Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

A movie about power

I feel that too much emphasis is placed on the Cruise and Kidman characters. Their fears, desires, or any other emotions are really irrelevent to me. They are cartoonish exagerations of the 21st century couple. Does anyone really act that way? Would any sane person tell their spouse they would walk out on their life together for a one night stand? I don't think so. Then what is the point, why are we following these two people around as they behave as if they are in dream state, in a trance, or out of their minds? The Venetian masked orgy is the key. The movie tells us that parallel to our self medicated, dreamy, fretful, nuerotic, world, there is a world of power, harsh reality, and knowledge. Sometimes we sitcom characters brush against this other world, with no good result. Bill stumbled upont this other world and was crushed. A hand of unmeasurable power and cruelty struck him down and held him immobile as one might a small dog. The effect was sobering, but also short lived. Bill, and we, will always cower and crawfish, walking backwards in homage away from the hideous strength, slipping back into our silly worlds of imagined infidelity, drugs, Christmans shopping, and whatever our ideal of sex is. Eyes Wide Shut tells us that we are living a ridiculous, unnnatural existence, but perceive it as just the opposite. When we are exposed to the powers that have dealt us this hand, to those who see us as ants on the sidewalk to be crushed, we have no other defense but to delve deeper into the illusion to escape a reality we can not accept. December 17, 2008

Eyes Wide Shut (Unrated) - Blu-ray Info

Title: Eyes Wide Shut - Unrated
Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
VC-1 BD-50
Running time: 2:39:01
Movie size: 31,77 GB
Disc size: 37,47 GB
Average video bit rate: 17.18 Mbps
LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps 48 Khz/16-bit English
DD AC3 5.1 448Kbps English / Japanese / French / Spanish / German / Italian

Number of chapters: 30

Subtitles: English SDH/HoH, English, Dutch, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish

#Featurette - The Last Movie - Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut
#Featurette - Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick
DGA - D.W. Griffith Acceptance Speech, 1998
#Interviews - Nicole Kidman (17m:45s) / Tom Cruise (08m:23s) / Steven Spielberg (07m:49s)
#US TV Trailer: Jealousy (34 seconds), Combo (34 seconds)
#Extras feature optional Japanese subtitles September 29, 2008

What was kubrick thinking?

Tom Cruise is a horrible actor who wrecks whatever chance the movie had. This is also one on the most unerotic "erotic" movies I have seen. Stay way. September 20, 2008

Only understood with a mind wide shut...

I make it a point to watch this movie at least once or twice a year; for it is one of those films that touches you differently each and every time you entertain it. Once I feel that I have my mind made up it is completely trampled and my perception of events is altered as my mind tries to re-contemplate everything I just witnessed. That is the beauty within `Eyes Wide Shut'; a film so tragically misunderstood that many have labeled it pointless and even trashy without fully comprehending all that the film really stands for.

The film almost feels lost within itself as it shifts from scene to scene; moment to moment, and in the final thrusts of the films focus we see an explanation (or is it) starting to form before our eyes, but what is so beautiful about the films construction is that that particular explanation (or any explanation for that matter) is completely contradicted the next time we watch the film. There are no easy answers to the questions raised while watching this masterpiece and that makes for some of the most intriguing titillating post-viewing conversation. Kubrick's visual styling is incomparable and his approach to the rabid subject at hand; his frankness and blunt rashness; elevates the material and builds a pristine foundation for the films more startling sequences.

The film opens with high society couple Bill and Alice attending a party. Separated from one another we find Alice drinking her detachment away and dancing too close with a stranger while Bill weaves his way through the large mansion to make his services available to those in need, one such individual being his good friend Victor. This scene perfectly mirrors the characters development and their emotional connection to one another and to us as the audience. Both Alice and Bill are in a sense playing variations of themselves, locking away their true identities for the sake of those around them. They are not necessarily faking it or posing as someone else but more or less playing up the parts of them that others want to notice.

As the film progresses we witness Bill's emersion into a dark underworld that he is drawn to out of a perverse curiosity yet repelled from because of his desirable innocence. As he filters through his own feelings with regards his marriage and his life he tickles the keys of his own tendencies and this leads to some startling discoveries; discoveries within himself and those around him.

`Eyes Wide Shut' is unfairly recognized for its fearless depictions of immorality; sequences that have proven to be the backbone of ones distaste or admiration of the film. I say unfairly because those scenes are a small instrument used by Kubrick to paint a much larger picture. If one only sees the film for the savage imagery then they have missed the final impact of the films true nature.

Face it; we may never fully `get' this film, but to claim it nothing more than a perversion is simplifying it far too much, maybe in an attempt to justify our own misunderstandings.

Kubrick was aided by some fantastic performances by the entire cast, most notably the two stars Cruise and Kidman. Tom Cruise brilliantly captures his characters attraction to a world he doesn't quite understand. Nicole has the most complex character in the film and she tackles her performance with real bravo. Her understanding of what makes her character tick (and those priceless closing words "We have something very important to do...") adds so many layers to the films interpretation. Sydney Pollack also delivers a very controlled and memorable performance and deserves attention for all that he serves with such little screen time.

In the end `Eyes Wide Shut' is not a film for everyone, but it should be. Yes, it is graphic and it is shocking but it is all done in a tasteful (although it may not seem so) manner that carries the film to all kinds of levels of brilliance. As time passes the film continues to beam like a beacon for all other films to take notice of something far beyond their reach. September 11, 2008

If you didn't like it the first time, see it again, your opinion might change

This is truly a movie that you don't forget after it has finished. It gets in your head and stays there which is one of the reason that so many people admire the film even though it had its fair share of detractors when it first came out.

Eyes Wide Shut is one of my favorite films and is one of the few films that I can watch over and over again and still find it fresh and exciting.
Visually, it is one of the most beautiful films you will ever. Kubrick's technical brilliance with color schemes, sets and camera work is in full effect here. Much of this film looks like a beautiful old photograph or a painting rather than a film.

Some people don't like the film because of the slow pacing. Personally, I prefer films which build a dreamlike state in which tension is increased steadily throughout but that is my preference. If you don't have an affinity for these types of movies then you might have been turned off by the intentially slow pace of the film, a pace which is reflected not only in how the film is shot but how the characters speak their lines.

Eyes Wide Shut is a great film that becomes richer and more enveloping with each viewing. It requires patience, demands attention, and allows one to think about its characters and the subtle nuances in their dialogue exchanges in the context of its theme about the possibility of marital infidelity in a fragile marriage. Some have seen it once and hated it only to gradually admire it on second viewing. Do yourself a favor: in this mindless time of mediocre films, check out Kubrick's last film "Eyes Wide Shut." If you hated it or disliked it the first time, you may find yourself at least admiring, on second viewing, the world Kubrick has created on screen and how he fashions this world before our eyes, as he has with all of his films. Keep those eyes wide open.
September 8, 2008

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