The Eyes Have It explores those rarified screen moments when viewers are confronted by sights that seem at once impossible and present, artificial and stimulating, illusory and definitive.

Beginning with a penetrating study of five cornfield sequences—including The Wizard of Oz, Arizona Dream, and Signs—Murray Pomerance journeys through a vast array of cinematic moments, technical methods, and laborious collaborations from the 1930s to the 2000s to show how the viewer's experience of "reality" is put in context, challenged, and willfully engaged.

Four meditations deal with “reality effects” from different philosophical and technical angles. “Vivid Rivals” assesses active participation and critical judgment in seeing effects with such works as Defiance, Cloverfield, Knowing, Thelma & Louise, and more. “The Two of Us” considers double placement and doubled experience with such films as The Prestige, Niagara, and A Stolen Life. “Being There” discusses cinematic performance and the problems of believability, highlighting such films as Gran Torino, The Manchurian Candidate, In Harm’s Way, and other films. “Fairy Land” explores the art of scenic backing, focusing on the fictional world of Brigadoon, which borrows from both hard-edged realism and evocative landscape painting.

MURRAY POMERANCE is an independent film scholar in Toronto. Among his many books are Shining in Shadows: Movie Stars of the 2000s, A Little Solitaire: John Frankenheimer and American Film, Johnny Depp Starts Here, and An Eye for Hitchcock, all published by Rutgers University Press.

"Pomerance explores how the mechanics of cinema create engaging and irrationally persuasive illusions of reality. Thanks to [his] technical expertise and command of historical context, the book is constantly bringing new light to familiar material. Pomerance summons films arty and pop, classic and current, major and forgettable, with a unique combination of tecnical savvy, theory, and analytic sensitivity. It is exciting and delightful to read."

"Real history and technology cling to Pomerance’s boots in his delightful, instructive romp through acres of films in our 'Field of Dreams.' Enjoy this down-to-earth study of illusion."

"Pomerance's sound scholarship, provocative readings of classic films, and meticulous archival research make this beautifully written work both pleasurable and illuminating to read."

"Pomerance's book shows the reality effect in cinema by using our eyes to blend a kind of milkshake of our senses thought pleasurable, complex, artificial, and previously unnoticed film patterns in regard to actors' performances, technological aspects, and scenic design."