Video Credit- Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers, YouTube Eyes Wide Shut 1999
Eyes Wide Shut is a classic Stanley Kubrick film from 1999 starring Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. The film was a star-studded success and was Kubrick's last film. This film earns it's "R" rating for an incredible amount of nudity, violence and adult themes including drug use and exploitation. It's a classic that stands the rest of time.
Eyes Wide Shut is about trust and the exploitation of trust. The powerful in the film use money to get what they want, and the victims are coerced into going along with it. The film's early scene in which Kidman and Cruise talk about infidelity and desire for others showcases trust and the importance of trust in a relationship as a virtue. The film also explores the idea of people selling themselves for something and that greed and debauchery are everpresent in the human experience. The rich, poor and everyone in between is a slave to their fleshly desires and higher ideals are often discarded.
There are many occult and conspiratorial aspects to this film which I can appreciate. Like many of Kubrick's films including A Space Odyssey and Full Metal Jacket, there are undercurrents of darkness and an exploration of the human spirit. The chemistry between Kidman and Cruise is real, and I appreciate the great camerawork in this film.
What is your take? Have you seen this film, and would you recommend it?
Eyes Wide Shut is an exploration of love, lust and trust. People often hyper focus on the illuminati party sequence at the end of the film, but this is missing the point.
This is one that has been analyzed by many. I found it pretty good, certainly worth the watch, although it did not make it to any of my favourites lists.