Movie ID help? Torture/interrogation scene with eyes held open with matches

Cafe Society
1

For most of my life, I have believed that I saw part of The Deer Hunter on HBO when I was young, because I remembered a scene from it. I recently finally got around to watching the film and was very surprised that the scene I remembered was nowhere in it.

The scene I remember has someone being tortured or at the very least interrogated while his eyes are propped open with, I believe, matches. Also, I think the torturer/interrogator is holding lit matches very close to the subject’s face.

This would have been in a movie on HBO sometime ca. 1980-1985.

It is, of course, entirely possible that I am completely misremembering this scene, but that’s what I have carried around in my head for going on 30 years thinking it was from The Deer Hunter.

Any thoughts?

2

Well, there’s A Clockwork Orange, where Alex’s “treatment” to make him non-violent involved having his eyes propped open so he can’t look away from the imagery he’s being shown. They didn’t use matchsticks, though.

3

No, I’m very familiar with Clockwork. My long-held belief that this scene was from The Deer Hunter makes me think it might have been a wartime, perhaps even specifically Vietnam setting.

4

Could this be Dario Argento’s “Opera”. It was released in 1987 and has someone’s eyes being kept open due to needles being precariously taped below the eyelids. You can see it right on the poster from IMDB: Opera (1987) - IMDb

5

I was out of my parents’ house by '87, so doubtful. Still, that’s an interesting looking film. :slight_smile: