The Savage Eye

Infobox Film
name = The Savage Eye


caption = Film Poster for "The Savage Eye" (1959)
director = Ben Maddow
Sidney Meyers
Joseph Strick
producer = Ben Maddow
Sidney Meyers
Joseph Strick
writer = Ben Maddow
Sidney Meyers
Joseph Strick
starring = Barbara Baxley
Herschel Bernardi
Jean Hidey
Elizabeth Zemach
Gary Merrill
music = Leonard Rosenman
cinematography = Jack Couffer
Helen Levitt
Haskell Wexler
editing = Ben Maddow
Sidney Meyers
Joseph Strick
distributor = Trans-Lux Distributing-Kingsley International
released = June 6, 1960
runtime = 68 minutes
country = USA
awards =
language =
budget = $65,000
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0054270

"The Savage Eye" is a "dramatized documentary" film that superposes a dramatic narration of the life of a divorced woman with documentary camera footage of an unspecified 1950s city. In a 1960 review, A. H. Weiler characterized the film: [Weiler, A. H. (1960). " [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9805E6DC1F38E333A25754C0A9609C946191D6CF "The Savage Eye" (1959)] ," "The New York Times", June 7, 1960. Online version retrieved Jan. 9, 2008.]

The film was written, produced, directed, and edited by Ben Maddow, Sidney Meyers, and Joseph Strick, who did the work over several years on their weekends. Benjamin Jackson has noted that Irving Lerner, Strick's collaborator on the earlier documentary "Muscle Beach", "was part of the original group, but left in the middle of production." Jackson, Benjamin T. (1960). "The Savage Eye"," "Film Quarterly", Vol. 13, No. 4. (Summer, 1960), pp. 53-57. A second woman known primarily for her work as a film writer is also named "Helen Levitt." This review, which is perhaps the most comprehensive discussion of "The Savage Eye" in the literature, clarifies that the cinematography was indeed done by the distinguished photographer of the same name.] The camera footage for the film was done over these years by the principal cinemaphotographers Haskell Wexler, Helen Levitt, and Jack Couffer; the sound editing for the film was one of Verna Fields' earliest credits. The film won the 1960 BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award as well as several film festival prizes. "The Savage Eye" is often considered to be part of the cinema vérité movement of the 1950s and 60s; John Hagan has written further of the film's influence that: [Hagan, John (2000). " [http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Lo-Me/Maddow-Ben.html Ben Maddow] ", in Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast (editors), "International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers, Edition 4" (St. James Press), ISBN 978-1558624498. Online version of article retrieved January 9, 2008.] quote|One can see how, in its study of a woman whose marital problems have estranged her from the world, it anticipated, if not influenced, such films as "The Misfits", "Red Desert", and "Juliet of the Spirits".

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*imdb title|id=0054270