Stanley Kubrick’s last (often disputed) masterpiece starring two of the biggest stars of the late 1990s who just happened to be a married couple was released this week in 1999. Kubrick died shortly before this (at 70). The tales and perfectionist stories on the set, casting a veteran and up-and-coming directors in key roles (that would be Sydney Pollack and Todd Field, there is some insight here and here), and a big whopper of an Orgy sequence in the middle which started a censorship kerfuffle involving ‘digital silhouettes’ in the US.
Many found the film tedious and laboured, but it has been winding its way into full-blown cult status over the past decade with strange articles like this one. I revisit the film often enough and come away alternating between love it and leave it with almost each viewing, although recently things have been sliding to the former. Kudos to Kubrick for turning Tom Cruise into an ineffectual doofus though, and several years before Oprah’s Couch cemented it (You are burning in hell Michael Mann and P.T. Anderson for recharging the diminutive actors manliness.)
Back to the film, the gorgeous lighting, the interesting marriage insecurities and the hallucinatory euro-NY. And Leelee Sobieski and Alan Cumming in warm and charming bit parts. The masterfilmmaker went out with a bang, ending his professional career with the simplest and most complicated of words: “Fuck.”
I swear there are a lot of days where I figured I was the only one who even liked this movie. Looking back, I really think it was just over-hyped or misunderstood. It ain’t perfect, but it’s still a pretty darned good movie.
Geez, thinking back about how it’s been ten years since EYES WIDE SHUT and BLAIR WITCH PROJECT this week. Do I ever feel old…
This is a film Ive never really enjoyed watching but find myself thinking about it a lot.
I’ve really enjoyed reading all the ten year later retrospectives that have come out lately.
@ “…which started a censorship kerfuffle involving ‘digital silhouettes’ in the US. ”
did Canada get the “european” cut of the movie?
Is it even true that europe got the movie without the digital inserts? I’ve heard conflicting things about that.
No, we got the digital silhouettes. As I understand it, the other version was not a problem with the censor board (at least in Ontario), it is just that we were using American Print traffick to our multiplexes, thus we got stuck with the american prints. I believe that has been remedied in some rep cinemas who have gotten the non-silhouetted version well after the initial release.
I really like the film and have since I saw it in a theater ten years ago. It captures the underbelly of the city unlike any film Ive seen. Quite a fasinating journey the cruise character goes on.
chuck
I just read that “Strange” article you posted above. Were do people get the time to examine something to that extent. AMAZING!
chuck
@ As I understand it, the other version was not a problem with the censor board (at least in Ontario)
For the record it wasn’t a problem with our censor board either, because we don’t have such a thing.
Back when people were talking about the DC coming out on DVD I read that a studio rep denied that an alternate cut existed, claiming that europe got the same cut as us.
but again I’ve heard conflicting things.
@Rusty James “This is a film Ive never really enjoyed watching but find myself thinking about it a lot.”
That pretty much sums up what I think of the movie. I’ve only seen the movie a couple of times (the first a few years ago, the second about a year ago), and didn’t “enjoy” it either time. But at the same time it stuck with me after the credits rolled and beyond – Kubrick certainly conjured an alluring mood with his last film. One of Tom Cruise’s better performances (Kurt, you referenced his two best – Magnolia and Collateral), and Nicole Kidman has rarely been better in my eyes.
I may give it a watch again soon, to see if I fall into an extreme love/hate camp this time.
Btw, is it true that Kubrick has said before he died that EWS was his absolute faovurite film he’d ever made? I’ve heard in equal measure that that’s absolutely true AND a load of bullshit.
And btw, Rusty, in the UK we’ve got the uncut version with the full orgy scene with no digital silhouettes. At least the UK dvd I’VE got has that version, can’t speak for anyone else.
All the recent DVDs are uncensored, we were asking about Theatrical, 10 years ago, 35mm prints.
Ah, I missed that note, Kurt
Unfortunately I was only 9 or 10 when it came out in cinemas over here, so I couldn’t really say…