Eyes Wide Shut (2008, HD DVD)

(Please note: this review was mostly written in 1999, though never before submitted to epinions. I've made a few changes and revisions, but a good deal of it comes from over three years ago (i.e. mention of Kubrick's 'recent' passing, etc.) Try not to hold it against me.) For over two years now we've been hearing all about Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Rumors, mostly untrue, have abounded: Tom and Nicole are playing sex therapists, Tom shoots heroin and dons a dress, it's all one big group sex-fest. And wise man that he was, Kubrick let them talk. And now, sadly, Kubrick has passed on,...

Throughout the history of films, every filmmaker cites another filmmaker as an influential force in cinema. Whether its Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Elia Kazan, and George Cukor to more recent big-time directors like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino. Then, there's one director many filmmakers in the past 30 years have cited as a seminal figure in film and has been imitated one way or another than anyone in film. Many consider him the ultimate auteur director while he has reputation of being a control freak, perfectionist, recluse, and all sorts of things which some of.

This is a film about a blind man. Not in terms of actual vision, he can see as well as the rest of us, his eyes are normal, but he cannot perceive the world around him. Dr. Bill Harford can diagnose the ill, move through life doing the right thing, making social contact with old friends and his patients, but he is a sleepwalker. Pity he can't see his wife either. People were troubled, titillated and disturbed by this film when it was released. The frank and graphic depictions of sex bothered a great many, who derided the film as pornographic. Inspired by the novella "Traumenovelle" ...

Somewhere, beneath all the fatty layers of arty bloat, there is an interesting possibly even intense movie that is the real Eyes Wide Shut. This movie would be thoroughly engaging and unnerving. In its present state, however, it merely enraged me and got on my nerves. Let me state for the record that, until a year ago, there were few people on the face of this planet who were looking more forward to seeing this film. I have long been a fan of director Stanley Kubrick and consider 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket some of the best films every put on...