Can I Share My Kubrick EyesWideShut View?

There are a lot of people out there that believe it's just about infidelity in the relationship etc.
It's funny somebody makes a documentary short film that seems to get a good amount of promotion (considering the subject) about The Shining and the Moon hoax that ended up sounding like it flopped after it was said and done.

I had a revelation today about this movie I wanted to throw out there. I have found you can see new stuff every time if you watch this movie without listening to the dialogue or watching the actors, just looking at the details in the surrounding. This was all the stuff that was impossible to edit out. The only thing Kubrick would have had control over the minute details.

In the very beginning, either I always miss the first few frames or something..I always get the thought in my head "it looks like she was shooting up or something(in her leg or hip)" a doctors wife shooting heroin or something. How real is that? Maybe she's diabetic. Conjecture.

The Monarch theory I see some weight from these observations: The two models at the party, one is always talking and the other is almost making faces at Bill like she is doing the talking. Then the part where Bill is asking The Costume Shop Owner why he still had the same two indecent Asias in the shop after the late night incident. The daughter is staring a hole through Bill and he doesn't look at her once.

My revelation today and reason for posting was from watching the local news. I always tried to wonder what the purple light meant shining through so many of the windows throughout the movie. It's possibly police cruiser lights. The fast blinking red and blue and white strobes create the same neon pink hue when looking at crime scene video on the news. I often get the feeling there is technology that color wavelengths can control mood or behavior. The red orange glow of HPS streetlights in urban blighted areas.

I could go on to mention the smaller things.

The prostitutes house Three or four containers of peanut butter and bread out in the open. Paganism/Religion comparisons Sociology books wooden Indian masks on wall.

Stacks of Phonebooks

The ghostly moving mailbox.

People in window shops buying something from a shelf, consuming.

Nick Nightingale asking Bill where he would find a costume at that hour when later Bill is at the door to the costume shop you can see its directly across the street from the Club and diner where Nick apparently ate and knew the waitress. maybe he just didn't notice the rainbow sign and the type of store it was across the street.

The art in every shot.

The junkie in the beginning her lips look to be saying "help me help me." Before Bill revives her then she sounds depressed when Ziegler towers over her his hands strongly on hips keeping her silenced. The life size painting in the bathroom is of a naked woman laying on red bedding just like the junkie in the chair fullfilling a ritual.

Some of the costumes in the store are of very distinct cultural periods of very distinct garbs of certain peoples. I can't name any of it but I have seen it recently. They don't match with other merchandise in the store. They would be more of a museum piece in other words. Is it pointing a finger to a time period and group of people?

Surely I am missing some of what I wanted to mention.
Hopefully some of you will add or explain some of what I mention.

reply to post by Mailman


I will review your observations as I absolutely love this movie. It mesmerises me every time I watch it. I hadn't noticed most of the things you mention so this gives me an excuse to watch it again.

I for the first time didn't see this whole movie until a couple years ago. It became one of my favorites too. I don't own it just see it when aired on cable.


Something I wanted to mention but forgot is. With the talking and no talking characters. Say with the models. you almost get the feeling she has a big piece of duct tape on her mouth. The only thing she knows about is the end of the rainbow.

You get the feeling of a person trying to direct you to something with their eyes and gestures without saying anything. Without sound.

So, what is the movie about? Does it have any kind of plot? Does it have a story line? What do you think the movie is trying to convey?

reply to post by nugget1


Well I think that a typical dissection we would normally take of a film you do wind up saying it's about a lot of the things it is claimed to be about. Bill starts a journey attempting to cheat on his wife but it's interrupted by randomness. I feel the slow dialogue the stuttering and slow delivery of lines by many of the characters in the movie intentionally bores you into letting your eyes wander around the screen. Forcing you to look at the little details that shouldn't have any involvement with the main story. You can't say for certain what it is totally about.

That is a very interesting observation. I honestly never noticed any of those things, although I've only seen the movie once or maybe twice in my life. So I cannot really comment on anything but what I paid attention to in the movie, and here is what I thought...I thought that they could have done a whole lot more with it. I understand, or think I do at least, what they were trying to do, but there were just so many unanswered questions for me that I was actually disappointed with the ending. That is not to say there were unanswered questions about the main storyline, but rather just in general I was left with a feeling of incompleteness.

Yes, it is high time to watch this again! People can say what they will about Tom Cruise, but his performance in this film was top-notch; you can see through his eyes and feel the uncertainty, mystery and all the emotions his character is enduring.

I've never thought too much about all the little details in Eyes Wide Shut, as you've pointed out, but I've always liked introspection into such things (like watching any David Lynch film, for example), as it allows for greater audience participation and makes the experience much more engaging, for lack of better words.

We lost a great artist when Kubrick passed away, and I was really pissed when A.I. was taken over by Spielberg, as it could have been much colder, much more psychologically terrifying. Yet Spielberg gave it his trademark 'warmth' and sappiness that I've come to loathe. Sorry, I know Kubrick wanted Spielberg to produce A.I., but I ask myself, 'WHY?!' and then dream about how much better the film could have been if Kubrick only had more time (or could you imagine David Lynch having produced A.I.?). Alas. Anyhow, I'm getting side-tracked, and I wanted to say 'good post' and now it's time for breakfast . . .with so many men . . . so many . . . *wink*

I'm a big Kubrick fan. This thread has prompted me to watch the movie again. In fact, I think I'll watch it tonight.


