EYES WIDE SHUT
Added 2023-01-05 02:50:26 +0000 UTCI'm going to do a redux review on this one, mainly because I really hate my original review for it. This is a movie that's quite shifty in my mind, and certainly in the minds of the public, and one that I think deserves another video. What did you think initially when you saw it, and how has your view changed overtime, if at all?
Comments
I like your original review. I think that the cruise let's the film down. He just has limitations as an actor. I was also disappointed that he didn't really stray from his marriage. The film portrays cruise as a good man who comes to his senses when faced with temptation. It would have been more interesting if cheated on his partner. I like the scene in costume store. It is reminiscent of Lolita
anthony scully
2023-02-03 07:30:16 +0000 UTCI suppose when I referred to him as a sex symbol, I was talking more about the fact that he was the biggest movie star in the world at that time, and there was an insistence of desirability from the press that went with that. You’re right, he doesn’t radiate a whole lot of sex appeal, certainly not compared to his contemporaries Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp. Whatever appeal he had had more to do with the machinations of his publicity team than his films (though I maintain that films like Top Gun, where he cemented his persona of brash all-American confidence, definitely made an impact). With all that said, there’s always been something a little bit old-fashioned, clean-cut, and even wholesome about Tom Cruise and his stardom. In the ‘90s, he was someone who exuded cocky bravado, but he was more in line with the type of stars that came before Brando. Unlike other actors of his generation, he never really sought to bring an edge to himself, or to subvert or deconstruct his persona (at least at that time. He would do so later on in films like Collateral and Magnolia). He could do action and drama very well, but when material edged into romance and sex, he faltered. His characters always seemed a little too self-possessed to have any real relationship with women. And when he did have love interests, he had little to no chemistry with them, whether it be Kelly McGillis or even Nicole Kidman, his own wife. And the sex scenes were usually chaste with no heat to them, sometimes to a hilarious degree (again, Top Gun). Cruise wasn’t entirely without appeal from women (he couldn’t be a movie star without it), but he was more interested in being a man of action than romance. It wasn’t until Jerry Maguire that he even succeeded as a romantic lead, and I suspect a lot of that has to do with Cameron Crowe and his endearingly earnest script (“you complete me” certainly wasn’t improvised). So given what came before in his career, it’s rather absurd to even think about casting him in a psychosexual drama like Eyes Wide Shut, and I think the results speak for themselves. But, Kubrick wanted to work with a real-life couple, and there was no couple bigger at that time than Cruise and Kidman. I’ll give EWS another viewing. I believe it to be the type of film where your opinion can change at different times of watching it, whether it be due to the gaining of life experience (which seems to have happened in your case) or the discovery of a quality or detail heretofore unseen. Yes, even in a lesser film made by someone like Kubrick, there’s a lot to unpack. Looking forward to your review.
Bennett Oliver
2023-01-06 23:57:54 +0000 UTCSo I see what you are saying for sure. I really never liked Cruise in this. Alec Baldwin was originally a choice which I think could've worked possibly. But yes, there's something one dimensional about his acting. That said...I don't think Cruise was ever known for his sex appeal. If anything, he has never really been able to hold his own with a woman on screen. and there's something to that uneasy prickly awkwardness that gets pulled apart slowly in him, that I enjoy. But at the same time...I picture other actors in the part. But...I do think this is one that deserves multiple viewings whether it works for you or doesnt. I'm not sure still if it totally works for me. But I watched it about a year ago and...it really did change how I viewed it...perhaps as I am growing older, and love changes for me as well in my own life. I dunno...it seems simplistic, and yet the feeling is complicated. and it's something I feel needs to be probed...as I was a bit unfair to it initially. At a time when...maybe I was not at the right place mentally to be reviewing it.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-06 20:29:13 +0000 UTCWell said! The performance still isn’t my favorite, but who cares. It’s a great movie, yet I’m getting tired of trying to find the stuff i need to say it’s Kubrick’s masterpiece or something. I’ve seen it over 5-6 times and I’m feeling I’ve gotten what i can from it. And what i got wasn’t much besides marveling at technical aspects and being interested by certain themes and scenes. Solid 7.237/10. Thats on the Kubrick scale.
Craig Murdock
2023-01-06 20:27:11 +0000 UTCOh yeah, it's an extraordinary track in that opening ritual at the party.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-06 20:23:33 +0000 UTCI agree I think. Though there's something about EYS that doesnt quite click for me fully. But this is part of why I am interested to watch again. Each time I do it really intrigues me, and gets better and better.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-06 20:22:40 +0000 UTCoh definitely. Highly recommend for a rewatch.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-06 20:21:38 +0000 UTCYeah Kidman is kinda spacey and scary in an ethereal way.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-06 20:21:22 +0000 UTCLooking forward to your thoughts! The movie is also very shifty to me; I adore certain aspects (overall look and feel, great performances, amazing sets and cinematography) and find others to be a miss (ex: the orgy scene and its very tacky music, Kidman's acting, a certain aimlessness that's hard to pinpoint).
