourself though: does this piece of media deserve a place in my head? Is it worth devoting any memories or emotional attachment, even if its just a simple bit of vague "fun"? |