A friend and I were recently discussing the promotional poster for the movie where Nicole Kidman was kissing Tom Cruise, and looking at herself in the mirror at the same time. For some eerie reason, we both found it very intriguing.

reply to post by kissy princess

People can say what they will about Tom Cruise, but his performance in this film was top-notch; you can see through his eyes and feel the uncertainty, mystery and all the emotions his character is enduring.

I agree. He may be a loon, and cinema snobs often ridicule him, but he's a damn good actor.

It's been a while since I saw the movie, and while noting all the conspiracy angles - especially the ritual orgy scene which is almost used as "documentary" stock footage in many conspiracy documentaries - I wondered about some other approaches.

I once tried to do a gay reading of the film, although I couldn't find much overtly queer about it.

I recall one scene where the Cruise character is called homophobic names on the street by a bunch of macho idiots.

This makes a good point about how superficial know-nothings think they know what's going on in society, when they actually don't have a clue of what the patriarchy that really governs their lives is really up to behind closed doors.
They just get the complete wrong message of hidden sexualities, and who may be up to something secret.
In that sense homophobia is for the rubes, who are too dumb to know of the orgies, the naked women and murdered prostitutes their system of power produces.

Nevertheless, there's also the flirty gay (I think) hotel receptionist.
So there is a sense that there is hidden sexuality and hints of social codes going on in the illusion of "polite society" the whole time.
Sexuality is so deeply ingrained into us, that in a sense life is partly an erotic fantasy, just we may not be aware of that.

Next time I watch I'll be interested in a Freudian analysis of the conscious, the unconscious and the super-ego trying to relegate human experience into categories, and the way they spill into each other sometimes.
That seems to be a good metaphor for society.

Even if we see the wrong things that power does (especially our individually chosen form of power), most people would prefer to relegate it out of consciousness.
They would rather attack the clearly defined "other" than probe below the surface of their own ideology.
And ultimately "hear no evil/see no evil" is what keeps structures of power going.

reply to post by Mailman


Interesting catches. I've never bought the simplicity of the explanations behind "Eyes Wide Shut" being only about marriage and fidelity. There are far too many references to stories about young girls going on an adventure that escapes or questions reality--the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. In fact, a poster referenced the movie poster image of Nicole Kidman looking at herself in the mirror. Her character's name is Alice and she is looking at herself, to put it bluntly, "Through the Looking Glass". So Rainbow costumes, "over the rainbow", Alice, the looking glass--definite theme there but this time, the adult Alice isn't the one going on the adventure but instead, her husband is going in her place to find a sordid and surreal world beneath the reality that he normally sees.

One of the other things that I noticed about the film was the use of red and blue as if they were almost a visual cue. Red--extraordinary. Blue--reality. Bill and Alice's home is filled with the same shade of red (extraordinary relationship) that pops up here and there at Ziegler's party. Nick Nightingale, as well, is playing upon that same shade of red at the party. The only other color contrasts that appear in those scenes are the two models who do their invitation to Bill to go "over the rainbow". The red cloak and red carpets at the second "party" are again in the same shade and when Bill is in the cafe asking after Nick, out of concern, the only colors that people are wearing are red and blue (ignoring the background color of black clothing). Basically, the surreal and sordid extraordinary underbelly of his reality and his reality are colliding. And during the day, Alice is shown sitting at her table in a blue robe. Thought the color usage was really interesting.

Other interesting things that popped up:

The prostitute that approaches him on the street is named Domino. What happens when you tip a domino over? All the rest fall.

Alice, Mandy (both at the party and ritual as the woman who takes his place and dies), Domino (the street prostitute with HIV), and his daughter, Helena also all have the same shade of red hair. Pretty coincidental if you ask me and I think that they represent a direct significance in Bill's life and journey. The young teenager being prostituted by the costume shop owner, however, did not have that shade.

The last exchange between Alice and Bill in the toy store as they are basically struggling to regain their bearing in this new reality they find themselves in is just about that. It's not so much that they discovered each others' failings in the process but have born witness to those things that most "good" people do not see: no matter how wide open they believe their eyes are, their eyes are really shut to what they are either not meant to or chose not to see.

I wanted to add in here, I had another thing that apparently tries to focus your attention yet I didn't try hard enough to find what it was. The shot of when Bill enters the coffee shop to elude his trench coated follower. There is a wavy Ox bridle looking thing with two candles or something coming off the two humps.

I have a few other threads where I am claiming to see connections between Indian culture mythologies and mainstream religion as with other famous mythos.

Today I clicked a link in wiki I hadn't before and this image popped up.
en.wikipedia.org...
A crest of a secret society Hamatsa of Kwakwaka'wakw Pacific Northwest Indians.

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

Is there any other culture that uses something similar to this "Sisiutl"? I found it interesting that these Indians with there secret societies are believed to have been there for over ten to thirteen thousand years. I would imagine in those days Redwood Pines would have blanketed probably the whole continental coast. Also peculiar is the Location of Bohemian Grove.




cineawesome.com...
a link to the thing in the coffee shop(also shown in Ziegler's house, didn't realize)...not two humped like I thought but is there a name for this decoration? Never saw it anywhere else in Christmas lore.



upon further research the decoration could just be called a festoon holding interesting history on its own. As well as still having similarities in shape.