Craig Murdock
2023-01-05 12:59:35 +0000 UTCI only saw it once and that was back during it's initial cinema run, my memory of it is pretty fragmentary (although the fact that I can still recall some of the shots is pretty impressive in and of itself,) I do recall leaving the cinema and thinking 'that was weird' but overall I was fairly neutral towards the film. Definitely one that I need to rewatch at some point.
Ross Skilton
2023-01-05 11:13:43 +0000 UTCI wasn’t huge on it when I first saw it. Of course I admired its ambition and thought it was well made, like all Kubrick films. But I also thought it was missing the pace of his other masterpieces, and wasn’t really sure what it was trying to say. On subsequent viewings and more importantly just sitting with the film, I think it’s a brilliant psychosexual thriller. And I especially admire it as being such a big swing for Kubrick at that stage in his career, as it has a lot more in common with European art films than his movies usually do, as they tend to be bound by more conventional Hollywood genres. I still prefer some of his other work. Barry Lyndon is still my favorite, followed closely by The Shining and 2001, but I have a feeling that another viewing might put Eyes Wide Shut right up there.
Jackson Littlewood
2023-01-05 05:58:12 +0000 UTCOverall, I've always seen it as a masterpiece or close to it like most Kubrick films. My opinion on it hasn't really changed but where I'd rank it among his body of work definitely has. At one point, I would've considered it in his Top 3 but now that's definitely not the case. With that said I've always appreciated the tension Kubrick creates here, allowing every scene a dreamlike quality where it feels like something terrible can happen at any moment. Also always appreciated Kidman and Pollack's performances. Also since you mentioned this film I have to share this - https://twitter.com/JayBauman1/status/1562817921243496448
Stephen
2023-01-05 04:06:32 +0000 UTCI remember when the film first came out that critics were pretty hard on it. After years of hype and Kubrick dying so close to the premiere, they were expecting a final masterpiece that would blow them away and were very disappointed not to get one. But now…after years of reappraisal, I think the film is fairly overrated. It gets put on more best of 1990s lists, and always near the top, which makes me roll my eyes. It’s been forever since I’ve seen it, but I remember it being a fascinating film not only for what worked (the cinematography, the camera work, those sets) but also for what didn’t. The fundamental thing that’s wrong with the film is you have Kubrick—the most obsessive, meticulous, coldly detached filmmaker celebrated for his technical brilliance—tackling a subject as warm-blooded and untidy as sex and eroticism. That to me makes the film interesting. It’s not every day you can watch an orgy scene with rampant sex and nudity on display and have everything come off as so unsexy and…almost hermetically sealed off. It also doesn’t help that he has Tom Cruise in the lead role. For all his status as a sex symbol back then, he is not suited to this kind of material. He can’t convey jealousy or lust or, other than charm, anything related to sex. He just looks..ill at ease (he was much better at playing a sensual libertine—one who enjoyed the finer things in life—as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire). Nicole Kidman comes off a lot better than he does to the point where you wish she were in the movie more. She gets the best scene in the movie where she confesses her fantasy of going off with another man. I think at that point the film gets the audience in a real kind of trance. I need to see the movie again to reassess it, especially in light of the fact that most of it is supposed to take place in Cruise’s head, as a kind of dream or something. I need to watch it from that perspective. But clearly the film did something right considering I remember as much of it as I do from so long ago. Clearly it left an impression. I still remember certain scenes and images, and that’s a testament to Kubrick.
Bennett Oliver
2023-01-05 03:55:07 +0000 UTCThis is one of 3 movies I watched on an edible and I remember thinking "this is the greatest movie of all time" because I felt the tension of each scene very strongly. I tried revisiting it and thought it was kind of boring. But that music in the secret sex club is awesome. I could listen to that reversed chant all day. Haunting.
Arthur Augustyn
2023-01-05 03:26:10 +0000 UTCYou're right when you say shifty. At first I wasn't as crazy about it, but over time it has become among my favorite of Kubrik. When seeing the imbedded symbolism, use of color, extremely minimalistic score, its pacing and overall unresolved story, there's something gratyfing in it. An interesting journey onto a man's psyche when his world view is majorly rocked.
Atticus Xey
2023-01-05 03:16:25 +0000 UTC
