The Twilight Zone - Eye of the Beholder
It is the direction. It is the complete avoidance of the
face, the lighting and camera purposely holding off the twist until the message
is fully realized and sketched in the right strokes until the revelation is a
total canvas completed. The message—what is beauty and what is normal?—may not
be handled in subtle tones but it gets its point across in a fashion that is
impactful. Maxine Stuart, her face under bandages, cannot be seen. She’s heard.
She’s listened to. Her pain to be “normal” and not be shunned by society is
felt. Many understand it. Many want to “be part of the whole” instead of different.
In “Eye of the Beholder” there is a price, it seems, in being different. A uniformity is in full view as the end, with gorgeous Donna Douglas running about hysterically trying to “get away” inside a hospital after “treatments” failed to “improve her looks”, unveils television screens with this dictator preaching his message on only one people and their own society having merit, importance, and power. That their normal is the one that counts. Their normal should be held higher above “any other kind”.
Again, the script doesn’t circle the edges, it crayons everything…we know what the story and characters are trying to convey. Nurses and doctors visit their patient, some a bit coarse, others sympathetic. When outside her room, they discuss her “condition”, its detriment towards her. They discuss what their society has now done to those who look nothing like them. Both “kinds” are human, but by definition one is considered “uglier” than the other and the laws of the culture are to ostracize and separate those that look differently. So Stuart longs to look “just like them” (the “superior race” that seems to be the majority) so she will not be excluded.
It isn’t perhaps that looking like them is desired as much as being neglected, abhorred, and expelled torments and anguishes Stuart. Willing to do whatever she must to change her face in order to be included and “kept in the fold”, Stuart agonizes to the hospital staff. They try to encourage her—perhaps the treatments will be successful and she will no longer be “ugly”—all the while not too convinced anything will help. Some accept that their society is right, others question the behavior behind its message. This is the setup. The faces of the staff are obscured through the incredible style and positioning of the characters.
Even as bandages cover her face, that tremoring voice and fear of her treatments’ failure get the point across that Janet Tyler is at the end of her mental rope. In their society if the eleventh attempt at facial change/reconstruction doesn’t work, the person is sent away an outcast. This is Janet’s final attempt. There is no next time. I think the episode has stood the test of time and is so iconic not only because of its marvelous presentation, or even its important message, but that voice of Janet and the emotions of the body (the hands, especially) speak of her devotion to belong, not suffer excommunication for just looking different than “everybody else”. In content, performance, direction, and emphasis on our own tendencies towards surface instead of what lies beyond it; “Eye of the Beholder” retains its power because it has something to say and presents its message well.
In “Eye of the Beholder” there is a price, it seems, in being different. A uniformity is in full view as the end, with gorgeous Donna Douglas running about hysterically trying to “get away” inside a hospital after “treatments” failed to “improve her looks”, unveils television screens with this dictator preaching his message on only one people and their own society having merit, importance, and power. That their normal is the one that counts. Their normal should be held higher above “any other kind”.
Again, the script doesn’t circle the edges, it crayons everything…we know what the story and characters are trying to convey. Nurses and doctors visit their patient, some a bit coarse, others sympathetic. When outside her room, they discuss her “condition”, its detriment towards her. They discuss what their society has now done to those who look nothing like them. Both “kinds” are human, but by definition one is considered “uglier” than the other and the laws of the culture are to ostracize and separate those that look differently. So Stuart longs to look “just like them” (the “superior race” that seems to be the majority) so she will not be excluded.
It isn’t perhaps that looking like them is desired as much as being neglected, abhorred, and expelled torments and anguishes Stuart. Willing to do whatever she must to change her face in order to be included and “kept in the fold”, Stuart agonizes to the hospital staff. They try to encourage her—perhaps the treatments will be successful and she will no longer be “ugly”—all the while not too convinced anything will help. Some accept that their society is right, others question the behavior behind its message. This is the setup. The faces of the staff are obscured through the incredible style and positioning of the characters.
Even as bandages cover her face, that tremoring voice and fear of her treatments’ failure get the point across that Janet Tyler is at the end of her mental rope. In their society if the eleventh attempt at facial change/reconstruction doesn’t work, the person is sent away an outcast. This is Janet’s final attempt. There is no next time. I think the episode has stood the test of time and is so iconic not only because of its marvelous presentation, or even its important message, but that voice of Janet and the emotions of the body (the hands, especially) speak of her devotion to belong, not suffer excommunication for just looking different than “everybody else”. In content, performance, direction, and emphasis on our own tendencies towards surface instead of what lies beyond it; “Eye of the Beholder” retains its power because it has something to say and presents its message well.
As an aside from the review above, the makeup of the "normal kind" and the music that accompanies their reveal is just so memorable to me. I recall the first time I watched it with each additional viewing. It was that perfect twist. The essential "gotcha" that this show could certainly level you with. I recall asking myself why there was such effort to mask the faces of the staff and shy so much away from seeing them. And then Donna Douglas emerging from the bandages. I can just still hearken back to the impact of it all. I knew this was a special episode. It was the show at its very best. The performances in physical reaction instead of facial action. The emphasis on how words are said instead of the faces saying them. I knew this took a lot of hard work to perfect. It was all worth it.
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