I’ve been writing and erasing all weekend. It is now 6 in the morning Sunday and once again I’m staring at a blank screen. I must fill it again in the hopes that I like what I’ve written. I write this just to get started, it makes the screen look busy.
However, I really should move on to EYES WIDE SHUT.
There’s that title again. I’ve typed it perhaps 200 times this weekend, yet there it is... again for the first time on this screen.
Meanwhile I’ve been watching folks debate back in forth about the film. They seem to be mainly loving the film, and those that don’t like it... Hate it.
Well, I love the film. Saw it three times in the first 24 hours of release. I’ve been fighting the urge to see it again, and instead I’ve been forcing myself to write on this damn screen.
You see my problem is this.
I simply have too many choices with which I could discuss this film.
I could go into the entire technical mastery that Kubrick uses like a flame to hypnotize his audience. The perfect transitions, the gorgeous composition of shots, the repeating imagery motifs, the lighting... oh god, what lighting.
I could go into the stunning beauty of the female form as exhibited by Kubrick in this film. Whilst the male form was almost completely left out. I could go into the wonderful perfection of natural breasts compared to surgically created boobs. The use of full figured women instead of just waif supermodel types.
I could talk about the magic of lighting in this film. You know... How the use of light in this film creates a dreamy universe where at all times we’re existing outside of reality, staring at this waking dream of a movie. Where warm orbs of light surround the Christmas lights, where doorways are off-set by curtains of creamy white fairy lights.
I could talk about the length of time Kubrick took to make this movie, and how like Lucas, Kubrick took his time to get things right, but... Here, Stanley used that time to get the exact look in a person’s eyes. Most people will look at this movie and say, “What took two years?” Well, Kubrick took his time to hone performances, not pixels. Did you notice the whole second unit listing in the credits? Yeah, me neither. Ya know why? Because all parts of the movie are equally important to the maker of this film. That’s why there’s a seemingly insane perfection to the flow of this film. At no point does it feel like different people controlled different areas of this film.
I could talk about the score and use of sound for quite some time. I just ordered the soundtrack a few minutes ago. I read in one TALK BACK somewhere that the piano music to indicate menace in the film sounds like his girlfriend’s cat walking across the piano. Well, yeah... but only if your cat could instinctively play a perfectly off-timed version of STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT whilst walking only upon the black keys. I loved that piano weird music because it was sooooooo off. It created an emotional reaction and a physically repulsive response like a feather tickling the back of my neck. And the music was used to highlight specifically upsetting moments.
Then I could talk about the conservative sexual morals that Stanley was playing with here. A lot of people I have seen have talked how conservative the sex is here, and how Stanley was out of touch. Well, ya see. To me this movie, the entire film is about Tom Cruise’s Bill Hartford’s sexual inadequacies and Nicole Kidman’s Alice Hartford’s sexual displeasure with the performance of her husband.
For me this is the heart of the film. We’re dealing with a couple that feels they are pretty adventurous. They smoke pot, playfully flirt with strangers, but when it really comes down to it.... They don’t really talk.
Now if you have ever been in a serious relationship that has failed, then you know that conversation and communication is the single most important part of that relationship. It doesn’t mean just listening to what your partner says, but understanding what they mean by that. It’s studying their body language till you know when something is wrong, what the other craves and wants. It’s knowing exactly when they want their shoulders rubbed. When they want to go out to eat or rather when to stay completely out of the way.
Now this film isn’t about all of that, instead it’s about a single revelation which tells Bill that she wanted something that he couldn’t give her. That while they made love once her mind was on another the entire time. That there was someone, somewhere that he couldn’t match up to. THEN when this is compounded with the news of Alice’s dream. It suddenly becomes clear that Alice isn’t sated by her husband sexually.
And this tears Bill in two. He’s angry and frustrated at the thought that she craves another man, that he isn’t enough for her. He needs to prove his sexual prowess. I don’t believe it’s about ‘revenge’ sexually speaking. “She fucked him in her mind, so I’ll fuck around on her and see how she likes it!!!” I’ve heard some people state that, but to me, the way I read it. I feel that Bill has feelings of sexual inadequacies. All through the film he takes outs sexually. He didn’t have to leave, noone needed know... But he leaves. When asked to strip in front of a crowd, he becomes panicked, terrified. Why? Well, he could be worried about what?
We know his wife dreams of fucking “so many men” and a need to laugh at her husband. Well, she sounds like she’s not really getting too satisfied. I believe this film is about sexual inadequacy. Bill Hartford is a handsome man who is either suffering from impotence, premature ejaculation, terrible sexual performance or a short penis.
But it’s a truth that he tries to keep from himself. His eyes are wide shut to the problem. He’s the sort of guy that’d walk around an orgy to just observe. Maybe he’s learning new things, trying to pick up tips. Finding clues for how to please his wife, whom he dearly loves. He desperately wants to force the memory of the sailor from his mind and hers. He needs that.
Ultimately and through it all, we know that Alice Hartford wants a good fuck. And sometimes that’s just the right answer. Perhaps they had simply ‘made love’ too many times and lost that passion of their past ‘fucking’ or maybe it was never there.
That’s one interpretation for the film. I could also talk about how the entire film is made up of the dreams of the Hartfords.
Or we could talk about how the film is set in reality and what really happened at the mysterious party, and what happened afterwards.
After watching the film the second time, Annette Kellerman, Tom Joad, Johnny Wad, Fletcher Christian and the Skybox Lady all went out to drink and discuss the film. And how the two ladies decided to wonder about what Alice was most upset about in Bill’s story.
One chose what Bill found out at the second visit to the prostitute’s home. The other chose the danger he put himself in at the orgy.
However, I felt there was another... unspoken reason for the bloodshot eyes, the red well-rubbed nose and trembling lips of the beautiful Nicole Kidman.
The reason? I believe she got most upset at herself. When she realized that because of her little mind game she played with her husband whilst being stoned led to such a creation of self-doubt that he felt forced to put himself in these situation that could have very well killed him. That her own playing, could have meant the destruction of her husband, father of her child and the man she loved. And that’s why at the end, there’s only one thing left, she needs to fuck the shit out of him and show him how much she loves him.
Of course that could be some Male ego thing of mine, putting the guilt on the woman.... But... They seemed to agree with me.
Then of course there are all the points of my own life that I really didn’t want to get into here. As John Saxon said in ENTER THE DRAGON, “There’s a point I won’t go beyond.”
And this film touches on so many individual moments of life. Someone complained about how the orgy wasn’t too realistic... How it felt dated in tone and subject matter...
I disagree. I saw some things in Rotterdam and Amsterdam that were quite similar. Then again, when we talk about the conservative nature of this film... that toys with infidelity, a father’s prostitution of his own child, group sex in an HIV positive society, secret societies that perhaps kill, coerce and abduct...
Well, that does indeed tell us that if we consider that tame, that we have indeed come such a far way... haven’t we? It would be dated if the purpose of the film was to SHOCK you.
SHOCKING is a temporary endeavor. Watch THE OUTLAW with Jane Russell. Her cleavage was deemed shocking in it’s day and time. Tame by today. We exist in a world today where pornography is accessible in every home in the USA and quickly spreading to every corner of the globe. Shocking... sexually is not the purpose of this film... and I believe it is not the purpose of any Kubrick film.
Stanley’s driving purpose as a filmmaker to me, was to make us think about what he was showing us. He wanted to show us a seemingly perfect All American couple. Two gorgeous people. Nicole Kidman, one of the most imminently fuckable ladies on the planet, and Tom Cruise, the poster boy for handsome swooning charm and manliness. How these two perfect people that are cultured and intelligent. How they can find themselves in the crudest and weirdest of situations. Why did the fantasy bother Cruise? I mean surely we all know women have every bit the active sexual fantasies of men, if not more so. I mean, if you don’t believe me get into a frank conversation with an honest and forthcoming woman... She’ll tell you. He wanted to open up a discussion about sexual morality. He wanted people on both sides of the issue to have a film to argue back and forth about.
This was a film about what should be kept private between couples. Should Alice have told Tom the inner fantasies and dreams she was having? Is there a point in a relationship where the wisest course of action is to simply lose an argument? Why do we allow jealousy to control and dictate our actions and force us into some idiotic path of revenge?
Ultimately this is a movie that each person will react personally to. I don’t feel this is the greatest Kubrick film ever, but I do dearly love it thus far. Kubrick’s films are fine wines, they get better with age and ya know... Let’s see how this one tastes in 2001 or 2021.. I do know this... I’ve had three servings, and I do believe that I crave another.
At all times, with all of his films people have loved and hated Kubrick. He forces a reaction one way or another. It’s been made clear to me that some people want to not think at all during a movie. They believe it’s a passive experience. For me, Kubrick made films that asked you to fill in the blanks. Films that persuade, entertain and inform. Films that make me tap my foot, laugh, cry and cheer. My favorite though make me think hard. And I’ve been thinking quite hard about this one.
Thanks again, Stanley
